Learning about colour from Linda Kemp: Intensity

Painting to create contrast by colour intensity is a more challenging concept for a watercolorist, or at least it goes against everything I've ever learned about painting in watercolour!  The one thing every  watercolorist is terrified of is creating MUD!!  This can happen in so many different ways, but it's generally a result of using too many different colours in the painting.  Sticking to a few pure colours reduces the risk of mud and keeps the painting vibrant.

However, as Ms Kemp points out, a painting done with contrast by colour intensity can have a softness and elegance to it that a more colourful, value contrast painting won't have.  

Intensity contrast comes about when an artist takes advantage of complementary colour relationships.  These are the colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel.  When these colours are mixed, they create a neutral colour (also known as mud, grey, dull, etc).

In this example, I followed Ms Kemp and painted pure orange, then mixed very small amounts of blue to gradually create a firm neutral colour (neither orange or blue).

With this in mind, I followed along and created this painting.  Again, the point is to have the contrast be a result of the intensity of the colour, not any dramatic changes in value.

I'm not sure I got the exact right shade for my neutral, but I think it still works.  The orange and green stand out very well without the neutral colour being too dark.

I found this to be the most challenging of the three concepts to work with, but I also think that I can better appreciate paintings that have been done this way.  I know I used to look at paintings that were done only in neutrals with some hints of pure colour here and there, and wonder why - what was the point.  But now I have a better understanding of what the artist was trying to do and why.  

The trick with this type of colour relationship I think, is to find an appropriate means of using it.  That's probably the trickiest part about it.

Well, this was the last colour relationship in Ms Kemp's workshop and I definitely learned a lot!  I found that she broke it down very nicely and easily conveyed each concept.  If you haven't read my previous posts on Value and Hue, just go to my blog page - they were all posted very close together.