Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Up your game with color 12-27-2016

Color - is the best way for you to up your game.  













Have you memorized the color wheel?

Have you memorized the color opposites?

Have you memorized the color triads?

Can you tell the difference between yellow orange and red orange?

What color is a tree, a leaf?  How many colors can you use to paint a tree?  Have you really looked at leaves up close?

I have seen trees painted in every possible color and often the more absurd the color - the more beautiful the end result of the painting.

While it might seem ridiculous, you will learn more about color by using the wrong colors and finding out how stunning your art will become.

One way is to use color triads for color schemes, such as red orange or purple for tree trunks.

The practice of painting trees, in a variety of shapes and colors, is one the best ways to develop your creativity and original style.

Trees are a universal symbol of long life, maturity and stability - a reliable subject for art.

The colors you like will greatly affect your use of color in your art.  And the colors will be a deciding factor in who likes your art.

The colors in a painting can be the single greatest eliminating factor in who buys or not buys your art, especially if all other variables are equal.

If you only use the colors you like, you are limiting the audience that will enjoy and buy your art.

Learn the colors on the artist's color wheel.

Memorize the color wheel.

Until you memorize the colors, it's hard to tell orange from red orange unless you hold them up against red and/or yellow.

Learn the emotional meaning of colors.

People who love blue, green and violet generally don't buy things that are bright red, bright orange or bright yellow.

Color preference cannot be predicted or even understood, but people seem to maintain their high preferences on one side of the color wheel or the other over their lifetime.

Of course there are people who have an overall appreciation for the majority of colors, which may be gained over time.

Colors can be uplifting - or not.

Lighter shades of color are emotionally uplifting.  Regardless of which colors you use, an overall light and medium shade painting has a much more pleasant, uplifting impact than a dark, moody painting.

Colors opposite each other on the color wheel can blend to produce neutrals which become varying shades of light, medium and dark.

Neutrals such as brown, sand and gray add "realism" to a painting.

Light, medium and dark are often referred to as "value."

In photography you usually have a white point and a black point in a photograph - with unlimited medium shades (values) in between.  Your painting should have a white point and a black point, even if they are not completely white or complely black, and they can be very small in size.

Bright yellow-orange sunflowers in a meadow convey a different message from dark pine green evergreen trees on a dark blue mountain side under gray cloudy skies.

A person who does not like the color of yellow-orange, would probably never buy a sunflower painting.  But that person most likely would find the shades of pink roses very appealing.

There probably are very few people who might buy a moody dark painting of evergreen trees in a dark forest under moonlight.

Many more people would probably prefer a light blue sky, green grass and assorted pine and deciduos trees next to a creek reflecting a blue sky.

A blue and green painting can take many forms, in various shades of light and dark.

The more you research and study the work of other artists, the more natural and intuitive your art will become.

Research will enable you to paint with more confidence, because it will be more obvious to you when the composition, elements and colors are balanced in a pleasing way.

Composition needs a center of interest, not usually centered in the painting, plus a balance of a light source, and shadows.   The center of interest can have a few supporting shapes or colors as accents.

The area of highest contrast will become the center of interest whether you plan it or not.

Research will give you a close-up look at how other artists use color in many unexpected ways.

Pinterest, Youtube and Facebook are among the best sources of instruction on technique.

Each brush shape produces very different marks on the paper or canvas.  A brush that is too large for details will create a much more loose or abstract stroke.  A small brush makes small marks, forcing you to paint with more care and precision.  Paint is very different in watercolor, acrylic, oil, pencil, watercolor pencil, pastel, etc.

Do you know the color songs?



  • Color is exciting - high saturation, yellow, orange and red or yellow green and turquoise
  • Color can be garish and loud - large areas of highly saturated red and/or orange with lime green
  • Color is peaceful - colors adjoining each other on the color wheel, pastels, green, blue, violet
  • Color is romantic - pink, peach, sky blue, lavender
  • Color can be dull - low saturation, neutrals, dark pine green, dark burgundy, brown, gray
  • The color intensity in saturation, lights and darks create the message. 
  • Color can be dramatic - high contrast of light and darks, opposite color wheel colors

    1. Red is warm, exuberant, angry, shouts.
    2. Yellow is warm, cheerful and sunny.
    3. Orange is warm, jumps up and down.
    4. Lime green is energetic and electric.
    5. Blue is cool, tranquil, dignified, soothing, peaceful, stable.
    6. Green is cool, harmonious and unifying.
    7. Soft orange - peach - warm, is welcoming.
    8. Brown is warm, dependable, traditional.
    9. Burgundy is cool, adds life to dark colors.
    10. Grey is serious, conservative, professional, sophisticated.
    11. Black is permanent, alone it is depressing.
    The dominant color - usually the louder colors - such as yellow or red - occupy the most visual space.  Even if they don't occupy the most actual coverage on the paper, they will convey the first impression and response to it.  You will see the red first.

    Art can lower your blood pressure.

    A more peaceful subject and colors will appeal to a more mature and older group who will value having their blood pressure lowered.  The right colors and subject can bring down blood pressure in such a way that a viewer may even notice a sense of peace.  Since they are more likely to have discretionary funds, it is good business to research subjects and colors likely to lower blood pressure - which are not lions and tigers, but would be water scenes, landscapes, gardens, plants, flowers, still lifes, etc.

    That is one of the foundations of the business of art - what is the point of the story?

    The Audience.


    If you are painting for the market place, you are painting for someone else's enjoyment, not yours. Colors next to each other - on the color wheel - are visually appealing and harmonious.
    1. Choose three colors next to each other on the color wheel for your dominant colors with an add (up to a 70/30 ratio) of the opposite color of one of them.
    2. Choose five colors, or more. next to each other on the color wheel. The important thing is that you use all five (or more) of them.
    3. Expand your color selection to include at least all the cool colors or all the warm colors.
    4. Choose one color and paint in the various tints and shades of that color.
    5. Color triads are another option for color selection, but they take a lot more skill, work and usually some additional colors to create a harmonious color scheme.  They can look forced if there isn't sufficient light and shadow to create variety.
    6. Triads are equal distance from each other on the color wheel. 
    7. Triads can keep your focus on creativity.

    Triads - Primaries - Secondary - Tertiary

    1. Red, yellow and blue are the Primary Triad - quite popular - and used to some degree by most artists.



    Secondary Triads

    Orange, green and violet are the Secondary Triad.  They are the colors created by mixing the primary colors with each other.  They should be stretched to include various tints and shades of each them, rather than just one shade seen on a color wheel.  It shouldn't be ovious that your painting is a triad exercise of orange, green and violet.


    Tertiary Triads
    1. The Tertiary Triads are the remaining colors on the color wheel created by mixing the primary and secondary colors.  
    2. Tertiary - Red-violet, Yellow-orange, Blue-green
    3. Tertiary - Red-orange, Yellow-green, Blue-violet

    The Secondary and Tertiary Triads sometimes seemed "forced" when used as blobs of each color, since they are not colors usually seen in nature in those configurations.

    Subtle additions of a few other colors are generally beneficial, such as tints and shades of colors on the color wheel that are adjoining the dominant color.

    Color Wheels and Triads are on my "What's New" page.
    http://falling-star.com/whatsnew.html

    The most peaceful colors.


    Nature has a preference for green and blue in combination with water, trees, rolling hills adorned with colorful flowers to lower your blood pressure.

    The sky, ocean and seas consists of thousands of shades of blue and green. People who have spent time around the water are likely to want paintings that depict the relaxing properties of water.

    Brown and gray add a contrast that strengthens other colors, and lends realism to a painting.

    A drive in country can bring your blood pressure down.

    You can bring that peace to your art.

    Color should not be used in blobs of just one color, but in dabs, strokes, spots, flecks, splatters, glazes, shades, mixes, marks, scratches, and variations of the dominant color.  You can add accents from adjoining color wheel colors.

    You can add one accent color from a triad.

    You can add an opposite on the color wheel as an accent color will bring the colors to life that you can't get any other way.


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    Thursday, December 8, 2016

    Best Color for Great Art - 12-8-2016

    The Best Color for Great Art













    Great artists from every century have amazed us with their use of color.

    They have created light and shadow using bright and dark colors other than white, gray and black.

    They have created highlights using colors that are opposites on the color wheel.

    The mastery of color in art to convey a message is the signature of a successful artist.

    Color is affected by the colors around it. They often appear to be different than what is in the tube. That means it can be surprising to find out what colors an artist actually used. It is very informative to view youtube videos to watch brush strokes, brush shape, paper selection, and color choices.

    Color can say many different things. Color can sing.


  • Color is exciting.
  • Color is dramatic.
  • Color is peaceful.
  • Color is romantic.
  • Color can be dull.
  • Color can be garish.
  • There is a color for everything.
  • The color is the message.

    Sometimes the smallest changes make a dramatic difference.

    Color will make the difference between annoying, boring, dynamic, sophisticated or peaceful.

    Art can lower your blood pressure.

    The best color for your art depends on your audience. You need to find out who likes your subjects and style. Are they male or female, young or more mature? The young don't tend to have $300 to pay for the art that took you 100 hours to paint. So they feel you are unreasonable and you are miserable because you are not making minimum wage. Be mindful of the financial resources available to the group who are attracted to your art. More mature individuals who can afford to buy art may not care for the subjects you like.

    If you want to sell art, you will have to do some research and learn something about the marketplace and price points. You have to learn the business of art and the multiple ways you can work to actually make money.

    Getting into a gallery or becoming "high priced" is the least likely way to sell art for most people because
  • your art is not "unique" enough
  • I'm not "feeling it"

    You can do research on art houses and see what sells. There is an "art machine" that fast tracks art that is "different," has a "unique selling proposition," and multiple "art experts" who are willing to stake their professional standing on the art pieces going up in value. The "sales pitch" is more important than the "art." If you can convince me that I can see the "creation of the universe," the "soul having an epiphany" or the "rage of the persecuted" - you can probably sell a 12 x12 ft painting to someone who connects to it and will pay a fortune to hang it in their 1,500 sq ft foyer in their five million dollar house. And yes, it would be really nice if you show up in a very expensive car and clothes, so I won't feel stupid giving an unemployed individual a whole lot of money.

    Gallery art and/or high priced art has to connect with the buyer's emotions or meet investment criteria
  • deep meaning or extremes of life
  • touch the emotions of love, rage, persecution
  • epiphany
  • the creation of the universe
  • judged by the "experts" to be a sure thing to increase in value - as this is the true meaning of the value of art and the basis for its price.
  • investment buyers usually are not art lovers.
  • it's not the artists who get the big checks, it's the resellers.

    I covered some suggestions for selling your art in an earlier blog post. Some subjects do sell to art lovers and prices do increase as your art matures. Don't expect to get $1,000.00 for a painting just because it took you 100 hours to paint it - there is no hourly rate on art. As your art matures you will become more efficient and accomplish more in less time.

    An artist who gets a lot of sales usually has a formula for creating multiple pieces at one sitting so that he/she can make them similar but different. Each one is an original but in the same style - the red flower appears in six (twelve or twenty or thirty) different locations in six different paintings and each is positioned/shaped somewhat differently. The pink flower also moves to six different locations. The yellow flower is not the same distance from the white flower in any of the six paintings. The vase is different - shape - color - location. The light and shadows are at a different angle. Good sketches can simplify the process even more. They are all originals.

    There are several websites that can help you get started selling your art on products like coffee mugs and tote bags, etc. There are currently problems with image theft on many of these sites. Keep in mind your art could end up supporting multiple thieves and their extended families in many different countries - and they also may compete against you online. Don't use your best and most precious art for sale on coffee mugs. Keep it simple.

    Selling 1,000 coffee mugs at $15 each, with a profit of $5 each, is much more likely and easier than selling one painting for $5,000.00. 


    • Color Speaks.

    If you are painting for yourself, any color will be fine. If you are painting for the market place, you will have to consider the power of color to reach the emotions of the buyer.


  • Blue is cool, tranquil, dignified, soothing, peaceful, stable.
  • Red is warm, exuberant, angry, shouts.
  • Yellow is warm, cheerful and sunny.
  • Green is cool, harmonious and unifying.
  • Orange is warm, jumps up and down.
  • Soft orange - peach - warm, is welcoming.
  • Brown is warm, dependable, traditional.
  • Burgundy is cool, adds life to dark colors.
  • Grey is serious, conservative, professional, sophisticated.
  • Black is permanent, alone it is depressing.
  • White is refined and sophisticated.


    Color sings.

    Choose three colors next to each other on the color wheel for your dominant colors with an add (up to a 70/30 ratio) of the opposite color of one of them.

    You can also expand to five colors, or more. next to each other on the color wheel. The important thing is that you use all five (or more) of them.

    If you like, you can expand your color selection to include at least all the cool colors or all the warm colors.

    There are other options as well - such as using red, yellow and blue as the dominant colors with minimal influence of other colors and/or blending.

    Colors next to each other on the color wheel are visually appealing. This can help you coordinate your color scheme.

    Color Wheels are on my "What's New" page.
    http://falling-star.com/color1.html


    • The most pleasing color schemes.

    The ones you will see most often in magazines and in furniture show rooms - are based on different shades of one dominant color (monochromatic), usually in the walls, fabrics and accessories, often with one accent color.

    As mentioned above, groups of three adjoining color wheel colors are often used also.


    The most peaceful colors.

    If you take a drive in the country during the summer, you will see thousands of shades of green everywhere you look.

    The sky consists of thousands of shades of blue.

    The ocean and the seas consist of thousands of shades of blue and green.

    Nature adds a little brown and grey for contrast in the trees and rocks.

    And while they are not flashy, they are extremely pleasing and soothing.

    A drive in country can bring your blood pressure down.

    You can bring that peace to your art.

    Color should not be used in blobs of just one color, but in dabs, strokes, spots, flecks, splatters and glazes of shades, mixes and variations of the dominant color and at least one accent color.

    Accent colors based on a color in the opposite position on the color wheel, will bring the colors to life.

    Color wheel opposites are cool, peaceful vs warm, energetic.

    Color wheel opposites:















  • Green - Red
  • Blue - Orange
  • Violet - Yellow 



    • The dominant color.

    Art is very pleasing to look at when one color, any color, dominates the image in varying shades, tints, etc.

    The dominant color is best used in various shades, by diluting its saturation or "color mixing" with other colors, such as "blue and yellow making green".

    Any color can be the dominant color - with different effects, being mindful of the voice of the color.

    Multiple shades of green, can be created by "color mixing" with yellow or blue or red.

    They are an excellent foundation for a painting when desaturated.

    Green is probably the most used color in art.

    Just like in nature, it is soothing and unobtrusive in desaturated shades.

    Green in various desaturated shades lowers blood pressure.
  • Green "color mixed" with yellow - in various amounts produces a light yellow green which is cheerful. Dark yellow green is calming.
  • Green "color mixed" with blue - in various amounts produces a blue green which is calming in darker shades, but very cheerful in the lighter shades.
  • Green - "color mixed" with red - which is its opposite color, becomes less saturated as it gradually becomes gray or brown.
  • Gray is a neutral, subdued and sedate.
  • Brown is a subdued, gentlemanly color.


    The most dynamic color.

    Red is the most dynamic color, which can be emphasized or diluted.

    Red is more appealing to a general audience when it is a little diluted.

    Hot red and bright green are opposite and exciting colors, most often seen at Christmas at full saturation emphasizing the power of red.

    Red appears the most dynamic in shades with a yellow, warm base.

    Red can be used more freely in shades with a cool, blue base.

    Red and green are seen frequently in nature, with red being the less dominant accent color.

    Red is the most attractive and appealing when used
  • sparingly
  • diluted by mixing with green - graying down - old rose
  • adding white to make a pastel pink
  • adding black to make burgundy, maroon.


    Feminine Colors.

    Pastel colors are not masculine enough to decorate the male home.

    Pink, pale yellow, pale blue, and lilac are traditionally feminine colors and should be used sparingly and with darker colors when decorating for a male household member or in an office.

    Beige and grey, on the other hand, are gender neutral and can usually be used freely.


    Neutrals are muted and subdued colors.

    The saturated primary colors (red, yellow and blue) are diluted to produce neutrals. by "color mixing" with beige, grey, silver, black and the opposite color on the color wheel.

    Neutrals are generally appreciated by the mature, sophisticated audience, rather than a younger age group (who prefer more saturation).

    The desaturated blues are more like silver than blue. The whites are more beige/sand than white, which is a diluted yellow.

    This use of silver-blue and/or beige-sand-yellow, which are both primary colors creates a sophisticated presentation, most likely to appeal to a more mature audience. 



    • Falling-Star.com  beautitul nature art

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