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In my post about color palettes I recommended that every beginner painter have a simple but practical color palette consisting of both cool and warm primaries. I would like to quickly explain why.
Along with using opaque colors in highlights and transparent colors in lowlights and shadows, it is also important to have the correct correlating color temperature for each. If the light hitting an object is a warm light, the highlights will be warm and the shadows will be cool. If the light hitting an object is cool, the highlights will be cool and the shadows will be warm.
It is important to not think of shadows as just being black, gray, or cool blue. Shadows are more often than not warmer than we realize.
Sometimes the difference in color temperature between a light and shadow is so small it is difficult to tell which is which and it does take practice. When considering the temperature of a shadow ask yourself the following questions:
1. Is the light source natural? Daytime light usually has a cool, blue tint to it, making all of the shadows warm.
2. Is the light source artificial? Most artificial lighting is warm. At night, look around your house and notice how cool the shadows are verses during the day.
And remember, just because a shadow is purple, doesn't mean that it is a cool shadow. Purple can also be warm. I will be writing another post about shadows and the colors that compose them.
Below are some works by my favorite street art duo, Etam Cru. You can see that even though they use arbitrary colors, they still maintain (for the most part) a warm and cool temperature in order to create shadows, highlights, and depth.
For more about painting check out my main Tips and Techniques page.
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