Painting: color, composition, and layers

Read color through three questions

When you look at a color, first ask which color family it belongs to, then how light or dark it is, and finally how vivid it appears. These are the relationships between hue, value, and saturation. A bright red and a muted brick red may belong to a similar family, but they will not have the same effect in a painting. Observe small mixing samples after they dry as well; some paints change in appearance. Judge a color not only by the name on the tube, but also in relation to the colors that will sit beside it.

Explore relationships with a limited palette

A warm yellow, a red, a blue, and a white suited to your medium provide a useful starting point. Pigments do not all have the same tinting strength, so add a dark color to a light mixture a little at a time. Do not expect these three colors to produce every possible color perfectly. The aim is to understand the limits of your materials. Mix two versions of the same green, shifting one toward yellow and the other toward blue. Noting the mixing proportions beside each sample helps you recreate a color you might otherwise have found only by chance.

Resolve the composition at a small scale

Before working on a large surface, make three or four thumbnail sketches. Arrange the subject in simple light, middle, and dark shapes without details. The focal point is where the eye first comes to rest; you can establish it through the sharpest edge, the strongest value contrast, or an unexpected color relationship. If every area is equally sharp and vivid, the eye has little room to rest. Check that shapes touching the edges do not feel accidentally squeezed in. Both a central arrangement and an asymmetrical one can work when chosen deliberately.

Choose the surface and layers for the medium

With watercolor, you need to plan where to preserve the white of the paper; transparent layers become harder to reverse as you build them up. Gouache is more opaque, and a dry layer can be reactivated by water. Once dry, acrylic generally does not dissolve again in water, so use small amounts on your palette and do not leave paint to dry in your brushes. Rather than treating these media as interchangeable, make a test card for each. Read the manufacturer’s guidance on surfaces, thinning, and cleaning, and avoid mixing unfamiliar materials at random.

Check the color and decide when to stop

Put the painting out of sight for a short while, then return to it. Does your attention go where you intended? Is the lightest area necessary? Are all the colors equally vivid? A black-and-white phone image can help you inspect the value balance, but do not treat it as an exact measurement, since the phone processes the image. In the final stage, avoid giving every area the same amount of revision. Choose only the changes that strengthen the painting’s expression. A daylight photograph that represents the colors faithfully, together with a record of the materials used, will help you present the work later.

Materials you will need

• Paper or another suitable painting surface
• Water-based paint
• Brush
• Palette
• Cleaning cloth

Approximate time for reading and the first exercise; drying, firing, and repeat practice are not included.

Further reading in Turkish

• Color
• Turkish Painting Art

I would like to work with a tutor →