Colour temperature
Colours are described as warm (reds, oranges, yellows) or cool (blues, blue-greens, blue-violets). Temperature is relative: a crimson is cool compared to cadmium red, but warm compared to ultramarine.
Step by step
- Warm colours tend to feel as if they come forward; cool colours tend to recede. Landscape painters use this to create depth.
- Under a warm light (sunset, a tungsten bulb), the lit areas look warm and shadows tend to look relatively cool. Under cool light (an overcast sky, a north window), the reverse is often true.
- Outdoors in sunshine, shadows often pick up blue from the sky.
- Compare temperature side by side: hold two swatches together and ask which is warmer.
- Use temperature shifts instead of only value shifts to turn a form — for example, a warm light side and a cooler half-tone.
- Neutral greys can be warmed or cooled slightly so they harmonise with the rest of the painting.
Common mistakes
- Treating temperature as absolute rather than relative.
- Painting shadows by simply adding black.
- Using the same temperature everywhere, which looks flat.
Practice exercise
Paint one object (an egg or a white mug) under a warm lamp, then by a window, and compare the shadow colours.