Choosing Colors for Your Painting

Art tip #5

When deciding on the colors to use for a painting, it is a good idea to consider the color scheme in regards to warm and cool colors. Decide if the color scheme is to either be mostly warm colors with a smaller amount of cool, or more cool colors and a smaller amount of warm.
Having a dominance of warm or cool can help you create a mood for your painting and may help you express the feeling you had when you first saw it.  Blues and greens can create a calm feeling, dark cool colors a somber mood, lively colors in reds and yellow are colors that can make you happy when you look at them.  
You can see the warm and cool colors on the color wheel: the side with the red and warm yellow is warm, and the other side with the blues and greens is cool.   


Each primary color will also be categorized as warm or cool. It is helpful to make a chart in your sketchbook, divided in half, of all the colors, having one side for warm and the other side for cool.  When you add a new color to your palette, add a sample of this color to your list. Usually, a color that has a little red added to it will be warm, and a color with blue or green in it is cool. As an example, Ultramarine blue has a little red added to the formula, while Thalo Blue has a little green added.

UB- Ultramarine blue                                                                  TB- Thalo Blue
CRL- Cadmium Red Light                                                           AC- Alizarin Crimson
​CYM- Cadmium  Yellow Medium                                                 CYL- Cadmium Yellow Light

This painting is mostly warm. It has a very different feeling than if I had used the more typical blues, greens, and violets for this scene.  I used Ultramarine blue, Alizarin crimson, Cadmium red light, and Cadmium yellow light.

A warm sunset painting  made with a limited palette.

Art tip #6

Tints: Most watercolor painters use water to lighten the hue of their paints rather than opaque white watercolor or gouache. It is helpful to make a chart in your sketchbook that shows the tints of each color.  This allows you to see how light a color can become and will help you in choosing your colors for your painting.  One example is Cadmium Red Light.  It is very intense when used right out of the tube, but when diluted, it is a beautiful, soft peach color, which I use quite often in portraits.
Try tints of all your paints in your sketchbook for a great reference tool.

"Looking Towards Willits."