Learn The Secrets To Using Color In Your Artwork

The use of color in art can and does add a richness to the artwork. It gives the impression of life, a feeling of life to the artwork. An artist uses color in a variety of ways, he may want to emphasize a central element in a painting by adding a certain hue to that element. For instance, let’s say he is painting a farm scene, in this farm scene he wants the apples in a basket he has painted to be the focal point of the artwork, to make this possible he may choose to make the apples intensely red, in doing this he has used that color in a special way. Here is that painting: ”Red Is Sweet” . Look how I employed the red of the apples - it jumps out at you. I wanted the viewer to be struck with the violent intensity that the color red can give.

When you set out to create a color painting, always think of the impact you wish those colors to make. Some colors are called “cool” colors and others “hot”. Cool colors are the blues and greens...color that give us the sensation of cool or cold temperatures. Their opposites are reds and oranges. To get aquinted with these color formats you should practice painting winter and summer landscapes, this is a wonderful way to become comfortable and fluent in using contrasting colors, and experiencing the effect they have on art and nature.

Let’s look at some colors and how they are have traditionally been used throughout history by artists. As an artist this this list will surely help awaken your excitement and creativity in choosing and applying various hues and colors:

1.Brown - this color brings to mind “the 49ers” - the distant past, this is a color used to relay the essence of the times gone by, our ancient past. This color fits well in the depiction of the great empire of Rome, folklore and the like.

2.Pink - pink is the a must when rendering anything strickly relating to women, it is the color that signifies the soft and gentle quality of the female. The color can be used to convey that which is gentle, loving and soft - it is the traditional female color.

3.Green - to communicate the qualities of growth, vegetation, living and maturing, an artist will often select green hues. Green says plant life, development.

4.Red - as stipulated before, the color red is a so-called “hot” color, and is used to convey a sense heat, excitement. Red means movement, energy, liveliness, and it can also relay the essence of readiness, of ripeness.

5.Black - the color black is like the stoic father of all the other colors, it gives the sense of standing by, holding up the other colors. Applied alone it gives the qualities of definity, boldness, age and of course, darkness, and the horrific.

6.Blue - is the known as the traditional “cool” color. Blue is the color of cold, cool, relaxing times. Along with the color white it is used in winter and cold scenes. It is also the color use when depicting water and watery scenery. This color can also be used to bring in an uplifting effect to a painting.

There are many other colors to consider, I just wanted to speak on some of the ones seen often in art and in society as a whole. An artist would do well to study the effects of these colors on his artwork. Using color in artwork is not like the use of black and white, it requires a thorough knowledge of the many effects of colors on our consciousness. Start your study of color today and watch your art blossom and affect you and its viewers much more intensely.
artwork
painting
art
artist