Haing trouble with a painting theory

[Beer Baron]

:confused:

I hope 'theory' is the right term. Anyway, I'm just starting out in color and have trouble understanding a concept that I've come across a few times. The author roughly states; "For picture harmony, you should have some of the background color in the foreground." And I also believe that they mentioned having some of the background color incorporated into the figure as well.

My question is do they mean incorporating literal swatches of the background color or are they referring to mixing the background color into the local color? The picture samples they provided did not help. If anything, they confused me more.

Before I set off to the library, can you recommend any painters who incorporate this theory into their work? Or perhaps another book that explains this concept better?

Many thanks in advance.

[Rohan]

What I think they mean is that you should be using colour from the largest direct and ambient lighting sources which should be evident in various degrees throughout the whole scene, which will bring about unity. For example the colour of the sky will influence the colour of the light reflected off surrounding land forms and in turn your subject; buildings characters, anything. In 3d work this is dealt with as radiosity, and global illumination. if there is no evidence of this in your work, your subjects could appear 'cut and pasted' on top of a background. I'd recommend just doing studies from life and photos, after a while you will be able to see the effects of ambient and reflected light in any given scene much more easily. hope this helps

[Beer Baron]

Yes, it does. That's kind of what I was thinking.
Thanks!
:)