In normal oil painting, color layering used to be the method to make colors tinder and shine. In the future of Vermeer and Rembrandt, able colors were bare invaluable and insolvable to get. And the colors that were available cheap, were earth colors: browns, earthy greens, colourless brown. Still they managed to get brilliant colors. They did that by color layering.
Plants and foliage were painted with the cheap deceitful ochre prime, and then they were glazed with a thin shine - through downcast ( unhappy much was the in demand color ). Working like that was cheaper, but again expanded beautiful. The equivalent goes for faces: they were lead off painted in green. Then they could be painted over with a light brown, and theyd still have a lively burgundy fire - caused by contrasting with the green.
Craven ochre was further used to get radiant dispirited skies, in prospect painting. Before painting the dejected sky, the sky was painted with yellow ochre. I tried out some of these recipes. I found out, it has to be the darkest, where the blue will be darkest too, and then the yellow ochre actually seems to carry the blue. The blue has to be mixed with white though, otherwise youll get green ( like when painting plants ). But when you use white, you can get an opposite optic mixture: a magenta interval color. Ill go into that in another article, later. You can also check my website, on this feature.
I combined these findings with Goethes theory of color. To that, I added some of my painting experience, and I came to the following conclusion:
Warm colors ( yellow - orange - red ) do good on a white or lighter warm colored background. That also applies to warm pinks and browns.
Stronger cold colors ( blue, blue - violet ) look great on a darker neutral or a brown background.
Cold colors ( mixed with some white ) look good painted on warm colors, and warm colors painted on cold colors dont.
Some finetuning: for the more greenish blue colors ( like turquoise ), it goes even more, that they dont look good painted on white. But you can patch them up easily, by glazing a little white over them. Ultramarine is a bit of an exeption, it can also look OK painted semitransparent over white. But it looks better on black, grey or dark brown. I also did the patching up with white on a blue - violet color glazing that went smudgy. White helps blue colors to radiate. When I did color washing, I found that the only way to make a smudgy blue shine again, was to glaze some white over it. With red, that would never work. Reds need to be painted just the other way around: dark over light.
For reds, it ' s the other way around. You make them shine and glow, by painting them dark ( without added white ), on a light background. And if you find the color too strong, you add white to it. Warm browns then turn into skin - or earthcolors. A warm color, like brown, peach, yellow, orange, or red, painted on white almost automatically looks good - even when the colors dont hide and you see brushstrokes. Try that with a blue, and the results will be horrible. And for yellow goes: the only way to get a nice yellow, is to paint it on white.
For interior paint colors, a strong blue is a daring color. But it Ive seen it already here and there. Now, if you paint it on white, the only way to make it look acceptable is, to put on two or three coats: to make it hide. But then you still have this onesided, rather flat color. You can also paint it with a partial hide, with the right dark underpainting color. For a really beautiful and radiating cosmic ultramarine, first paint the wall warm dark brown ( darker than the blue ). And strong, saturated violets look great on black.
The great thing is: if you get the color layering right, any kind of brushing looks good. All you do is, to more or less repeat the same gestures while you brush. Ive seen an orange wall, painted by two 13 - year old girls, with abstract - expressionistic paintstrokes all over - and it just looked great. It goes with folk, modern and even with minimalistic living styles. OK, with antique and classic styles, the brushing needs to stylish too. But even then you get the best brushing look, when the colors are right.
These color effects can be explained by Goethes theory of color - all colors have light and darkness in them. In the reds ( yellow / orange / red ), darkness is active. So they look nice, if they can darken something light. In blues, the light has an active role. So blues look good when they can lighten things up. For me as a painter, Goethe was right all along. But thats another story.
