Color Theory

[El' Jocko]

I've just picked up a book on color theory and am busy working my way through it. I'm hoping it will give me a better foundation for choosing and mixing colors.

I was wondering if many people had tried learning color theory or formal painting techniques? Do many miniature painters have a background or at least some training in fine arts? Or is everybody just winging it?

- Jack

[ November 01, 2005, 12:07: Message edited by: El' Jocko ]

[Triarii]

winging it.

Badly.

[derek]

Hullo
If I spent as much time painting as I have spent on reading (learning) about painting I would have a lot more painted figures! ;)
Fanaticus has some nice articles at:
http://www.fanaticus.org/dba/guides/painting/index.html
There are also many good websites on the topic of painting miniatures. Personally I found it very useful to do some reading on painting miniatures before attempting to paint an army.
One thing I am sure about: the more time you spend painting, the better (& faster) you get at doing it. I am much happier with what I am producing now as opposed to 3 years ago.
Kind Regards
Derek

[Ares]

I'm an erstwhile painter, and got my BFA in graphic design. Many theories about the use of color have cropped up from time to time and I find that some priciples are as applicable to the painting of miniatures as any other kind of painting.
One thing to remember is that to achieve attractive contrast effects in small scales, regardless of whether you are painting with bright colors or duller or darker earthy tones, you often have to use brighter shades (more or less) than what you think are necessary, or what you think you are trying to achieve, to get the desired effect. This has to do with the phenomenon that our eyes perceive regular progressions of value when we exaggerate the progression with the actual pigments.

Eric

[David Kuijt]

Winging it.

[Little Caesar]

I have taken painting long ago but for the most part I began by winging it. What I discovered was that many of my paints go well together. I use GW paints, so for instance (IMO) Blood Red is the perfect highlight for Scab Red, Desert Yellow for Graveyard Earth, Vermin Brown over Dark Flesh...

I have discovered certain greys and blues look good together and some do not. Too bright of a shade just doesn't look right to me.

Experiment and see what combo's you like. I actually use old figs to test out colors on before I jump in for real.

Steve

[Chris Brantley]

I have looked at some color theory references, but generally defer to historical references, Hollywood and winging it when choosing colors.

What I'd really like to have access to is a compendium of research on native dyes common to different regions at different historical periods, including color samples.

[Ralph (4)]

I have been researching color schemes for Khmer Textiles during the Angkorian Period. I found a book written by Gillian Green titled Traditional Textiles of Cambodia – Cultural Threads and Material. The research is for a Khmer/Cham Army I am working on. Unfortunately, I still have not started the project and yesterday, the Later Hebrews and Arameans from Venexia just arrived. So much lead so little time. So after all the research you still find yourself winging it.

Semper Fi
Gruntz

[Timurilank]

I was wondering if many people had tried learning color theory or formal painting techniques? Do many miniature painters have a background or at least some training in fine arts? Lacking any formal training, I think most of us imitated our betters. I asked a lot of questions and of course made my share of mistakes with colour choices.

cheers,

[Jerome]

Originally posted by El' Jocko:
(...)
I was wondering if many people had tried learning color theory or formal painting techniques? Do many miniature painters have a background or at least some training in fine arts? Or is everybody just winging it?

- Jack I had to study colour theory at the fine-art school I attended. It wasn't very usefull, and certainly not for painting figures.
And I had the feeling that teachers also knew it was not very usefull, just it is common practice to teach it.

The main things you have to know about colour theory are actually no big deal:
- there are additive (video, movies, ...) and substractive (paint) colors. Substractive colors tend to be darker when you overlap them (doh !)

- Underlying colors affect overlying colors. This you will find in any figure-painting tutorial

- environment lights will affect your colors. Artificial lights tend to be more blue than natural lights.

- and a lot of bla-bla about opposite and complementary colors. But this point has been theoricized during the academy ages, and has been twisted so much by modern painters that it has not much meaning. It's much of a personal taste.

I believe that for historic figure painters research on the history of costumes and dyes are more important. Not all colors were available from natural dye - but there are better expert than me.


Jerome


PS : giving it a second though, there is one point in colour theory that may be of use to figure painters : the "pointillism" effect : if you have a lot of tiny colours dots close together, you see another colour.
That means that if you have lots of figures close together, all with a lot of different colours, and you see it from far (1 meter would be enough), the perception of the colours will be different : probably it will be confused, and the colors will cancel each other.

[ November 02, 2005, 04:29: Message edited by: Jerome ]

[El' Jocko]

Well, so far I'm finding the color theory stuff to be really interesting.

First, I hadn't realized that we've all been victims of a massive conspiracy of elementary school art teachers! Blue, Red, and Yellow aren't really the primary colors...Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow are the right ones! Blue and Red may be more convenient than Cyan and Magenta, but they lead to muddy colors and muddy thinking. Something must be done!

Second, I really like the things I'm learning about making shades of colors. Rather than simply adding black to a base color to create a shade, I like the idea of adding a complement to make the shade richer and give it more depth. Or using a near complement that actually pulls it toward a warmer or cooler shade.

Of course, it's still an open question whether I can put this to some useful effect. I'll have to get painting and find out. smile.gif

- Jack

[Darren Buxbaum]

Jack,
The hardest thing to do is placing that complimentary wash upon a well executed base coat. An orange wash on on blue paint? I had my doubts, but when I tried it by my wife's suggestion (a high school art teacher), I was won over by the results. I still use a final thin black wash to tie everything together when I'm finished with the complimentary color washes. I am now far happier with my paint jobs than in the past.

Cheers

[ November 02, 2005, 22:07: Message edited by: Darren Buxbaum ]

[drathul]

Hey Jack,

would you mind sharing the title and author of the book your reading.

It sounds interesting and i wouldn't mind having a gander at it.

Ian

[El' Jocko]

I don't know if this is the best book out there, but I've found it useful.

Color Theory Made Easy (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0823007545/104-7662015-1798366?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) by Jim Ames.

His explanation of the physics is pretty questionable, but the stuff on hues, shades, and tints is good.

- Jack