Question for professional artists. How do you choose what colors to use?

Question

I understand warm and cool colors, complementary, primary, secondary, and teritiary colors, but what is the rule when painting? Does every color you use need to have the complementry? Does every color need to be in every tone and value?

I use oils. I know everyone says don't worry about the rules, but then when you show it to someone who is a critic, they say you need blue in that picture or some other color. I don't mind breaking the rules, but I would like to under stand them first.

Puppy, I can't take out the rules if I wanted, because I can't find them. I just keep hearing that there is rules. It seems to be some big secret as to what they are.

Answer 1

Jackie, it is so refreshing to see your question and to know there is a new generation of artists who care about the rules! Yes! Indeed there are rules and you will learn them in time with your attitude and you will conquer painting....just don't expect it to happen over night. If you already understand complimentaries and warm/cool colors you only need to learn about values (the darkness or lightness of the paint) and harmony and then you will know the rules well enough to break them. Hang in there!, Kid! It is well worth the effort.

Answer 2

You make it sound so superficial and complicated .
Much depends on your medium . in oils you don't need a vast range of colours and you mix then , according to your subject . I use basically White , black , Raw Siena , Burnt Siena , Cobalt Blue , Raw Umber , an earth green , Alizaran Crimson , Scarlet , Cadmium Yellow , prussian blue . I can achieve most effects using and mixing these colours .
Watercolours usually come in a box with a comprehensive range of colours .
Pastels , I prefer Rowney's soft pastels , which you can buy in boxes for specific subject uses . Portraiture and life painting have a box with very subtle tones , but for other subjects you need a range of much brighter colours and tones .
There is always more to learn on the subject of painting . Every colour I use may or may not have the complementry . My advice is just paint and experiment . I have learnt a lot about colour from impressionists such as De Gas , Monet and Renoir . Enlarge photos till you see the grain , look at television film film where the camera is turned on the audience , see the grained colours that go to make up the shadows .
Painting should be a spontaneous expression of your subject ; if you get bogged down in technicalities , all the spontaneity movement and light will be lost .

Answer 3

Hi, I went to art school for 4 years and never heard about color rules. (Yes contrasts, hues, etc. but those are not rules, just proprieties of colors). When I see a colorful painting by Rothko or Van Gogh I don't think they were thinking in rules, I can feel just how they choose the colors with their heart.

Anyways, there's a book you might find helpful:
Johannes Itten - The Art of Color

For me, when it comes to choose a color, I use my imagination. I imagine the painting with a blue, green or brown (etc) background. I choose the one I guess would look better. Sometimes I paint it and realize it doesn't look good so then I have to put something else on top.

Check this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgKC1ws0Jpg
in the 1:52 painting I went on changing the background's contrast, even when it was only shades of gray. You don't know what's going to work well until you try it. I always work until I feel the picture is in balance.

Answer 4

It is good to know these things...but there are no rules. When looking for an efect you can take out the 'rulebook' to look up the best color, but painting mostly is a 'fly by the seat of your pants' kind of thing.

Go with your feeling for color first and only take out those rules if you need some 'help'. In retrospect you will find you applied the rules anyway without having noticed them at all and that is the way you want it.

Answer 5

Art is a matter of taste, and that goes for subject and color. When one goes to school they are taught many things, and many interpret these as rules set in stone when in fact they are actually just guides to go by. I'm an artist, a self taught one. I learned to paint with oils from the countless book i read and studied. Most of the stuff in the books is just filler (bs) and artist theory so i take from them only what i like and what i think will work for me. As for colors, i'm partial to warm colors, they move me, and you will have to find what moves you and the hell with the ''rules''. Many people need guides to go by when they first start out so they do serve a purpose. My art can be checked out at hellosanantonio.com under artist name ''Guerro''. There are two art pages with this name, the one with the most images is the most current.

Answer 6

As an artist you have the right to your interpretation of your work. I don't believe in using the rules of color when I paint. I choose my colors based on my theme for the painting. I think it is more of a feeling when choosing colors for a painting.

Answer 7

There are really to "rules" for color use.

The only time I imagine you'd need to ALWAYS use the complement is if you were doing an impressionist-type painting.

Answer 8

Depends on the mood you are trying to set. for 2 examples: complements increase tension, monochromatic blue might make a picture more sad.
I choose colors that enhance the mood of the image.

Answer 9

I would say no. There's so many different styles of Art. To me, going by rules stunts my creativity, so I don't. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." What you like, someone else might not. Why please them? On the other hand, people could love something you paint, in your own style, & you become famous!