Unified Theory of Color

The way that pigments mix (subtractive color mixing) to produce colors is different from the way that colored lights mix (additive color mixing). The connections between these two systems are elegant if you use cyan, magenta, and yellow as pigment primaries instead of red, yellow, and blue.

Cyan, magenta, and yellow are the true primary colors for pigment (see blog Reinventing the Wheel: Why Red is not a primary color). These combine to make darker secondary colors red, green and blue, resulting in black when all three pigments are combined. Lights work the opposite way. Red, green and blue are the primary colors for light. When two colored lights overlap, they produce lighter secondary colors, cyan, yellow or magenta. When all three are combined, they make white light. What is exciting here is that pigments and light share the same color wheel- it is only that the primary and secondary colors are reversed.

cmy rgb 300x150 Unified Theory of Color

If you are using the traditional pigment primaries, red, yellow and blue, the relationship between additive and subtractive color wheels is confusing. Why would they share red and blue as primary colors but not the have one primary that is different (green or yellow)?

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Reinventing the Wheel: Why Red is not a primary color

 

bry color wheel 2 300x294 Reinventing the Wheel: Why Red is not a primary color

Ever had a painting turn to mud when you try to mix colors? The good news is it is not you. Conventional color theory using red, yellow and blue does not work. It will turn your pictures to mud and frustrate you as you struggle to mix colors that are impossible with this color triad. The same goes for the split primary system where you mix with a warm and cool version of each primary. The split primary system works much better than just using the three primaries but it misses the point about how colors really mix and what the true primary colors are. What are the real primary colors? Just ask your printer, Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta. Before you write me off as a heretic, read on, try a few simple color mixing experiments at home with your colored pencils watercolors, opaque paints and see for yourself. By changing the way you think about primary colors, your ability to mix colors will improve overnight.

Red is not a Primary Color I often see red and blue included in paint sets and on color wheels as a primary color. A bright fire engine red is usually shown as the red and some form of navy blue such as ultramarine stands in for the blue. Neither of these colors are primaries. A few quick tests will prove it. First, let's mix red from other colors. You will need a clear magenta and a bright yellow. As you start to add magenta to yellow you will see the mixture turn orange, then red. If you can mix red, it is not a primary color.

mix red 300x252 Reinventing the Wheel: Why Red is not a primary color

There are also colors that you can not mix using red. Let's start with magenta itself. You can not mix the yellow out of red to create magenta. The same is true of hot pink. If you dilute red, either with water or white you do not get pink. You get light red. Hot pink comes from diluted magenta. You can not mix vivid purple by combining red and blue. The combination is a bruise colored dull purple. Vivid purple is the result of combining magenta and cyan (or blue). You need to have a good magenta in your palette. My favorite is Daniel Smith Quinacridone Pink. If you are using prismacolor pencils, the magenta color is called process red (just to add to the confusion). Continue reading →

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Pimp my Palette

 

 

sketchers box Pimp my PaletteThe Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketcher's Pocket Box is an excellent little palette. It is inexpensive, sturdy, and small enough to bring on a backpacking trip. It is good straight out of the box. However, with a little customization, it will serve you even better. The original pigments are student grade. As you use them up, replace them with artist grade paints. You can buy new half pans in any art supply store. You can also discard the pans and squeeze tube colors into the spaces in the palette.

To make a big improvement in the palette, replace these paints.

  1. Replace Chinese White with Neutral Tint
  2. Replace Alizarin Crimson with Quinacridone Magenta

As you use up the pigments in the set, consider also replacing these colors with these alternates.

  1. Replace Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue with Winsor Yellow
  2. Replace Cadmium Yellow Hue with Quinacridone Gold
  3. Replace Cadmium Red Pale Hue with Winsor Red
  4. Replace Ultramarine with Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)
  5. Replace Viridian with Hooker's Green or Perylene Green (darker)
  6. Replace Burnt Sienna with Winsor Violet Dioxazine

I suggest reordering the pigments so that similar colors are aligned with the mixing areas on the fold out lid. There are two rows of six colors. In the first row I would place (in this order) Winsor Yellow, Quinacridone Magenta, Cobalt Blue, Sap Green, Yellow Ochre and Winsor Violet Dioxazine. On the Second row I would place Quinacridone Gold, Winsor Red, Phthalo Blue, Perylene Green, Burnt Umber, and Neutral Tint.

If you have a tube of yellow watercolor (Hansa Yellow light or Winsor Yellow) put a small dab of this color in the green mixing area so you can blend with this as you mix your greens. This will help you to keep your yellow pan clean as you mix your greens or browns. 

When you first open new pans, the cake of color can easily fall out of the pan. To fix this problem, wet the back of the cake and place it back in the pan, wet side down. The damp watercolor will work like glue.

If you are frustrated by the pans themselves jumping out of the sketcher's box, place a dab of Elmer's glue or a piece of double sided tape under the pan.

 

 

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The making of a Naturalist’s Notebook page

Creating Naturalist Notebook pages for Bay Nature makes one more opportunity for me to get out in nature and draw to learn. Consider subscribing to Bay Nature Magazine to learn more about bay area natural history. 

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Sketching Bird Songs (video)

Learn bird songs by drawing them! Create your own system for drawing what you hear. You will find that you remember bird songs more easily by describing them in your journal.

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Inspiring Nature Artists

There are some amazing online sketchbooks that will inspire and give you great ideas about how to extend your work. Study the artwork of these naturalists and artists. Learn by copying their drawings and asking yourself, "how do they do that?" What tricks will they teach you? Let me know of other nature sketchers that the world should know about.

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Lizards, Ticks, and Lyme oh my!

Audio clip from "Against The Grain" show of 5-24-11 on KPFA 94.1 FM, with CS Soong. The Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) helps to fight Lyme disease. Video produced by Robert Nelson.

 

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Choosing Watercolors

 

palette 161x300 Choosing WatercolorsNeed help choosing watercolors for your travel or field palette? Start by accepting that there is no perfect palette. Your watercolor choices will change over time. As you discover new art supplies and colors you may add them to your palette while removing others that you never use. As you add or delete colors from your palette, consider paint quality, lightfastness, staining, granulation, transparency, and single pigment vs. mixtures. I look for colors that do not fade in the sun (very important), are non-staining, and are transparent. I also prefer colors that contain a single pigment rather than prepared mixtures. Not all watercolors are created equally. Use high quality paints from the beginning and you will make your work much easier. Low quality paint will respond unpredictably and will make it more difficult to achieve intense colors or deep values. I use paints manufactured by Daniel Smith (DS) and some artist grade Winsor & Newton (WN). Each pigment has an alpha-mumeric code that you can use to help you keep track of similar pigments made by different manufactures or understand the ingredients of mixes. Handprint.com is the most in depth analysis of individual colors available, an invaluable resource. Click here to get 20% off your order to Daniel Smith. Or click here to get free shipping from Daniel Smith.

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