Color Scales- A Concentration on Greens

During my summer painting excursions, I meditated on ways to achieve a variety of greens in the landscape. Summers along the East Coast are bathed in lush greenery, including trees, foliage, grasses, and lawns; sometimes, even the sky appears with a hint of green. I desired to create a greater range in my greens in terms of value, intensity, and color temperature. I was also seeking some deep, warm greens that could form the foundation on which to add yellow greens on top. I found that experimenting with a color’s scale opened my mind to a larger range of possible tones.

A color scale describes the movement of one color, such as yellow, moving towards its complement, violet. This movement must pass through a muted yellow to a chromatic gray (yellow) through the neutral, emerging into the violet scale, which rises in intensity from a chromatic gray (violet) to a muted violet, ending in a prismatic violet. There are several ways to create this scale. The most common way to create this movement within a scale is to add the complementary color to the tone. I can add a small amount of red to my green to manipulate its tone and reduce its intensity. But I want to focus on an alternative way the movement from green to red can be achieved.

This summer I experimented with the green scale by adding varying amounts of the green hue [this term hue, I am using as Robert Henri used it. Hue refers to a neutralized tone that still maintains the color character of the root color]. Henri observed that a color’s scale can be derived by mixing a combination of colors along the full spectrum of 12 intervals. I can mix a muted yellow by combining OY + YG; I could mix a yellow chromatic gray by combining G + O. Observe that in each combination, a small amount of violet is present. This violet reduces the intensity of the yellow in a precise manner. I am not adding increments of violet haphazardly. The correct amount of violet is already prescribed within the full spectrum.

In order to create a green hue I need to mix a yellow chromatic gray with a blue chromatic gray. The equation is:

Yellow hue [O + G] + Blue hue [G + V] = Green hue

Note that the red is present in the O and the V. Therefore, this red neutralizes the green in the mixture. What is lovely about this green hue is its richness. It is deep, dark, and warm with a tinge of orange. It became an excellent base on which to place my lighter, more intense, prismatic greens and yellow greens.

Note the tones in the red scale as it moves towards the green. The green scale and the red scale should be connected by the neutral that creates a transition between complementary scales. The scale would therefore be continuous, moving from prismatic green through the neutral, rising up to prismatic red. I placed mine as above so I could view the related intervals side by side.

I also experimented with the half-complements of green, OY, and BP [which are themselves complementary]. Note that I have mixed green into the half-complements, ensuring a gradual descent in intensity within each scale. Again, note that at each interval on the BP and OY scales, I added the corresponding tone on the green scale. This greatly expands the possible greens available to the painter.

In the YG scale, I explore the lighter values and yellower tones for green. Mixing the YG with the B creates cooler tones. Mixing the YG with the O creates warmer tones that are more neutralized because they contain an increment of red in the combinations.

Note all the amazing, cool greens that result from this combination of the GB and the P, as well as the slightly warmer tones of GB and Y. Again, this vastly expands my options for greens.

Remember that the color scales are continuous, traveling from the root color to its complement through the neutral. By varying the tones within a color’s scale by adding increments of the hue [chromatic gray], I can create a feeling of depth in the color and an inherent sense of color movement. Note that muted tones, chromatic grays, and the neutral are fundamental to harmonizing color in a composition. These less intense tones act as a foil to the prismatic colors, thereby intensifying them through simultaneous contrast. I can create color echoes within the composition by playing along a color’s scale. Delacroix’s concept of gradation follows a similar idea. If there is an area on the canvas that is, say, green, I can add variations of the green scale to achieve variety within that unified mass. These closely related tones in value and hue are overlaid or laid side by side to achieve a vibrant surface effect. This maintains the integrity of the mass but optically brings it to life.

Whether the notes along a color’s scale help me to harmonize my composition through echoes of related tones, or visually add vibrations along the surface of the canvas, or activate simultaneous contrast between chromatic grays and prismatic colors, I have greatly expanded my understanding of color’s visual properties. This can only enhance my ability to create a beautiful, enticing surface on my canvas, enriching the viewer’s experience and my own.

Pigment Notes:

• Yellow- Schevington yellow lemon [Monoazo yellow, OH] + Raw sienna
• Blue- Indanthrene blue [W&N]
• Red- Green scale ending in red- Persian red (synthetic iron oxide) [Williamsburg]
• BP, P- Cad. red med. [OH] + PR264 (Permanent Madder Deep) [Rembrandt] + Indanthrene blue
• All other full spectrum colors [of 12 intervals] are mixed from the above pigments

Note: In my book, The Color Investigations of Robert Henri, I present an in-depth study of color scales in the chapter, The Intensity Palettes of the Winter’s Group. Available shortly. Be sure to subscribe so I can keep you updated on the release date!