If you’ve been at all interested in art, you probably have a passing acquaintance with the color chart, primary colors, secondary and complementary colors.
What you may not be familiar with is painting with a select group of colors based on their relationship on the color wheel.
Painting with complementary colors is a way to bring out the intensity in your colors and create vibrancy or tension in a painting.
This technique has been used for thousands of years, and is a very viable painting method that will expand your skills and add to your painting proficiency.
Vibrating Colors
You may have noticed that when you place yellow next to blue, it looks far brighter than when you place it next to orange. The way your eye and mind translate one color is based partially on the color adjacent to it. This is called simultaneous contrast, and the effect is most noticeable when you abut complementary colors.
Place two complementary colors such as orange and blue next to each other. Concentrate on the space where the two converge: You will see a slight vibration. This is a method of attracting the viewer. This disharmony is very useful in directing a viewer to a particular area of a piece such as a focal point. It conveys action and assists the artist in moving the viewer’s eyes through a painting.
Take A Look At Masterful Use Of Complementary Color
Van Gogh’s ‘Café Terrace on the Place du Forum’ and ‘The Night Café,’ both painted in Arles in 1888, are terrific examples of the use of complementary colors to create vibrant and exciting pieces of art.
These paintings weren’t just the wild imaginings of a crazy, Bohemian artist. This technique was used specifically to exert specific emotions and interest in his audience.
The artist goes so far as to express this to his brother, Theo, in a letter following the completion of ‘The Night Café.’ He wrote, “It is color not locally true from the point of view of the stereoscopic realist, but color to suggest the emotion of an ardent temperament.” Van Gogh also stated that the painting was “one of the ugliest pictures I have done,” which goes to show that just because you paint it, you don’t necessarily need to love a piece.
Café Terrace on the Place du Forum
In ‘Café Terrace on the Place du Forum,’ Van Gogh used the power of complementary color to direct the viewer’s attention through the painting. In the foreground, the orange and blue arches indicating the shape of the cobblestones introduce movement into the scene. The warm colors of the left portion of the foreground counterpoint the blue of the background. The blue makes the background recede as the warm orange brings attention to the walls of the café. The strong, vibrant orange of the windows in the background draws the audience’s attention. This shimmering effect is a perfect example of simultaneous contrast being used to move the viewer’s eye from one part of the painting to another.
Night Café
Van Gogh wrote extensively to his brother about his painting ‘The Night Café.’ Shortly after completing this painting, he wrote:
“In my picture of the “Night Café” I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green . . . the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. There are 6 or 7 different reds in this canvas, from blood red to delicate pink, contrasting with as many pale or deep greens. Everywhere there is a clash and contrast of the most alien reds and greens, in the figures of little sleeping hooligans, in the empty dreary room, in violet and blue. I have tried to express the powers of darkness in a low public house, by soft Louis XV green and malachite, contrasting with yellow-green and harsh blue-greens, and all of this in an atmosphere like a devil’s furnace, of pale sulpher.”
As you can see from his explanation, the artist’s color choices were calculated down to the smallest detail. This was no impromptu paint flinging experiment. Each color was deliberately chosen to act as a counterpoint for another hue to create a particular response in the viewer. He may have suffered from hallucinations and considered crazy by many, but he was certainly a deliberate artist. His paintings appear wild and spontaneous, but a great deal of planning and thought went into their development and execution
When planning your palette for your next painting, consider how you can use complementary colors. They’ll add vibrancy and movement to your painting and perhaps a bit of a ‘wow factor’ that makes viewers stop and take a second look.
