and… How to use a Mother Color to Unify Colors in a Painting. Which in essence is Color Harmony.

A mother what?

What did you just say?!  A mother color, yes, that is right, a mother color.  A mother color is an amazing way to create color harmony.

Before we begin the mother color, please see my previous post here on Color Theory for Artists (aka, how do you avoid muddy paint colors?)

 Now let’s get into what we started with, the Mother Color.

Analogous Colors

Let’s begin with an analogous color palette of three.  Blue-violet and blue-green and green are analogous colors.  Blue would be the mother color.  it is used in both blue-green and green.  But let’s not stop there.

Generally when painting an artist will choose their colors and one color for the mother color. 

The mother color should be a pure hue.  The mother color is the one color an artist will use to mix into the other colors that they have chosen.  So once you have selected your colors then pre-mix your colors by adding a little of it in all the colors you have chosen.   Just don’t overdo it or you will lose your contrast in your painting and the values will all tend to be the same.   This will provide for a cohesive painting and bring harmony and unity.  The mother color is always a color that comes straight from the tube before any mixing is done. The mother color will determine the overall mood of your painting, therefore you want to be selective when choosing the mother color

You can also use a mother color mixed with glaze to apply to your entire painting to give it a cohesive look.

Practice

As mentioned above, a mother color can be in an analogous color scheme as well as a complementary color scheme.  Practice by choosing a mother color and gradually adding it to your other colors.  Notice the wide range of colors you can get.  Make color swatches, write notes on them; you may want those to refer back to at a later time.  Don’t be afraid to jump right in and mix up those colors!  Sure you might make some mud, no worries, sometimes mud is good.  The more you get mixing and embrace the challenge the sooner you will have a better grasp on how colors work together.

When mixing, try not to COMPLETELY mix all the time, add the color when it’s not completely mixed on your palette.  This will give you a much more interesting effect on your painting that will be intriguing to the viewer's eye.

Color Harmony

To create an aesthetically pleasing piece of art it is essential to have color harmony.  Think of musical harmony.  If there are some notes that are way out of key it completely throws off the harmony…same goes with color. 

 The mother color will automatically give you color harmony because you are using that one pure hue in all of your colors.

 It’s important to have harmonious color schemes for your painting to be pleasing to the eye.  As we learned in last weeks post on color theory there are many different color families and they lend themselves to harmonious color palettes.

Complementary Colors

are not only across the color wheel but they also offer the highest contrast.  They also can be really in your face though if over used.  So the note here is to be sparing with them.

Split Complementary Colors

on the other hand, can be quite pleasing as shown here.  They will form a narrow triangle on the color wheel.  You begin with one of the complementary colors then you take two colors, one on each side of its complementary color rather than the complement itself.  This combination is not quite as harsh as just the two complementary colors.

Triadic Colors

are also in a triangle, only they are equal distant like the primary colors are.  This color scheme is best used when one color is dominant over the others.

Tetradic Colors

form a square or rectangle across the color wheel and are quite rich and elegant.  These also form two sets of complementary color schemes into one.  You must be careful with this color scheme and keep only one color as your dominant color when using this color scheme.

Color Temperatures

create harmony in and of themselves.  You must keep in mind the mood and tone you are looking for.  The cool side of the color wheel is more tranquil and soothing.  Which works well in depictions of a calm evening outdoors, or water scenes.  Whereas the warm side of the color wheel is much more intensified and conveys enthusiasm, activity, and excitement.  They evoke more passion.  So it is important to think about the feel you are going for as to the colors you choose to use.  Now many colors also have different meanings and connotations and on top of that, they can vary from culture to culture.  I wrote a quite lengthy paper on that topic back in college.  But that is for another post.  lol.

Monochromatic using Tints, Tones, and Shades

is another harmonious color group and easy peasy to execute.  All you need is one color (hue and black and white.  Just look at these luscious colors.  The rich, beautiful depth you can create with such a simple color palette is quite exquisite.  For tints, we add white to the color.  For tones, we add gray to the color.  And finally shades we add black to a color.

Color harmony in summary,

You now have quite a small army of ways to create color harmony.  I’m quite fond of the monochromatic color palette, I also love the variations you can come up with using the mother color.  Last, I do love the split complementary colors when you're looking for some bright fun colors.  Have fun playing with a MOTHER COLOR!  I would love to see what you come up with!

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