Color Complements

Color complements are in fact color opposites on the color wheel working together. They complement one another through a principle of contrast. Simply put, a color opposite is the primary or secondary without the remaining colors: red as a primary has blue and yellow remaining, i.e. green; purple, composed of red and blue, has yellow remaining, its opposite; blue to orange (red and yellow), red to green, yellow to purple.

these complements can be successful when used in adjacency near the center of interest; or, as i discuss here, as an overall color palette.  In the first situation, i may have a yellow as a part of my center of interest. as i wash the background from top to the center, i can start with a blue in the upper portion and gradually blend it to a redish purple as it nears the yellow in the center. in the second situation, as in the example attached, i can use a simple palette of two basic colors complimenting one another. I have struggled with too much color interfering with my value patterns and overall painting. As a solution, I limit my colors to a basic few, orange and blue, in a muted fashion.  Even though there are numerous colors in the "blue" and "orange" of "Caw-cous", the overall affect is a simple color complement. If in doubt about color selection, limit your palette and focus on a complementary approach.

More Fresh Colors

Based on added interest in fresh colors, let me add a few more tips:

In addition to keeping the palette clean (remember to tip the palette) and wash water clear, and add bright or high key colors to white paper, not over other colors, let us add "layers of paint".
When i began painting, I normally had well over five or more layers of paint application because i was unsure of my approach and obviously inexperienced. In recent years, I strive to have one to three layers of wash maximum in order to have clean colors. When overpainting, remember that you run the risk of creating 'grays", a combination of all three primaries (red, yellow, and blue) or combinations such as red over green (blue and yellow) etc.  this is fine as long as the gray has good color and is desired. It becomes a problem when the grays become confused or over mixed and the gray starts trending toward "battleship gray"--no color, neutral, washed-out. so be aware of the colors that you are overpainting onto and remember that this act of glazing will produce another version of the color combination. bottom-line, try to limit the layers of color. one way i use to avoid this is to kick up my color value in first washes and not have as many weak early washes. In doing this, I focus on the center of interest and shadow shapes first. if that is working, I then can add lighter backgrounds and other supporting washes that are less critical.

Happy painting.