Colour--is what it is all about

Today I thought I would write a post about colour and its significance to the painting process. Most people learn about the primary colours; red, yellow and blue and how to mix these to get secondary colours of green, orange and purple. Some even go on to learn how to mix their tertiary colours from the primaries and secondary colours. The three qualities of colour are Hue, Value, and Intensity. The Hue is the pure pigment or basic colour such as yellow, or red. The value is how light or dark a colour is. The intensity is how bright or dull it is compared to its pure quality. Light changes the quality of colours. Without light, there is no colour. As a painter you will learn how to mix colours to get the colour you want. I believe mixing colour for painting is one of the most difficult aspects to painting. It takes time and effort. Many times you will have difficulties in trying to figure out how to make a colour. People who do not understand the skill involved in painting have no idea how difficult it is to build up those painting skills in order to get good enough to sell your work. Learning about colour and how to manipulate the colours when you are painting is a huge endeavor. Many artist try to use a limited palette. That means they just use a few basic colours and paint with. Limiting your palette will help to create a more harmonious painting. This means the same colours are throughout your painting, not just in one area. When you are mixing colours and want to lighten a colour, don't always use white, try to use a lighter colour instead such as yellow. This will give your painting more colour and not the dull look that white can give at times. Some colours just do not go together and you may end up with "mud." Another thing about painting is you need to limit your use of some colours such as phalo blue as this colour is a very strong paint colour and can easily overwhelm your painting. Other colours to use sparingly are some of the greens as they can be too strong. It is a good idea to try to learn how to mix your greens yourself. The green colours in nature are not as intense and are "grayed" down quiet abit. Also, the use of black is something many artist do not use. Instead they mix up a very dark purple colour and this adds a colour to your dark area. As I mentioned earlier in the post mixing colour is one of the most difficult jobs to painting and it will take lots of paint (you may waste lots too trying to mix) and lots of effort to learn how to get the colour you want. Don't give up! You will learn if you keep on making an effort. Eventually, you won't worry about it so much as you will automatically know how to make each colour you want. But getting to that point will take some time. Good luck and happy mixing!