Applying Color Theory to Paint a Bird Box

Introduction

With this series off post that I am doing, I wanted to provide readers a way to learn how different theories in art are applied by walking you through the process of starting a piece to its conclusion with a focus on color theory. Many art related educational materials tend to focus on teaching the fundamentals. These lessons are often coompartmentalized and divorced from the journey an artist undertakes to get a illustration complete. With this post I want show you my thought process with color theory in mind so the reader can better understand how it is actually applied.

Laying the Foundation

Before the drawing even starts I utilize photoshops paint bucket with a warm bright color to remove the white background. I have found that the white background can be rather distracting when trying to pull out an illustration from the first few strokes. Replacing the white background tones down the distraction so it is easier to think abstractly when working. When starting a painting, I try to wash in a color that will set the tone of the illustration. It's preferable to keep the colors near the grays when starting off as this will allow for an easier movement of colors.

Using the drawing I made prior to painting, I begin laying in the local colors and values for the birdbox. Since the bird box is the focal point of the image, I made sure to make it more saturated relative to everything else so it will draw the eyes to it.

The Joys of Color theory

After some time I have added more value to the bird box and shaping up how it looks more. For the bushes behind the bird box I like to make dark splotches so I the foliage I paint on top of it does not have to be painted as bright allowing for plenty of space with regards to values. 

In color theory there is a logarithmic relationship between light and shadow. As the the values move from light to dark the saturation willl increase as well as the color in question becoming much cooler if the lights are warm colors. This can be seen below as I sample the light and shadow parts of the red bird box. When you compare the two you will notice a stark difference in of the color.

When we superimpose the light and shadow color menu on top of each other we can see the logarithmic relationship as it is moving from light to shadow.

Moving forward with the illustration I decided to add an abstract bench to further add to the composition as well as brighten up the part of the bird box facing the light. In the shadows of the bird box there was some scumbling to show some of the white light being reflected off the chair onto it.

More reflected light was applied to the side of the birdbox and more work on the bench was done to get the illustration to a nice point.

Conlcusion

For the purposes of this post I think it is at a good point where I can step away from it and enjoy it for what is. When you understand that color theory is the study of the movement of color you can create very beautiful illustrations with ease. If you sample different areas of the illustration you will notice like the principle I mentioned in color theory, as the eyes move towards the focal point, the colors move to become more saturated.