WHAT IS THE COLOR STRATEGY?

This is the only step that can be optional. You can do an exceptionally beautiful tonal and monochromatic painting if you choose. You also don’t necessarily need a color strategy with the Light against Dark value structure. Here you could have one or two focal colors without needing a color strategy. It’s more useful with the latter two value structures and especially the middletone structure. If you love color this is really going to help you do it well!

There are many ways you can come up with a color strategy, but a good place to get started is by breaking out the color wheel and studying it. Remember though, you must first have a value structure to make this work. Color can be enticing and deceiving and you can end up with a haphazard look if you don’t have a value structure.

TRIAD: This is when you choose three colors equidistant from each other on the color wheel. All three primaries will be represented in some form. Here are some of my favorites:

» Red, yellow and blue

» Violet, orange and green

» Blue-green, red-violet and yellow-orange

SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY: This is when instead of choosing a straight complementary like blue and orange you choose two colors adjacent to one of the complements. I find split complementary more sophisticated looking than straight complementary. Here are some examples: » Yellow-orange, red-orange and blue

» Orange, blue-green and blue-violet

» Yellow, green and red-violet

ANALOGOUS STRATEGY: This is when you choose colors that are next to each other on the color wheel and they usually have one color in common. It can be really exciting to do the entire painting analogous and then throw in a tiny spot or two of a subordinate complement. For example, if the whole painting is in shades of blue-green, green, and yellow-green and you throw in a focal accent of red, WOW! The visual exhilaration of this is unparalleled. Here are some more examples:

» Yellow, yellow-orange and orange » Blue-violet, violet and red-violet

» Red, red-orange and orange

I used a middle tone value structure with a split complementary color scheme of red, violet and green. This painting is a good lesson in how much bright saturated colors look lighter in value than they actually are.