Neutral Colors

Some hues, like black, white, gray, brown, and beige, aren’t typically found on the color wheel. These are known as neutral colors, as they’re neither warm nor cool on their own. However, you can adjust a neutral’s temperature by adding a touch of a warm or cool color to it.

For example, if you add a bit of warm yellow to a neutral brown, you’ll create a warm brown. Similarly, adding cool blue to neutral gray will give you a cool gray. This flexibility allows you to create a wide range of tones and atmospheres within your artwork.

Neutrals play a vital role in painting. While bright, saturated colors from the color wheel may catch the eye, neutral colors provide balance, contrast, and depth. They can tone down an overly vivid scene, ensuring that the composition remains harmonious. Additionally, neutrals are powerful tools for creating mood and atmosphere within a painting.

Another benefit of using neutrals is that they allow your focal point to stand out. By surrounding your main subject with neutral tones, you can make it "pop" and draw the viewer’s attention exactly where you want it.

Embrace the use of neutral colors in your watercolor practice. They may seem understated, but they are just as important as the more vibrant hues. By mastering neutrals, you’ll add subtlety and sophistication to your work, creating pieces that are both balanced and impactful. Keep experimenting, and enjoy discovering the beauty that neutrals can bring to your art!

Color Theory: Warm and Cool Tones Within Each Color

Color temperature is not absolute—meaning, not all reds are warm and not all blues are cool. Each color family can have warm and cool variations, depending on the undertone, or "bias," within that color. For example, there are warm blues and cool blues, warm reds and cool reds, and warm yellows and cool yellows.

BIAS refers to the subtle undertone in a color that leans toward another color on the color wheel. A warm blue has a red bias, making it a slightly reddish-blue since red is a warm color. On the other hand, a cool blue has a green bias, giving it a more greenish hue since green is a cool color.

How Can You Tell If a Color is Warm or Cool?

The best way to learn to identify a color's bias is by creating color swatches. Seeing the colors on paper makes it easier to notice their undertones and distinguish between warm and cool variations.

If you’re still unsure about a color’s bias, try adding a little white to the paint. In most cases, this will reveal the subtle shift towards warm or cool tones more clearly. 

For example, when you mix white into Payne’s Grey, the blue bias becomes much more noticeable, helping you understand its cool undertone.

Being able to recognize warm and cool colors within each family is a powerful skill that can enhance your artwork. It gives you greater control over your palette and the mood of your painting. Keep practicing, trust your observations, and have fun experimenting with these subtle shifts in color. Over time, this awareness will help you create even more dynamic and harmonious pieces!

 

Color Theory: Warm and Cool Colors

 The first color wheel was designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666, long before your introduction to it in kindergarten! Despite its age, artists and designers still rely on it today to develop color harmonies, mix colors, and create palettes.

The color wheel consists of three primary colors—red, yellow, and blue. From these, we get three secondary colors, which are created by mixing the primaries: green, orange, and purple. Additionally, there are six tertiary colors, formed by combining primary and secondary colors, such as blue-green and red-violet.

If you draw a line through the center of the wheel, you’ll separate warm colors (reds, oranges, and yellows) from cool colors (blues, greens, and purples). Warm colors are typically associated with energy, brightness, and action, while cool colors evoke feelings of calm, peace, and serenity.

Understanding color temperature is essential for creating effective art. By recognizing the warmth or coolness of colors, you can make more intentional choices in your artwork. Whether you're painting a landscape, designing a logo, or simply experimenting with color schemes, the balance of warm and cool colors will affect the overall mood of your piece.

For example, choosing all warm colors can convey excitement or urgency, while an all-cool palette might evoke a sense of tranquility. When you learn to apply this concept, you gain greater control over the emotional impact of your work.

Keep exploring! The more you practice and experiment with the color wheel, the more confident you’ll become in creating harmonious and powerful compositions. Remember, each stroke is a step toward mastering your craft. Keep pushing your creativity and have fun with it!

Changing the Color Temperature

The temperature of a color can be changed by mixing it with a warmer or cooler color. For example, a cool blue can be made warmer by adding a warm red. A warm yellow can be made cooler by adding a cool green. 

You can also create the illusion of warmth or coolness. For example, if you paint a cool green leaf and want to warm it up a bit, paint an even cooler green next to it. That will make the first leaf look warmer.

Structure in Drawing

Understanding Structure

One of the foundational skills in drawing from life is identifying the underlying structure of the subject. This process involves breaking down complex objects into their simplest forms, then gradually refining those shapes to match what you observe. Learning to see and draw the structure is essential for capturing the essence of any object and ensuring a solid foundation for further details and shading.

To demonstrate this approach, let’s use a pear as our example. A pear, while relatively simple, offers enough complexity to challenge your ability to discern its structure. Unlike round fruits like apples or oranges, the pear’s form is more nuanced, with subtle variations that require close observation. However, any object can be used for this exercise.

Setting Up the Subject

This lighting setup simplifies the process, as fewer light sources make it easier to identify the planes and the shifts in the object's surface. Multiple light sources would complicate the task, making it harder to determine the direction of the planes.

Step 1: Finding the Simple Shapes

The first task in drawing any object is to identify the simplest shapes you can observe. In the case of the pear, you might notice that it resembles a series of circles or ellipses. These basic shapes are not necessarily drawn but used as a visual guide to help you break down the object. Understanding these foundational shapes allows you to focus on the overall proportions before delving into details.

Step 2: Capturing the Outlining Edges

Once you’ve identified the simple shapes, the next step is to draw the outlining edges of the object. Use straight lines initially to define the general shape of the pear. While the edges of the pear may not be entirely straight, starting with straight lines helps to clarify the structure. You can always refine the curves later as you refine the drawing.

Step 3: Identifying Planes and Plane Changes

With the general shape in place, it’s time to think about the object in three dimensions. To do this, we look for the surface planes—essentially, the flat surfaces that make up the form of the object. The pear, like any object, has areas where the surface changes direction, creating what we call plane changes. These shifts indicate the volume and help define the object's form. Identifying these planes is crucial to creating the illusion of depth in your drawing.

Where two or more planes meet, the form starts to take shape. By paying attention to how the planes intersect and the angles they create, you gain a clearer understanding of how the object is structured in space. This understanding guides you as you continue to refine the drawing and prepare for shading.

Step 4: Marking the Shadows

At this stage, it’s helpful to mark where the shadows fall on the object. While not strictly necessary for identifying the structure, indicating the light and dark areas of the form can aid in the later stages of rendering. This step provides a guide for where you will apply shading, helping to clarify the form before you begin adding value to the drawing.

Finding the underlying structure of any subject is an essential part of drawing. It provides a framework that supports consistent, accurate drawings and prepares you for adding details and shading. While today’s lesson focuses on structure, understanding this concept will also inform how you render the form in future lessons. The ability to see the basic shapes, planes, and shadows in an object ensures that your drawing has a strong foundation, setting you up for success as you develop your skills further.