Cheryl Machat Dorskind Lesson 2 Painting Photos ! ! Lesson Two! Color! ! "I understand how scarlet can differ from crimson because I know that the smell of an orange is not the smell of a grapefruit ... Without color or its equivalent, life to me would be dark, barren, a vast blackness..." Helen Keller, The World I live In, 1908 ! You could spend a lifetime studying color. Ranging from the highly technical, scientific, physiological, and psychological to the sublime, there’s so much information on the subject. The process of painting photographs (also referred to as handpainting, handcoloring, and/ or hand tinting) poses questions regarding the nature of color. How you see the world and how you intend to illustrate this vision is dictated by color. Handpainting takes photographically perceived forms one step further, giving them refined definition through the selective addition of color. That is the power behind the art of painting photographs. The use of color and its narrative voice is a tool to enhance photography, adding a new dimension, and perhaps, new meaning. In 1987, I had an opportunity to spend an afternoon with the poet and photographer, Allen THE STRONG CONTRAST OF THIS PHOTO PROVIDED AN EXCELLENT CANVAS FOR VIBRANT Ginsberg. The comments he made while COLOR SATURATION © Cheryl Machat Dorskind ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page !1 of ! 16 Cheryl Machat Dorskind Lesson 2 Painting Photos reviewing my portfolio helped focus my objectives as a handpainter. He asked, "Why did you handpaint this pink sunset? Is this the color you saw? Is the color saying something? Defensively, I replied that I chose my colors because I liked them. But he insisted that liking isn’t enough, adding, “You have to know why you’re handpainting. Your photographs are beautiful in themselves so why put paint on them. What are you trying to say?” ! These questions resound even today while I paint my photographs. Certainly, I could have painted the image in a more realistic fashion, or could have settled for black and white photographs, but I didn’t. What am I trying to communicate? Color must be understood and respected in order to have power. Handpainting can be a random display of exuberance, a replica of reality, or a precise expression. As Gustave Flaubert pointed out, “One must not think that feeling is everything. Art is nothing without form." ! The form under examination is color. The colors of the spectrum are wavelengths of light made up of electromagnetic energy. However, the light waves aren’t the colors themselves; their color originates in the human eye through color absorption and reflection. An object or pigment appears to be a certain color depending on which light rays it reflects or absorbs. For example, a lemon appears yellow because it absorbs all but the yellow light waves, which are reflected back to the eye. To better understand, use, and mix color, let’s consider a few basic principles of color theory. ! ! © Cheryl Machat Dorskind ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page !2 of ! 16 Cheryl Machat Dorskind Lesson 2 Painting Photos The Color Wheel The color wheel is a universal visual tool useful in depicting and explaining the logic, organization, and properties of color. It helps the painter understand color mixing and paint applications. Ultimately, a well executed painted photograph must incorporate the fundamental principles of color. Even if you have a good, innate sense of color, you’ll inevitably reach a point at which your next color choice won’t be readily apparent. A wrong color choice can throw off an entire picture. Informed color selection and mixing heightens your ability to create successful painted photographs. ! The color wheel comprises 12 colors, and its foundation is the three primary colors—red, yellow, and blue—so termed because they cannot be produced by any other colors. © Cheryl Machat Dorskind ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page !3 of ! 16 Cheryl Machat Dorskind Lesson 2 Painting Photos ! The secondary colors are created by combining any two primaries—red and blue make violet, red and yellow make orange, and blue and yellow make green. Notice the placement of the secondary colors on the wheel: each secondary lies between the two primaries that yielded it. Tertiary colors are formed by mixing a primary color with a secondary. There are six tertiary colors: red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green, and yellow-orange. Notice that like the secondary colors, the tertiaries also fall between the two colors that created them. ! Complementary Colors Two colors that fall directly opposite each other on the color wheel are known as complementary colors or complements. Complementary pairs consist of one primary and one secondary color— IN THIS COMPOSITION, WHICH WAS COMMISSIONED FOR A BOOK COVER BY RANDOM HOUSE, I PLACED THE COMPLEMENTS OF RED AND GREEN SIDE-BY-SIDE TO HELP FOCUS THE VIEWER’S ATTENTION TO THE CENTER OF THE IMAGE. © Cheryl Machat Dorskind ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page !4 of ! 16 Cheryl Machat Dorskind Lesson 2 Painting Photos for example, red and green, yellow and violet, and blue and orange. When mixed together in the correct proportions, complementary colors produce a neutral or gray color. ! Familiarizing yourself with complementary colors is useful for creating dramatic effects in your photo paintings. Complements placed directly next to each other in a composition invoke a bold sense of color, each intensifying the other. Combining a color with its complement subdues the intensity for that color. For example, if you want to temper the strength of a red a ball, mix the red paint with a touch of its complement (green). Complementary colors can be bold or subtle, but the properties of compliments remain constant and maintain their function as a tool for the artist regardless of their value (relative lightness or darkness.) HERE, THE VIBRANT GREEN ON THE WINDOW MOULDING IS ACCENTUATED BY ITS COMPLEMENT RED FOUND IN THE BARBER SHOP POLE. THE REDDISH RAILING IN THE FOREGROUND FURTHER LEADS THE EYE INTO THE PICTURE.! © Cheryl Machat Dorskind ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page !5 of ! 16 Cheryl Machat Dorskind Lesson 2 Painting Photos ! The Colors of Light! Painting Photographs embodies two perspectives of color theory; one describes the painter’s world of color (paint) and the second defines the photographer’s realm of color (light). Photographic colors (film, digital photograph) have different properties than the painter’s world of color. ! White light is made up of Red (R), Green (G) and Blue (B) wavelengths. These are photography’s primary colors (additive colors) and theoretically all colors in a photograph can be derived from mixing any two of these colored wavelengths. Mixing Red, Green and Blue in equal proportions creates white light. Mixing any two of the primaries colors creates a secondary color of which there are three; Magenta, Cyan, or Yellow. Mixing any two of the three secondary colors creates one of the primary colors; Red, Green, and/or Blue. Pigment primary colors are different. Green is not considered a pigment primary because two colors mixed together can create green; blue and yellow when mixed together create green. The rule in pigment primaries is that each color can not be reproduced by any combination. ! When we reach the printing phase of this class you will learn about another set of color principles, CMYK. ! Color Temperature Color temperature is a way to describe light by using Kelvin measurements. White light represents an equal proportion of R, G, & B. White light is measured as 5500 K and is achieved during the midday direct sun or with flash. When the color temperature is higher than white, light is bluer. When the color temperature is lower than white, light is redder. Consider the chart below: © Cheryl Machat Dorskind ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page !6 of ! 16 Cheryl Machat Dorskind Lesson 2 Painting Photos ! Color Temperature Light Source 1900 K Candlelight 3100 K Daylight at Sunrise/sunset 3400 K Tungsten lamp, one hour before dusk/dawn 4300 K Early morning or late afternoon 5500 K Electronic flash, daylight at noon, direct sun 7000 K Daylight on overcast day 8000 K Average summer shade 9000 K Daylight on dull/foggy day ! Color Harmony The term harmony implies balance and order. Harmony in a composition is the result of a balanced relationship between all the visual elements. Color harmony in a painted photograph is achieved when there’s a pleasing relationship between the three dimensions of color: hue, value and intensity. While personal taste plays a large role in your vision of color harmony, a general understanding of these three standard aspects of color is important. ! Hue The word hue simply refers to the name of a color. Yellow, sap green, red-violet, orange and aquamarine are all examples of hues. ! The 12 colors identified on the color wheel are all hues. However, within these color categories fall other pigments; there are many pigments within each category. Consider the number of oil paint colors available. For example, red-orange is a hue, and vermillion is a pigment or paint color belonging to this red-orange category. To change a hue, you simply mix it with another color. For example, mixing blue with green creates a bluish-green hue. ! © Cheryl Machat Dorskind ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page !7 of ! 16 Cheryl Machat Dorskind Lesson 2 Painting Photos Value This term describes a color’s approximate lightness or darkness in relation to white and black. When a color is closer to white we say that it is lighter in value. For example, yellow is lighter in value and closer to white than violet, which is darker in value and closer to black. ! Just as you can change a hue through color mixing, you can also alter the value of a hue, making it lighter or darker.