Colorist

[Sharon Knettell]

Linda,

What you are describing is DEPICTING or RENDERING COLOR.

Color harmony is an entirely different thing. It has NOTHING to do with light or form. It has to do with COLOR RELATIONSHIPS.

There are a few well known laws of color harmony.

A: MONOCHROMATIC
The color is variations of one color. The Sargent below is an example.

COMPLEMENTARY
Two colors from opposite sides of the color wheel. Ie. Red and green.
One should dominate-the other could be a grey-as in a grey-green or a slightly less saturated color.

The Whistler you posted is an excellent example of that. It is called both "Miss Cicely Alexander" and "Harmony in Grey and Green".
The backgound is not just a grey-but a grey-green. It is a foil for the complement red-in this example a pink flower. If it were a purple grey-the flower should be a yellow.

The Renoir below is an example of a complementary color harmony, blue and orange.

These are the basic ones. There is also analogous- colors next to each other in the color wheel, tetradic-colors equidistant on the color wheel, split complementary- color on either side of the complement on the color wheel and split complementary- two sets of complementary color in one picture.

The Gauguin below is an example of a split complementary, red and green, yellow and violet.