Working For Others Versus Making Your Own Decisions

I have often concluded that animation was my strength.

In animation, someone else determines the subject, the mood of the scene, etc. They have a vision for what they want to accomplish, and it is my job to execute that. No struggle there!

Now, it certainly requires skill to take someone else’s vision and really bring it to life.

My job is to determine how to give emotion to the scene. To know exactly what it takes to capture the essence of the desired affect, and translate that desired affect with paints, tone, mood, drama!

So moving from ‘I’m good at capturing and translating another persons vision’ to being the one to determine what that scene, subject, and vision should be. Well surprisingly that has thrown me for a loop. I’ve worked for others for so long, that it becomes difficult to determine what I want to do.

Never would I have thought choosing your own subject and emotion could be a challenge. Moving from fulfilling a company’s commission to determining my own direction. Suddenly my income relies on choosing subject matter that captures the interest of potential buyers. It’s a whole new frightening ballgame…

Being Limited In Fine Art

You wouldn’t imagine that fine art could potentially be limiting in any way.

You have the freedom to paint what you like, whatever captures your imagination…right?

Well consider this: I like that animation pushes me in terms of emotion and versatility…for example, if were asked to paint a war scene on Mars; you want to make it raw, scary, you want to push the viewer to feel the emotion of the scene.

Unless you are in fantasy art or are an illustrator, when will you ever need to paint a Mars war scene? Or even evoke the obvious emotions to depicts this scene?

In animation you have to be versatile to paint whatever scene they throw at you, and be excellent at it.

Coming out of animation where the spectrum was so broad, into fine art has actually narrowed the subject matter I paint.

And Then There Was Marketing…

Then to top it all off, as artists we are told we have to find a niche and stick to it to be successful at marketing ourselves.

It would appear the most lucrative artists have found a niche that needed to be filled. Even the artists that are successful small business owners seem to operate within a highly marketable look within their niche. And while there are several trending niches, it has to be one that “IS” trending otherwise you are left struggling as a business.

It’s all about honing that one ‘look’ or ‘style’ that infuses all your artwork and causes people to recognize your paintings anywhere. We call it branding, and that can be even more challenging to the mind of an artist.

I certainly don’t think in terms of where the market is when I am moved to paint a subject.

Sticking To Your Niche, Staying In Your Lane

This is such a struggle for me. I don’t like to be backed into a corner, or narrowed by anything. If I choose to stretch my skill and paint a representational piece with a ton of intricate detail, I want to be able to do it. Then if the next day I want to do a piece that is more impressionistic, why can’t I? Say I want to capture the essence of a design-rich subject matter that is Victorian in style, but the next week paint something that is fluid and abstract?

It turns out that finding your signature style is key to marketing yourself as an artist. If you are all over the place in style, you aren’t branding your company well.

Finding Your Signature Look

Perhaps not every artist has this struggle, but I find myself vacillating.

I look at the style of one artist, and I love it. I look at another, and I love it too. How can I figure out my style or look when I love such a wide variety of works? Below is just a small sampling of that.

I suppose what I’m really loving is the craftsmanship of the artist.

I have to ask myself, what distinguishes me as an artist? Can I vary my subject matter and still maintain a signature look? Can I operate within what is popular in the market and still be true to myself?

I would love to hear your thoughts to this dilemma. Have you succumb or overcome? Why or how did you?

Expand your knowledge and understanding of color mixing to help your eye to see color better.

Basic Color Mixing Made Simple

Over the next few posts we will do basic color mixing to see what their appearance looks like when mixed with other basic colors. Our focus in this post is Yellow. What are some of it’s hues when Green, Red, Violet and Blue are added.

• Yellow with Green

  Green is a secondary color made from it’s primaries Yellow and Blue. Therefore the range from this basic color mixing will be yellow greens, pretty strait forward. Simply a matter of taking yellow, add small amounts of green to it in careful increments to get the range you want to see until it is mostly the green color you are working with. White can be added to any of these hues of color if you wanted to pale out or lighten the color. The more white is added the less saturated the color will be. The chart below is a sample of hues that can range between yellow to green.

   

  

• Yellow to Red

  Red is a primary color as is Yellow. Basic color mixing of primaries will give a broader range of hues than the above mixtures, Orange being the secondary color between them. Continue adding small increments of red to the yellow and watch it move to orange the on the mostly red.

  

• Yellow with Violet

  Violet is the secondary color made from a red, blue combination. On the color wheel, it is at the opposite side of yellow making it the complement to yellow. This means these colors work well together for designs of all trades. Fabrics, printed materials, interior designs, fine art painting, etc. Complementary colors gray or tone down each other’s intensity when mixed together. The hues can vary depending on the use of red or blue violet. In the video I’m using Red Violet which makes the basic color mixing result in warmer tones. Check out some of the possible hues from this basic color mixing.

  

• Yellow to Blue

  Blue is the other primary color as Red and Yellow. This also allows for that broader range of hues. Even though we did the yellow to green mix, it was not necessary to do so because the Yellow with Blue mixture gives us Green. Of course the temperature of the Blue will determine the nature of the hues being warm or cool. Such as Ultramarine or Cobalt are cool Blues, whereas Thalo or Azure are warm.

  There is present confusion on this matter unfortunately. Just consider colors on a spectrum, Red is the warmest, Violet is the coolest. Simply determine where the blue fall on that spectrum. Blues closest to Green are warmer and those closest to Violet are cooler. Don’t let the color wheel confuse you. Think spectrum.

  

  Back to Yellow mixed with Blue, there can be an amazing range of hue between the warms and cools. The color chart is truly a small sample.

The Heart of the Mixing Matter

Bottom line is this, learning basic color mixing is in the doing. The best way to get it down is to pick random colors you want to match (color chips from paint) any color, put it next to your palette and try to match it. Have a white paper or board to put your mix on to see how close you are. Look at the value (light or darkness) of the color and get as close to it as possible. Also consider the temperature (warm or cool) of the color, then shaft the mix toward that temperature. Soon your eye will learn to see the red, yellow, green or blue tones in the mix you are wanting and know which direction of color to add.

Next post, I’ll focus on Red. Happy mixing!

The advantage of digital painting gives quicker adjustments to your artwork.

Learn these digital advantages and discover new tools to help with painting.

General Explanation To Digital Painting.

This post will be a general explanation, the next post will be the specific how too of the advantage of digital painting. Usually I start with a line drawing when I paint on computer, but this time I thought I would approach it as I do my plein air painting with loose brush work then tighten it down as I get closer to the finish of the painting. This is a deviation from what I would normally do as far as computer painting.

• Lay In Basic Structure

  I laying in the basic structure of this candle painting. By starting with the background, then I rough in the candle on it’s own separate layer.

• Building from The Basics

  It get it’s lights, darks, and medium tones or values. Which helps me build the structure of what I’m painting. The candle will have it’s dark area at the bottom and it’s light area at the top to give the glow and luminosity of the candle.

• Making Adjustments

  I make computer changes which I will give how to explanation to on the next post. These are examples of the advantage of digital painting, which allow changes such as the size of the candle glow on the background.

Adjusting the size of the candle base.

Stretching the width of the candle stalk.

Adjusting the size and shape of the handle. These adjustments would require more time to make with traditional paint than when done on a computer.

• Approach to Adjustments

  The basic approach for me, is to duplicate the part of the artwork I want to adjust, then resize them to the look I want, and marry it the existing art. It will completely cover what does not work or you may need to remove parts of the unwanted elements that are not cover up by the duplicate areas. There are adjustment layers for altering values, colors, light exposure, vibrancy and a few other effects to work with.

• Finalizing Visual Interest

  I slowly build more detail into the candle, making it more believable. I make sure I’m attentive to volume or roundness when building the values.

Even as I apply reflectiveness into the candle holder. I must remember the principal of light direction. I add more light into the flame to increase the glow effect. I’ll also add a designed smoke effect and light speckles for visual interest then warp the image to a shape that work better visually.

Another adjustment I could never do in traditional paint. It’s important put additional imagery on a separate layer which will allow for the adjustments without effecting the other parts of the art.

The Advantage of Digital

The advantage of digital painting adds benefit to my traditional painting when I run into difficulties of thing not working as I want. I can make digital adjustment from a photo of my artwork to resolve painting issues. Even make digital changes to the images including color corrections before final prints are made of the art.

Here’s my final of this digital candle painting.

Catch my next post so you can take full advantage of digital painting adjustments to make your painting dreams a bit easier.

You can get additional insights on digital painting from the post, “How to Paint Digitally With Photoshop” and “Painting With Photoshop On Computer”.

The Takeaway: Direction Of Light

Today we are going to look at one simple rule that can make our paintings better. That’s simply making sure of where the direction of light is. My intent is to help you remember from the outset of your painting to become aware of this basic rule.

This Demo’s Tool Of Use

My method of showing you is by correcting an existing painting: as you see the difference in the before and after, you will grasp the importance of keeping the direction of light in the forefront of your mind when you make your next painting. Therefore, I will paint digitally with Photoshop to help you see the difference, as well as preserve my wife’s original painting. My language in this article will involve both the painting I’m correcting and using Photoshop. By the way Photoshop is a good tool for solving painting problems. I use it when I’m having issues with a painting and am not sure which way to correct it.

Making The Change

Here’s the painting my wife did – and for someone who’s not an artist I thought this was an excellent job. Wonderful painting! However, more emphasis on direction of light can make this a better painting. There is some light there, just not enough for enhanced quality.

• Determine Direction of Light
  Let’s have light come from the upper right hand corner of the picture.

I’m going to take the middle section of this painting, the area inside the flowers, and accentuate these petals with light to improve it. This gives more dimension to the flowers in the painting. Then I enhance color more so it’s not too pale. I turn the Photoshop layer off and then on again for a comparison look. I’ve already gained more dimension because we have a sense of direction of light. Lets make the inside of the flower at the bottom lighter. This will help the front petals look more forward.

• Accentuate The Shadows
  I want to accentuate dimension even more by making it a little darker and with a touch of violet for color variance under and behind the flowers. This increases the shadows, which helps us have a better sense of the direction of light. I’ll make the buds and stems darker on the left side and also underneath, for their dimensionality and direction of light as well.

• Accent Spots of Color
  I want to accentuate more color into the stems here and there for more form, or roundness. But not everywhere – just a few hinted spots so it doesn’t become busy.
  Once again, I make a before and after comparison to see how the painting is coming together (the wonder of painting by computer!). I’d like the green on the buds and stems to go redder, not quite so green. Then add some highlights to catch the eye more.

At this point I would consider the painting done. But we can showcase the flower more by making adjustments to the background.

• Showcase The Center of Interest
  Since the flowers are our center of interest, we can make them stand out more by adjusting the background behind them. I decided to cool down the background color slightly in a couple of spots to the left of the painting. Then darken the entire background a little. Now the flower stands out more.

• Extra Accents for Final Enhancement
  To make the painting more appealing, I’ll add a warm reflective color beneath the buds and to the left of the stem shadows. Just hints here and there, not all over. That brings more color interest to them (check out Creating Dimension with Core Shadows for more color action).

The flower at the bottom would work better if I curved the petals upward and close it off. This helps it look more like a round, completed flower. I’ll give more of a lighted edge accent on the top of the petals which helps give it more form or dimension.

I’ll add more shadowing underneath the upper right side flower. Then add a shadow side, slightly redder, to the stigma; then brighten its light side to give more roundness.

So now you see how giving more direction of light can improve dimensionality. I’ve chosen to give a sense of luminosity to the upper right flower by putting a slightly warm, light color in its front shadow side (it’s bottom right) to give an appearance of light inside of the flower. Also did the same on the top right edges of the middle and bottom flowers. Here is the before and after.

So keep these tips in mind as you’re working on your paintings. Make sure you determine the direction of where your light is coming from, especially before you bring it to a close. And be consistent with the direction of light on lit surfaces.

You might find Painting with Photoshop On Computer or How to Paint Digitally With Photoshop helpful to learn how some adjustments to my wife’s painting were made.

Now let’s go paint!

Learn how to paint digitally, adding to your Photoshop skills which will expand your creative expressions.

Beginning Steps To Paint Digitally On Computer

Sometimes people think that when you paint digitally on computer all you do is push a button and the computer does the painting. Not so. It’s the artist that’s doing the painting. The only difference is the artist is using the computer brushes and color as opposed to regular paint and brushes. Come along and I’ll show you the process of how we actually paint digitally on computer. Hope it’s something you can actually learn from.

• Import Drawing:

  I start with a digital drawing I did on my computer. Or you can use an imported file of a drawing you have.

  

• Duplicate Drawing:

  I duplicate my drawing using command (Mac) or Control (PC) J to duplicate another layer of the drawing. 

• Make Transparent Layer:

  Then hit multiply to see through that layer. This keeps the line on top of the painting at all time to see what you’re painting.

• Create A New Layer:

I create a new layer (click on copy symbol at bottom right corner) underneath the line layer. Here I paint digitally under that line layer. Starting with my background. Each added object gets it’s own separate layer. This make it easier for corrections or adjustments without affecting the other elements.

When I start painting the bear on computer I used a textured brush called Dry Brush on Towel. That gives me a furry look. 

Building The Structure of Your Image

• Determine Light Direction:

  Determine which direction your light will come from.

• Paint Lights and Shadows:

  Paint in his basic color then some shadow colors. It’s a little brighter than what I want so I toned it down.

  

(While on the layer click Image, Adjustments, Then any parameter you desire to make a change with).

I’m giving light to the top areas as if the light is coming from above right side. I’m filling it in to give dimensionally to my basic structure and I’ll fill in additional spots as I go.

I turn off my top line periodically to check how well the structure of my drawing is coming along. Then turn it on again.

I put in the sweater color quickly. Then go back and erase some of the color that’s outside the line. If you remember one of my previous video/blog (Artist Technique for Painting a Tree) on simple painting steps of 1,2,3 – dark, lights, and medium tones. I’m painting with this idea in mind, as I add in my lighter tones on the sweater.

• Making Adjustments:

  I’m going to tone the sweater down, using a Layer Mask to darken it then I’ll erase out some of the darks so the lights will come through.

A Layer Mask or Adjustment Layer allows you to make a layer to change the artwork without affecting the original art underneath. Such as complete color or effect changes, even erasing things out while the original remains in tack. You can affect the entire work or isolate out an area with a marquee or protective line around it (Painting With Photoshop On Computer). Then create the mask. Here are the steps.

If you choose the entire layer, click on the layer art image while pressing command (Mac) or Control (PC) to put a marquee or protective line around to image. (Short Cut)

     Or,  while on the layer you want, click on Select, Load Selection, then OK.

Then choose from Adjustment layer you want. Hover over then to see what they are then click the one you want.

Layer will appear and the window to make changes. Use them to adjust what you want.

I will give more color to my shadow areas. Darker in the dark areas on the sweater. Has a bit of violet touches to it and then I’ll darken it even more and erase some of the mid tones. (Please watch the video for visual clarity).

Adding The Details

Now I’m building some of the features, the nose, the eyes, putting in a little more detail as I go. On the video you’ll see me going in tight and out of the painting some times. I need to push it back to see how it comes together when its too close. Then I pull it back in to see more of the details. If it was an actual painting outside of the computer, I would be stepping back from the painting. 

I’m putting a Marquee around the feet and ears to lighten them up more. Then add line details.

The line drawing is there as my foundation to build the bear painting. I need to paint line detail on the bear to allow it to stand alone when the top line is removed.

I build form, giving value, texture, and other details to the bear giving dimensionally with light, middle tones, and shadows. This applies when you paint digitally on computer or painting on real canvas.

I paint a little in different areas to help build more of the form overall as I go.  Painting some areas a little lighter, some areas a little darker. I’m building the eyes now. Painting in some eye color.

I decided to brightening up the eyes more with an adjustment window. Because they are on their own layer I can adjust the color from a window and not use the Layer Mask if I’m not concern about preserving an original color.

If you refer to my blog (Painting With Photoshop On Computer) I’ll explain about finding the brushes window, where to pick colors and a few other Photoshop basics for painting.

Giving Final Touches

• Add Accents and Enhancement Spots:

  Here I’m putting in reflective light just to give more color emphasis and now I’m coming in and trying to give more texturing to make it have a sweater effect, without putting every line. I’m just putting in light hitting is as opposed to the shadows to give it that sweater feel.

  

I darken a few lines here and there to help accentuate form better. Now I’m giving more textures to the bear. I want him to feel more hairy but not overly so. Trying to simulate a look without giving every single detail. This will give him more of a “toy bear” texture. Bringing a little more light in areas.

This is me doing the painting on computer. It requires my artistic eye to know where to give more detail without giving too much detail. So here’s the final.

Now it’s your turn. Fire up the computer, open Photoshop and give it your test run. Just play a little and make it fun!

As the animation industry was moving to computer, Photoshop was becoming the software to paint with for background painting. Before the transition from traditional painting to computer was fully in swing, I give myself 30 minutes before my normal start work time and 30 minutes after work hours to learn how to paint digitally on computer. It didn’t take very long to get in the flow of it so long as I was consistent in my effort. So lets  do this.

I Hope this was a learning experience for you.

We’ll review the importance of a quick lay-in when doing plein air paintings.

Hello all you art lovers out there. Today I’m going to give you an example of how I start some of my plein air pieces. This particular painting was done at Caesar Chavez National Monument.

It represents several of the plein air paintings I actually start. So check out my starting process (watch the video), maybe there’s something you can learn from it. Mainly I want you to focus on how my lay-in is very quick.

I have a tendency to work from back to front with things that are furthest distance then come closer. There are time where as you may have seen on some of my demos, I tend to put the brighter colors in and then the darker colors. For this plein air painting I’m doing the sky first.

I’m going to build up some of the foliage to help give me depth of field as I go. As I lay more information in, I can determine whether I have enough depth or too much depth in some situations. But I start sky, build some foliage in front, lay-in the lighter color greens,

I get the shadowed area on the right hand side then go to the foreground elements to help me begin to build the basic foundation of values that I’m seeing.

That’s how I want to think of it. Laying in roughly, not fine detail, just quick elements so that I can build my plein air painting as I go. Putting the color that I think will help me establish the final colors that will come together eventually.

It will change as I began to fill in more and more of the details. But the basic background, middle ground, foreground elements that’s going to establish what I need as I move into the detail aspects of the plein air  painting.

Here I’m trying to get more of the middle and foreground area colors developed as close to what I’m visually interpreting as possible.

Then putting in the lighter tree foliage now and building the values around it.

When completed you see how roughly layed in this is. You can still see the loose brushstrokes. This is a good foundation for me to carry over. Good loose tree information.

Now I build the middle ground trees in the painting. Putting in additional branches, structure for trees on the left side.

Here is more leafy shapes building over top of the first lay-in. The rocks more detailed.

This is how the final looks.

This is how I would approach my first lay-in and build from there.

I hope you found this helpful. In the future I’ll show you the full plein air painting approach from beginning to completion. But my focus was the lay-in today. Happy painting.

Hi Fellow Artist! Every so often while I’m painting, I look at it and I say to myself, “Wow, this feels very flat. What can I do to help that?” Then that light bulb comes on in my head: “Oh, I’ve forgotten my core shadows!” Let’s talk about how we can have our subject matter feel a bit more rounded by creating dimension.

So how do I help things look rounder? Take notice of the light shining on this cup. See the gradation? There’s a very strong highlight, then a mid tone, and next to that there’s a half tone, then finally the darkest part where the light doesn’t reach, called the Core Shadow. Then from the core shadow it goes over to the very edge where it catches the reflective light. Sometimes it’s a little hard to see reflective light depending on how strong or how subtle the light may be. I’ll use my hand to create more reflective color which makes it easier to see the core shadow. That core shadow helps things to feel more rounded. So when you’re painting, remember to make that darker, core shadow section.

To help you get a better example of what I’m talking about, let’s look at the artwork of a close friend of mine. Thomas Blackshear is an excellent artist who does incredible work. I’ve always been amazed at his skill set. He’s more gifted than most people I know personally. We are going to look at a close up of this particular painting called “Crow” to help us understand more about core shadows in various areas.

Notice the darker edge on the folds of the sleeve: that would represent the core shadow. And it moves from there into the reflective light. Again, on the arm ring we’re seeing the core shadow and the reflective light (remembering the layout on the cup?).

You see the core shadow again, here on the chin, going into that lighter reflective area just underneath it.

Thomas gives us a really good example of keeping things dimensional. Check out his work. I think you will truly love what you see. (By the way, Thomas was a big part of my journey to become an artist! If you don’t know that story yet, you can read about it here).

Now here’s how to help bring dimension to something that is flat sided. On this flat object we have the strongest light (right side), the shadow side (left), and of course, the high contrast area where they meet (the corner). As the shadow side falls away, it’s catching some of the reflective light (closer toward the back left).

I prefer to paint flat sided objects as a gradient from dark to light rather than one flat color (the shadow side). The same goes for the light side. I paint the lightest area next to the darkest (at the corner) and gradually get a little darker (toward the outer edge). You can also do it the opposite way on the light side. Just think gradation rather than flat. That tends to give more dimensionality.

So which box appears to protrude more at the corners? I hope you’re seeing that the box on the right is the one that visually seems to protrude. And what have I done to create that effect? I added a bit more light up and down in the areas where the arrows point.

By keeping this in mind, and putting it into action, you can bring more dimension to your artwork.

There are times when you may want to portray a more reflective surface. This can be tricky because there’s more bounce light or reflections catching the surface from different angles, rather than a one point light source.  However, maintain the basic principles: find where you can put your core shadows and then allow for those reflective lights to come in. It still works to create dimensionality. So know the principles (remember the cup layout), apply the principles, and then allow light to bounce wherever it is. Even if it’s a very reflective surface or object, the principle remains the same. Continue painting and get those objects nice and round! They’ll look much more realistic once you’ve created dimension.

Hope you enjoy the tips! If you find this helpful, give me a like on Facebook or YouTube, subscribe, and check out our other blog posts.

For Further Inspiration. . .

In my painting “Gleaming Flight” the reflective light and core shadows bring dimension to the rounded trunks and curved branches of the trees, and help convey the form and fullness of the hedges. But only exploration can reveal what is around the bend. Visit my Shop page for available prints of this painting, and to view the full collection.

Hey art lovers! My tip today is all about creating visual interest by adding unexpected touches of color. Check this out: which of these balls capture your visual interest the most? Of course, I would hope you say the one on the right.

Why would that be? The ball on the left side is a straight red ball with white and black touches.

The ball on the right has oranges, yellow and purples involved in it – but still reads as a red ball. On the light side of the ball, where the brighter colors are, I use analogous colors ranging from the reds, oranges, and yellows. If you’re wondering what Analogous colors are, check out my art tip post here. The same applies for the shadow side of the ball, using the violets, blues, and blue-green. Just remember that on the shadow side of the ball, colors are toned down, so be careful not to use too many colors because then it will look busy. The colors in the shadow must not compete with the intensity of the bright side.

We can bring visual interest to our work by adding additional variations of color rather than just using a straight black or white.

No matter what the color is, by broadening our color palette, we can make it visually interesting. You can do this with green by adding a dab of blue or maybe little touches of red, for example. This green ball has a range of colors from greens, yellows, and oranges on the light side; then to blues, violets, and reds on the shadow side of the ball. Think of them as reflective colors in the shadows and highlights that bring extra interest.

To see how I apply this concept, check out this piece titled “Jerusalem Arches.” I could have used all brown or tan to create the walls and architecture. Instead, I infused it with bold touches of color to build layers of depth and vitality. My painting “Jerusalem Arches“ is an example of how adding unexpected touches of color can heighten visual interest.

As you go around the color wheel, look for more interesting ways to pull in other colors, while still conveying the main color that you’re painting. These principles are used in every aspect of design where color is applicable. So give that a try and let me know how it works for you! You can share your experience on my YouTube channel or Facebook Page.

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To be a great artist having a complete understanding of how color works is key, and we’ve got answers!

What Are Complimentary Colors?

Hi everyone, so glad you’re joining me! We are going to learn about complementary colors through the use of a simple gel filter sheet over a light, to see what it teaches us about those complements. First of all, what are complementary colors?

Well, they are the colors that are completely opposite each other on a color wheel. For example, as you can see in the image above, blue is opposite orange, green is opposite red, and yellow from violet. So when we see two colors across from each other, we know that they work together, or complement.

In addition, they can cancel out each others intensity. When you mix the opposite colors together, they begin to grey each other down. That’s a good way of toning down color. Let’s look at the light test and see what it reveals to us about complementary colors.

Experimenting with Light and Colored Gel Sheets

We are going to use light and put a gel filter sheet in front of it to see what happens in the shadows. This will teach us a little about the color opposites. Using this red tone gel (in double thickness to make it easier to see) in front of a light shows us something interesting:

Let’s look at this up against the color wheel with the red gel underneath. The bottom right hand side is the full color, and the top right hand side is where I pale it down to be as close to the light demonstration as possible. So what are we seeing here? The shadow appears greenish because of the reddish light, which is a natural opposite as we see it on the color wheel. When you look at reds on the wheel, the colors across from them are greenish tones; likewise, light takes on that natural complementary response.

Now we are going to use this yellow gel:

I’ll put it in front of the light. What color does the shadow become? Once again, we have the gel under the color wheel at bottom right in its natural color, and I pale it down on the top right, to match as closely as possible to the light demonstration on the left.

Notice that the shadow appears to be a violet color, which is a natural opposite of the yellow. Amazing!

How about a reddish-purplish gel?

Let’s put it in front of the light:

As before, I have my color wheel over the reddish violet gel on the bottom right, which is full natural color. The top right is as close to the light as possible. Now look at the shadow: it has that yellow-green look to it, exactly the opposite as we see on the color wheel.

Principle Revealed in Nature

Now that’s a fascinating phenomena – and it’s in nature all around us! However, we don’t always think about it.

The sky:

The flowers:

The insects:

Certain animals:

This principle of light and color is everywhere! Therefore, if nature calls for it, then our paintings call for it as well. We can apply that to our artwork. We can learn from it. Let’s emphasize it and become more conscientious as we make designs, colors, and moods.

My painting “Sunset Falls” utilizes complementary colors in the glow reflected from the sky to the shadows on the falls. Buy this print or browse more paintings in the Shop. If you find this interesting, please subscribe for more. Hope to see you next time!

NEXT | Learn how to add visual interest with touches of color in my post here.

For those of you new to art, wondering what analogous colors are? Simply put, I’m teaching you how to use colors that are adjacent on the color wheel to increase your understanding of how color works in art.

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Learning How To Use Analogous Colors

Last week I wrote about “How To Paint With A Limited Palette”. If you haven’t read it, you’ll want to start go back and read that first to better understand why you should use analogous colors.

In that article I encourage artists to challenge themselves by limiting the color palette used. One of the ways to accomplish that is by using a color wheel. So today I want to share some tips on how to paint with analogous colors using a color wheel as your guide.

Using The Color Wheel To Find Analogous Colors

I love utilizing a color wheel – it’s a tool no artist should be without. It helps me keep colors within a certain range for a harmonious look. Different types of color combinations that you can create with a color wheel are monochromatic, triadic, complementary, analogous, and orderly.

I love utilizing a color wheel – it’s a creative tool no artist or maker should be without

In this case, we’re using analogous or adjacent colors as another way of limiting your palette. By choosing no more than five consecutive colors from the wheel, you can keep them visually close to each other to create the look you want for your painting.

Using Analogous Colors to Convey Emotion or Mood

Check out this example my painting entitled  Encroaching Fall  with the reds removed. The range of colors represented here goes from blue, blue green, green, to yellow-green, and yellow on the color wheel. These analogous colors keep the painting visually simple, making it more restful to the eye. Notice how keeping a narrow range can help you define what emotions are being expressed through your art.

As you can see, Encroaching Fall, which is mostly a variety of greens is restful; similarly, blue can become romantic, reds can be passionate and stimulating. So think about what mood you want to express before you begin painting, to help guide your choice of color. You can even do thumbnail mock-ups to help determine where you want to go with it. Of course, the contrast of light and dark in a painting will help with the overall feel and final result.

Finally, it’s good to know how to limit your palette to push yourself as an artist, and hopefully learn a lot of interesting things as you do. If you don’t have a color wheel, you will definitely want to add one to your collection. Below I’m sharing a few options for purchase online.

Check out these Color Wheels on Amazon or click the images below to shop:

Try it! Or, better yet, if you’re a fan of DIY, making your own color wheel is the surest way to learn how to mix colors and discover the subtle nuances that you can get in the process.

Give that a try and let me know how using analogous colors works for you, by commenting on my YouTube channel or Facebook page. Stay creative!