I don't understand color one bit

[white paint]

Hi everybody :)

I'm a graphic design/illustration student from Holland, and I'm having trouble with color. I've been lurking around these forums for quite some time and it's easily the most inspiring site on the internet, so I figured this'd be the best place to post about it.

I'm 20 now, and no longer than a year ago I discovered that sunlight isn't white and that shadows aren't black. Something nobody at my school has ever told me, and something I've never seen in examples or books that are being used on my school. I can only imagine how behind I am. I've had a couple of months of color lessons, which didn't get much further than how red and blue relate to eachother and that there's a word for that relation (which does little good if you don't understand the concept).

You can imagine how frustrating this is. No matter how nice your drawings are, bad colors will always mess them up. And quick, propely colored sketches always look ten times more interesting than anything I've made. And while I'm still studying anatomy and other related things I have the feeling that it's useless if I can't properly color and finish a drawing/painting.

I've read through alot of FAQS on this site and others, but I'm always getting the feeling like I'm skipping ahead, that I'm missing the basic idea. Then when I see some amazing paintings of green aliens with blue highlights, or random people with green, purple and red mixed into their skintone I can't even begin to understand it. Is it a matter of just looking at your work and say "I'ma go an' add some yellows" or is there a whole theory behind it? What's the best way to learn this, what's the best thing to study, what's the thing I need to understand before I can begin experimenting with this? I just don't get it. I'm very eager to at least get started on studying this, but I have no idea where to start.

Any help, similar problems and how they've been overcome, links to good tutorials,.. basicly anything is extremely appreciated.

Thanks,
Geoffrey

[Elwell]

This section is for site-specific support questions. You'll get better response if you post this in the Art Discussion forum.

[white paint]

My mistake - judging by other thread names I was under the impression that this section was for just about any question (but now, after actually reading some of them I see you've made that post before). I'll wait for a mod to find this and hopefully move it before I start creatin duplicate threads.

[Bowlin]

hey white paint...

This site (http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/wcolor.html) is one that is commonly refered to on CA. It's a bit overwhelming in all the information that it has, so don't let that bring you down.

[white paint]

That is alot of information - thanks for the link!

[FlipMcgee]

I discovered that sunlight isn't white and that shadows aren't black.

You don't have to be strictly bound by what happens in nature when you do your art. Using white for light and black for shadows in your artwork is not a crime (this will be more apparent in practice: when you do value studies or a grayscale underpainting).


What's the best way to learn this

Start with easy-to- comprehend basics. Get familiar with the color wheel. If you do digital, familiarize yourself with the color interface of your apps. What is Hue, Saturation, Value. How is a Traditional color wheel the same or different from a computer color wheel. Color harmonies? What are those? Value scale? What's that? Color temperature?

Practice what you know and test what you know by posting your art/experimentations for feedback.

Once you have a handle on the basics then you can start practicing how you can pick color palettes and use painting strategies that will effectively express what you want with your paintings: how to mimic trad paintings in digital, how to do optical mixing, texture effects, simultaneous contrast, atmospheric perspective, colors for the web vs. colors for printing, history of and why you'd use a limited color palette, etc. etc.

[Brendan N]

Idiot Apathy's Peer Project is also something to get into if you want to learn colour.

I think the best thing is at first to just relax about the whole thing - be overwhelmingly adventurous with your use of colour - go overboard - and see what work and what doesn't. For it was, and still is, a matter of getting comfortable with colour. Once you start getting comfortable you will start doing more advanced colour schemes. Also, doing master studies is also not a bad idea. Rembrandt's self portraits and Sargent's paintings are particularly good to study, but there are many many more.

Just take it easy - read up, experiment, try out: you will learn more as you go along. At least that's how I learn this stuff - so far...

[jason_maranto]

Not to be too snarky about the whole thing but color for the painter is vastly simpler than color for the physics major -- learning all the underpinnings and whatnot is very edifying but not tremendously useful.

Learning to "see" is however extremely useful and really far more valuable than learning all the "rules" (which are mostly theory anyway) -- the bottom line is your eyes are going to perceive color in a unique way and like any part of the body they will get more efficient the more you use them. What looks right to you will not look right to everybody so rules are somewhat arbitrary.

The only facts I can give you that have any value to the painter are:

1) everything has every color (in some amount) present within it.
2) every object reflects its colors to some degree upon surrounding objects.
3) the equation is: light = color(saturation) so less light = less color(saturation).

Armed with these facts and your eyes I say the best thing you could do for your understanding of color is paint... alot -- with a focus on looking for colors.

Also might be useful to study the painting of Monet who was maybe the most masterful painter of color/light that ever lived... he could see color so well that he was famed to be able to tell the time of day a picture was painted nearly accurately (give or take 10 minutes). To see that accurately and have such an intimate knowledge of light did not come from a physics degree but rather from much experience painting "plein air" and experiencing light firsthand.


Best,
Jason.

[Maxine Schacker]

Daylight is generally cool. Electric liht is usually arm. If your lightest light is cool, your darkest dark will be warm. There are warm cool relations throughout: if a form is turning, for each color change there will be a temperature change. If you put more than two colors o equal temperature next to each other, it will read like a pattern, not a turning form.

I suggest hat you set up a simple still life. For the moment forget black and earth colors except for ochre. Use warm and cool yellows, reds and blues, and titanium white. See the painting , as Hawthorne would say, as a mosaic of shapes of color. See the set up, that is, abstractly. In fact, get a copy of Hawthorne on Painting (Dover Press). Read his chapteer on still life, follow exactly what he tells you to do and you'll be on your way. There's more - but this a good place to start.

[Maxine Schacker]

Daylight is generally cool. Electric light is usually arm. If your lightest light is cool, your darkest dark will be warm. There are warm cool relations throughout: if a form is turning, for each color change there will be a temperature change. If you put more than two colors of equal temperature next to each other, it will read like a pattern, not a turning form.

I suggest hat you set up a simple still life. For the moment forget black and earth colors except for ochre. Use warm and cool yellows, reds and blues, and titanium white. See the painting , as Hawthorne would say, as a mosaic of shapes of color. See the set up, that is, abstractly. In fact, get a copy of Hawthorne on Painting (Dover Press). Read his chapter on still life, follow exactly what he tells you to do and you'll be on your way. There's more - but this a good place to start.

[white paint]

You don't have to be strictly bound by what happens in nature when you do your art. Using white for light and black for shadows in your artwork is not a crime (this will be more apparent in practice: when you do value studies or a grayscale underpainting).
Oh I know it's all in the hands of the painter to decide what to do color-wise, but I don't want to just stay away from things I don't understand. Can't break the rules without knowing them first etcetera :)
Start with easy-to- comprehend basics. Get familiar with the color wheel. If you do digital, familiarize yourself with the color interface of your apps. What is Hue, Saturation, Value. How is a Traditional color wheel the same or different from a computer color wheel. Color harmonies? What are those? Value scale? What's that? Color temperature?
Practice what you know and test what you know by posting your art/experimentations for feedback.
I'm definately going to get the color wheel inprinted in my head so I can start with simple color combinations and work my way up from there. I'm currently in my intermyear though so I have precious little time to actually experiment, but I'd better suck it up and get to it.
1) everything has every color (in some amount) present within it.
2) every object reflects its colors to some degree upon surrounding objects.
3) the equation is: light = color(saturation) so less light = less color(saturation).
2 and 3 sound like great things to keep in mind. I don't quite get the first one though; I know that objects suck up colors and reflect the ones that we'll eventually end up seeing - does that mean that you basicly paint leaves with every color besides green? Or is that terribly unlogical, and is this whole concept something that you don't have to translate to paint? :xpld:
Daylight is generally cool. Electric liht is usually arm. If your lightest light is cool, your darkest dark will be warm. There are warm cool relations throughout: if a form is turning, for each color change there will be a temperature change. If you put more than two colors o equal temperature next to each other, it will read like a pattern, not a turning form.
With turning forms you mean, in example, the relationship between the lit side of a cube and the unlit side?
:^^:
Thanks for all the comments :)

[HunterKiller_]

hey white paint...

This site (http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/wcolor.html) is one that is commonly refered to on CA. It's a bit overwhelming in all the information that it has, so don't let that bring you down.

Thanks for the link. Wow, so much information.

[dose]

Daylight is generally cool. Electric light is usually arm.

Just so it's clear-

Reflected/indirect daylight is cool- otherwise direct daylight is generally warm. Overcast daylight is generally cool. And incandescant electric light (regular bulb) is usually warm. Fluorescent electric lighting is often cool, though not always. You can usually tell by the color of the bulb.


1) everything has every color (in some amount) present within it.

I think what Jason was referring to was that even though you might look at, say, a white object and say "it's white", it actually will not be perfectly white- it will lean towards some color. The same holds true for black and gray objects, shadows, and any other place you might be tempted to think there's no color.


I know that objects suck up colors and reflect the ones that we'll eventually end up seeing...is this whole concept something that you don't have to translate to paint?

Yes- good to understand how the physics work, but not necessary to translate directly into paint.

[white paint]

I think what Jason was referring to was that even though you might look at, say, a white object and say "it's white", it actually will not be perfectly white- it will lean towards some color. The same holds true for black and gray objects, shadows, and any other place you might be tempted to think there's no color.
I'll keep that in mind; it's basicly the same concept as seeing your living room from outside and suddenly realising that the entire room has a yellowish glow to it due to it's lights if I'm not mistaking?
Yes- good to understand how the physics work, but not necessary to translate directly into paint.
That's good to know, thanks :)

[Qitsune]

Don't start with a white canvas, it will flatten your colors, tone with a neutral color (like a raw umber wash for acrylics) or with some gray or tan or if you work digital.

[white paint]

Heh - I was just reading about that in a other thread :) I'll keep it in mind.

[Evil_Sloth]

I agree with that you should practice with colour and see how it works on images not just in theory.