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Playing with Color Theory

© Susan A. Wenz-Denise

One of the fabulous benefits of oil painting is being able to manipulate color in so many different ways. I love being able to have influence on the way colors in my paintings interact with light and the surface on which they are painted. I especially enjoy the effects colors have on each other in the same picture plane. To this end, I will share with you in this article two of the color theories that I use often in my own paintings, both of which were derived from theories of artists in history.

Complimentary Colors
Complimentary colors are two colors that are on direct opposite sides of the color wheel from each other. Red and green are compliments; blue and orange are compliments; and purple and yellow are compliments. When mixed with one another in any proportion, complimentary colors create a duller version of the original color(s). For example, red and green mixed together will create either a dull red or dull green, depending on the ratio of the mixture. When placed next to each other instead, however, complimentary colors can magnify each other’s brilliance.

One of Paul Gauguin's Impressionist color theories was based upon the fundamentals of complimentary colors in that a color could be exaggerated if surrounded by smaller amounts of its compliment. An ideal example of Gauguin's color theory is seen throughout Self-Portrait, 1882. Intrigued by Gauguin’s color theory, I tend to paint in a similar way with complimentary colors. Especially when painting in an Impressionist style, I either group my colors according to this theory or outline each section of color with its compliment. Sometimes I disperse a color’s compliment within the same color field, but separate them by brushstrokes. Although difficult to see here in this example of a self-portrait I painted in 1992, each brushstroke of ultramarine blue is complimented by a much smaller brushstroke of orange in order to intensify the blue color of the hair. The rest of the brushstrokes build upon the same pattern throughout the piece. The result is a very stylized dimensional effect as the colors resonate off of one another. I used a similar effect in a more recent self-portrait called Self-Portrait Today, 2000, however, the brushstrokes are much less pronounced, giving the painting a more unified feel.

The color theories of Pointillist painters like Georges Seurat also center on using complimentary colors, but the fields of color are much smaller. Instead of blending on a palette or through brushstrokes, paints are applied in clusters of tiny dots of color. The overall color effect is then determined by the ratio of colors in each section of the painting. In order to dull a color, the ratio of color is increased to contain more of the compliment. For a brighter color, the ratio is decreased.