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Thursday, January 23, 2014

My Favorite Way to Spice up a Boring Painting

'Under the Spell'               8x10               pastel                ©Karen Margulis
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 I am not a good cook.  I might be if I cooked more often but I'd rather paint.  So my cooking suffers. I do know a few basics about cooking though and it is always interesting to discover similarities between cooking and painting.

 Every Painting Needs a Little Spice 

I like to say that every painting needs a little spice. Sometimes a color note or a bold mark....something unexpected and enjoyable.  Like herbs and spices when cooking....

 Used properly they will enhance a dish.  Used in the wrong amount or in at the wrong time in the cooking process they can ruin a dish.  The same is true for those color notes.  The wrong colors or too much can hurt a painting rather than help it.

Using the Analogous Color Wheel to find my Spices
 A good cook wouldn't sprinkle an herb or spice on a dish without knowing how it works with the other ingredients.  Well maybe they would and maybe they would get lucky.  But they have a better chance of success with a delicious result if they know their ingredients.

Painters who choose random colors or just keep adding colors to a painting hoping to make it better risk  color chaos.  If you have a boring painting or one that just 'needs' something....you need to know your spices.  It is better to know what colors will work as spices rather than just guess.

I love using the Analogous Color Wheel to Choose my Spices

  • For spices I often turn to using the discords of my dominant colors in the painting.  The Analogous wheel makes it easy to find them, just dial in your dominant color!
  • The discords are colors that located equidistant on the color wheel from the dominant hue and from each other. 
  • They add  visual excitement (spice).  
  • They need to be used in small amounts and in the right place....usually in an area of interest.
  • Like herbs and spices they can be added in the beginning and cooked in the layers of pastel or they can be added at the end.
  • It is very easy to over spice a painting. Go slow and easy and step back as you add spices to make sure you aren't overdoing it.


How did I use the Color Wheel to choose my colors for this painting?  
I worked on Uart 800 and blocked in the painting with Nupastel rubbed in with pipe insulation.  I decided my dominant color was yellow orange with the complement blue.  The discords were red violet and blue green. I used red violet for the block in. It got cooked and only shows in a few places.  At the finish of the painting I added a few small touches of the red violet and blue green for my finishes touches.

5 comments:

CAROL HOPPER -- A PAINTER'S JOURNAL said...

This is really lovely. I use the same color chart; it is awesome.

Sheila said...

Lovely painting, and a terrific post! Have a happy painting weekend!

Pat Laurin said...

Wonderful post as always Karen - I have several color wheels but have not seen this one before - I'll have to look for it. Keep "cookin" with your pastels!

Nettie K. said...

Love the Spices idea!!
Nettie Kennedy

Sue Taylor said...

So grateful for this information. I’ve basically been guessing on my spices. This chart will help immensely. Thanks Karen for another insight!