Master Colors Blog

WHY COLOR HARMONY BOOKS ARE INSUFFICIENT FOR THE COLOR SELECTION PROCESS

No doubt that if you are an artist, you have noticed those books on color harmony in the art section at Barnes & Nobles or Borders. And no doubt, if you have ever tried to apply the formulas recommended in such books, you have run into difficulties. We happened to be in the Barnes & Nobles the other day and picked up a couple of these books, so we decided to write an article about what is worthwhile and what is counter productive and confusing in this whole myriad field called color harmony.

We in no way want to denigrate such efforts by highly competent and intelligent color professionals. In fact, what we wish to do here is recommend both of these books, one called Color by Betty Edwards, and another called Color Harmony 2 by Bride M. Whelan. They both contain a wealth of information about the various behaviors and ways of organizing colors. The reason we can recommend these books is that for the first time, we are going to make the information contained in them very useful when it actually comes time to make a work of art, and you find yourself looking at a sea of white on your computer or canvas.

Let’s dig into an example right away. Starting on page 22 of Color Harmony 2, Whelan lists out what he calls “Basic Color Schemes”, where he describes several ways of organizing colors, employing such notions as “Achromatic Scheme, Analogous Scheme, Neutral Scheme, Split Complimentary Scheme, Secondary Scheme, Tertiary Triad Scheme” and so forth.

Now does that mean that if you organize your color choices around the idea of a Split Complimentary Scheme, that would therefore constitute color harmony. The answer, alas, is no.

However, once the artist understands how color actually works, then these ideas of how to organize hue groups into the categories outlined by the author suddenly become quite useful. What is missing is Chapter 1, which deals with the fundamental and essential element of color composition, which is quantifying color relationships in 3D HVC space, and applying those HVC (hue, value, chroma) contrasts with Master Colors’ harmonic progressions or scales.

So we are here to provide the first chapter to not only Whelan’s and Edwards’ books, but to all of the other “color harmony” books that have been published.

The Master Colors’ HVC Color Identification and Harmonic Selection System is essential for every artist, from art school and on through an artist’s entire career, whether it’s paint or computer media.

Currently, however, the HVC Color Composer is absolutely essential for every artist who wishes to compose colors correctly in their work. Master Colors also will soon publish its simple mixing technique for matching colors in HVC Color Space so artists may work with the HVC Color Composer in conjunction with paint media as well as computer media.

Look for an article coming up very soon on our Blog titled “How to Mix Colors Accurately in HVC Color Space”. Once you learn this technique, you will be able to mix any color you see accurately within 30 to 60 seconds, without any strain at all.

Let’s get a little further into why using this triad criteria is not sufficient in and of itself if we wish to take a rational, intelligent and effective approach to the color selection process -- take the Split Complimentary Scheme for example.

This is an arrangement of two hues, like an gold and a scarlet, let’s say, with the compliment of the color between them on the color wheel, which in this case would be the compliment of orange, which is cyan or cerulean blue. 

Scientists tell us the human eye can see millions of different colors, but in any meaningful sense, about 1,500 to 2,000 colors is more than enough for any artist to execute any work of art (not including gradational relationships, of course). Look for an article on how to handle gradations soon.

Now blue, gold and scarlet – our Split Complimentary triad -- have dozens of colors inside each of those hue slices of varying chromas (intensity) and values. This is where the harmony books break down, because there is no criteria for selecting colors among all of those choices that the Split Complementary criteria leaves us.

When its time to apply a color choice to the artwork, suddenly the choice becomes random again. Once we can quantify the particular gold, scarlet and cerulean blue that we wish to use in the piece, then the gold, scarlet, blue combination becomes quite lovely and beautiful. The triad idea requires Master Colors’ quantification technology to make it work.

The Master Colors’ Harmonic Progression system, organized around the concept of combined HVC Contrast, also gives the artist hundreds of choices within a triad group. But there is a clear, rational criteria for making your final selections.

Let’s take a look at Betty Edwards’ book, Color. While not providing the solution, Edwards outlines the problem in color harmony books perfectly. In Chapter 8, the author states: “Nearly every writer on color proposes one theory or another on how to achieve harmonious color. Some recommend analogous color schemes, some suggests complementary colors, others triadic color schemes (three hues equidistant on the color wheel), or tetradic arrangements (hues at four points on the color wheel), and still others, German colorist Johannes Itten, for example – recommend all of the above.”

The truth is, none of above. None of these approaches will work without Chapter 1 by Master Colors. But the good news is that with the HVC Color Composer, suddenly all of these color harmony ideas will work beautifully and suddenly, the works of Edwards and Whelan become very relevant, with a wealth of color information outlining various ways of organizing colors that can be very useful and effective for color composition.

When the authors of these color harmony books assert that the ideas they contain will create “harmony” in a work of art, they are unintentionally diminishing the word to something bordering on meaningless. Harmony is not an opinion or a subjective feeling. Harmony is objective. Harmony’s effect is subjective. That’s where the confusion lies. (See our blog article, titled “Proportion is Harmony, Contrast is Control”.)

Any meaningful definition of harmony that will really help the artist during the execution of a work of art is a numerical definition. Musical scales are not harmonic because in the opinion of the composer, a particular arrangement of notes sounds good. The notes sound good because the harmonics are objective.

Color harmonies are created by the creation of simple proportional numerical relationships spanning the full range of HVC contrasts, from soft, middle to strong, like black on white, giving the artist maximum flexibility with a wide range of selection choices for the successful completion of any work of art.

NEXT WEEK: Part 2

We take the ideas contained in color harmony books and make them work in an Interactive Harmonic Selection Swatch Book. We also show you how to make such a chart yourself using the HVC Color Composer by Master Colors.

A&E Magazine Review of HVC Color Composer

Read full article (PDF) >

THE ALMOND TREE TEMPLATE BY BONNARD

For this exercise, we will build the piece by linking one color to the next and so forth. We will not use the 3-color combination technique for this exercise. Choose any of our nine harmonic progressions (below) to execute the piece. Try the Fifth Progression if you like. It is based on the Golden Mean.

The Almond Tree by the French master Pierre Bonnard is widely considered one of the great masterpieces of 20^th century art. The sparkling harmonies are reminiscent of the pearlescent gems of 16^th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. In fact, Bonnard kept a small reproduction of a lovely little street scene in Vermeer’s hometown of Delft tacked to his studio wall, along with a Gaughan, a Picasso, and a small oil painting given to him by Renior. How did Bonnard achieve such unprecedented virtuosity with respect to his color compositions?

Bonnard, like many great artists, was a bit secretive, but he did leave us one remark that despite its Zen-like brevity, sums it all up perfectly. “Just like music,” he said. “Count 1, 2, 3, etc.”

Bonnard jotted down this perfect summation of the essence of color composition in one of his sketchbooks, where he would from time to time note one of his deep insights into the art of painting next to his exquisite 6B pencil sketches, which are mostly no larger than a postcard.

It’s hard to believe he was able to produce so many masterpieces over the last 30 years or so of his career, when it became clear to the art world that the master was exploring harmonic complexities of extraordinary power and beauty in his paintings. American masters like Rothko, DeKooning and Stella and others were all devotees of Bonnard, although because of the fashionable modernist thinking of the time, tended to keep a low profile on their feelings. The master had taken painting to a whole new level. You get the feeling Bonnard was just beginning to explore the aesthetic and expressive power of color composition. He has left the rest for today’s artists to explore. 

Toward the end of his life Bonnard wrote: “I am just beginning to understand.” And, “ I feel I am on the verge of attaining the Absolute in my painting.” Bonnard died in January 1947 on a rare snowy day in Le Cannet.

Instructions for coloring in The Almond Tree template.

Download the template here.

First, hide all the layers except for the bottom one. Then, as you color each, un-hide the layer above to move onto the next one.

Have the layer you want to color selected in the layers window.

Hold Apple + and click the layer in the layers window. (Clock the icon part of the layer, not the text.)

Create a new layer. (The little icon at the bottom of the layers window looks like a page.)

Pick the color you wish to use, then use the paint bucket to fill the selected area. Then hit Apple+D to deselect it, so you can see it better.

Now hide the layer just underneath (the one you just selected.) This is important, because the old color shows through the new color significantly.

That’s it. Move on the next layer above and continue.

COLOR KEYS BY MASTER COLORS

FIRST PROGRESSION

5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 and 80.

SECOND PROGRESSION

6, 12, 20, 25, 40, 50, 80.

THIRD PROGRESSION

5, 10, 20, 25, 40, 45, 90 (88).

FOURTH PROGRESSION

10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80.

FIFTH PROGRESSION: THE GOLDEN MEAN

5, 10, 15, 25, 40, 65, 88.

The Golden Mean, otherwise known as the Fibonacci sequence, has been used for centuries in art, architecture and science. This is the first time we have been able to see what this useful and beautiful harmonic scale looks like in color. Give it a try with one of our templates.

SIXTH PROGRESSION

5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 60, 88.

SEVENTH PROGRESSION

5, 10, 20, 40, 80 (black and white), This is the progression offered by the HVC Color Composer’s Auto-Range palettes.

EIGHTH PROGRESSION (THE WHITE PROGRESSION)

5, 10, 20, 40, 50, 60, 80 plus.

Recommended for color compositions on a white field. Perfect for page designers.

NINTH PROGRESSION (WHITE PROGRESSION, 1^ST VARIATION)

5, 15, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 plus

USING MASTER COLORS’ HVC COLOR COMPOSITION SYSTEM

Read PDF

HOW DOES COLOR REALLY WORK?

Let’s ask this question a different way. Is there a correct and intelligent way to compose colors in a work of art? It is interesting that artists never seem to ask themselves this absolutely critical question, considering that colors are what artists make their art with. If you ask that same question to a hundred different artists, you would probably get a hundred different answers. There is however a correct answer, which we will get to shortly. But before we do answer that question, reflect for a minute on how you would answer that question. In fact, go ahead and write down your answer, so that you can compare it to the correct answer, which you will understand after you have read this article.

 

OK, are we finished? Good. Let’s proceed. Imagine being an artist who does not understand how color works in a work of art. Don’t you think that would be an enormous hole in the knowledge any artist would need to successfully create a work of art. That would be analogous to a carpenter showing up for work without a ruler. So let’s forget everything you have been taught about color for the time being. Color scientists tell us the human eye can see about 16 million colors. How do we acquire intelligent control over all of these colors? The truth is, once you understand it, color is beautifully simple. The key to color is contrast: controlled, organized contrast. We actually don’t compose a work of art with colors. We compose color with the idea of contrast. We tend to think of contrast as a lightness-darkness phenomenon. However, there are two other variables that contribute to the total degree of contrast that is generated when two colors touch each other, those being hue and chroma. Chroma refers to how weak or strong a hue is.

 

Contrast is critical to controlling color relationships, because contrast is something we can attach a number to. Once we can attach a number to something, we can control it. Once we can control color numerically, then we can organize, arrange and harmonize color. So, in a sense there is no such thing as color harmony. There can only be color-contrast harmony, because it is not the color that we are harmonizing, but the differences between the colors, measured objectively and numerically, just like music. All other aspects of color usage are subjective and intuitive. So to compose color correctly, this is the absolutely key idea that must be understood.

 

To make this idea perhaps a bit clearer, imagine a line of equidistant gray swatches from one to ten. To determine how far these grays are from each other, all we have to do is count. The math gets a little more subtle when you also have to account for the hue and chroma differences as well as the value distance. This is something the HVC Color Composer does for you instantly. You do not have to completely understand the math whereby we determine the numerical HVC contrast distances between colors, but it’s a good idea to have some intellectual appreciation of how contrast numbers are determined. The math is similar to the math that determines the distance between two points in a room, for example. There are some little math quirks that are peculiar just to color, but we will not get into that here. The HVC Color Composer solves for these numerical distances in what color scientists call 3D color space, which is basically just a three dimensional color chart.

 

So now that that we can determine numerical HVC contrast distances, then what do we do with these numbers. We tend to organize color contrast naturally into three categories, soft, middle and strong. To successfully handle any problem a work of art might throw your way, we need access to a full range of contrasts. The key to color harmony then is to apply those HVC contrast numbers to the art in a coherent, organized way. Master Colors has recommended nine different HVC contrast progressions, each of which provides a full range of HVC contrasts, from soft to strong, and each of which automatically provides a harmonic shell, or structure, into which you can place your color choices. These progressions provide a simple underlying proportional scheme to even the most complex works of art. Is this beginning to sound a little like the way music works? That’s because musical scales work the same way.

 

Perhaps the greatest quote ever from the available literature on color in art was said by the great French painter Pierre Bonnard, who is renowned for color surfaces verging on rapture. “Just like music,’ he said. “Count one, two, three, etc.” Short, but perfectly to the point.

 

The next thing to address is this: Is it difficult to apply this knowledge to your artwork? Once we understand that color composition is really color-contrast composition, applying this knowledge to your art is not only easy, but profoundly rewarding, because for the first time you will experience having control over every color in the piece you are working on, whether it’s a simple graphic design with maybe a half dozen colors or a complex work of realism involving hundreds and even thousands of colors.

 

Composing color correctly in beautiful harmony is a simple mental process. Here are the steps: 1) Choose one of Master Colors nine recommended progressions. 2) Use Master Colors’ HVC Color Composer to create your palettes, which provide the correct numerical contrast distances from the colors you are working with. 3) Learn to build your compositions first two colors at a time and then three colors at a time. 4) Write down the progression you are working in, and stick to it as the work progresses.

 

Our 6th lesson in “Nirvana: 6 Lessons to Color Enlightenment” is called “The Grid: The Ultimate Challenge”, which focuses on three-color combinations. Once you get it, it’s easy. Paying attention to this much neglected knowledge of controlling colors from the level of HVC contrast will have profound rewards for you, and profound benefits for your work. For the first time ever, you will be the master of every color you apply to your artwork. (Note: Our lesson plan is free. Go ahead and download the lessons and templates and a free demo of the HVC Color Composer.)

 

 

COLOR KEYS BY MASTER COLORS

 

FIRST PROGRESSION

 

5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 and 80.

 

SECOND PROGRESSION

 

6, 12, 20, 25, 40, 50, 80.

 

THIRD PROGRESSION

 

5, 10, 20, 25, 40, 45, 90 (88).

 

FOURTH PROGRESSION

 

10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80. 

 

FIFTH PROGRESSION: THE GOLDEN MEAN

 

5, 10, 15, 25, 40, 65, 88.

 

The Golden Mean, otherwise known as the Fibonacci sequence, has been used for centuries in art, architecture and science. This is the first time we have been able to see what this useful and beautiful harmonic scale looks like in color. Give it a try with one of our templates.

 

SIXTH PROGRESSION

 

5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 60, 88.

 

SEVENTH PROGRESSION

 

5, 10, 20, 40, 80 (black and white), This is the progression offered by the HVC Color Composer’s Auto-Range palettes.

 

EIGHTH PROGRESSION (THE WHITE PROGRESSION)

 

5, 10, 20, 40, 50, 60, 80 plus.

Recommended for color compositions on a white field. Perfect for page designers.

 

NINTH PROGRESSION (WHITE PROGRESSION, 1^ST VARIATION)

 

5, 15, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 plus

 

THE WHITE PROGRESSION

NEWS ALERT! ATTENTION ALL NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE DESIGNERS

HOW TO MAKE HARMONIC CHARTS WITH THE HVC COLOR COMPOSER

INTRODUCING A NEW PROGRESSION THAT WORKS BEST ON A WHITE FIELD: 5, 10, 20, 40, 50, 60, 80 PLUS.

In a previous ColorBlog article we introduced Master Colors’ Seven Progressions. Here we introduce an eighth progression specifically for newspaper and magazine designers. In other words, we wanted to provide a progression that works on a white field, which is what media artists work on everyday.

Strong hues on white are a media design standard. Most of the beautiful strong hues fall in the 40 to 60 Range, which means the strong hues tend to be about 40 to 60 HVC Contrast steps from white.

Color selection is one of the biggest challenges for professional artist. Color identification and ink systems like Pantone and Munsell are not intended as color composition or selection systems, because we do not know what the relationships are between the colors in those systems. Master Colors offers both a color identification and SELECTION! System, where all of the relationships between all the colors can be identified numerically, and therefore can be organized and controlled when you apply the colors to your work.

We recommend every art director have at least one resident color composition expert on staff. For the price of a few tubes of Winsor Newton, every artist can get the HVC Color Composer and become a complete master of color. (Look for our article soon how how to mix paint in HVC color space.)

For this article we made a unique type of swatch chart in which the colors are designed to actually work with each other.

Let’s review Master Colors’ rules of color composition.

--Color can be controlled, organized, composed and harmonized at the fundamental level of numerical HVC Contrast.

--These numerical HVC Contrast relationships can be easily controlled and applied to your work by arranging these HVC Contrast numbers in simple numerical progressions that automatically provide simple proportional schemes. We have already done this for you with our Master Colors’ recommended progressions. Harmony is an arrangement based on simple proportional relationships (just like music).

THAT’S IT! Pretty simple once you get it. The point is this knowledge will help fulfill your potential as an artist because it will give you intelligent control of your color compositions.

There are a number of different ways to organize color. But the most important, fundamental, objective way of organizing color is at the level of the combined hue, value and chroma contrast (HVC Contrast), which is the only meaningful definition of perceptual contrast.

HVC is the natural way of thinking about color, and those three variables (Hue, Value and Chroma) must be accounted for to come up with an accurate numerical contrast between colors. Other ways of organizing color are important as well, such as cool and warm colors, close triads, far triads, muted or strong hues, etc. But the most important level of organizing colors is through the numerical organization of colors at this fundamental level of objective, numerical contrast. With this knowledge, all of the experience you have acquired as an artist will immediately become more powerful because the artist can now place all of this intuitive knowledge into simple harmonic structures, which will enable you to take your artistic powers to new heights.

Now we are going to make the world’s first swatch chart in which the colors are harmonically related. Hopefully, we can clear up this confusion about existing charts like Pantone and Munsell, which are not intended as harmonic color selection systems. Even though the colors may be very attractive in such chart arrangements, these colors are in no way connected to each other when you try to choose colors that work together, They are only color IDENTIFICATION systems. Master Colors allows you to make harmonically intelligent color choices for you work. Let’s make a little chart using the HVC Color Composer that would be useful for magazine and newspaper designers.

Figure 1. The only rule for using this chart is to use only colors that are touching. Artists using the HVC Color Composer can pick up on the harmonics if they wish to elaborate on the composition because all the relationships are identified numerically. The singles swatches against white are arranged in the White Progression from top, 60, 50, 40, 20, 10, 5, and 30 and 15 as alternate numbers. Below that are three color combinations, white and the two swatches on white that are within the progression. These colors will relate to each other harmonically even if you are picking up the harmonic theme on different pages, as you will see in the illustrations below.
Our progressions represent the full range of contrast possibilities from soft, medium to very strong contrasts. Contrast is the universal and fundamental way to construct intelligent, controlled color compositions because it’s the only way to determine numerical relationships that can be used in creating harmonic scales.

Figure 2. Here we made another page of three color combinations and have created a fairly typical magazine design that will repeat itself several times within the same edition, which gives rise to color selection problems. Our approach for the specs on this job is to work within a harmonic progression that will give us tremendous variety with a consistent harmonic look.

Figure 3. Here we pulled some swatches over that we want to use in the composition.

Figure 4. Here we picked three colors that are 30 steps from the white. We will continue this relationship on the similar pages with color rectangles that require a color choice from the artist. This will maintain the consistency of the relationships and also provide variety within the publication on different pages. All Master Colors’ progressions will work with black and white, the strongest contrast (80 plus).

Figure 5. Here we called up the HVC Color Composer to pursue our harmonic progression, This is a palette of 30 HVC Contrast steps from white.

Figure 6. Now we have moved our palette of 30 from white into the InDesign swatch box for easy access. These three color choices have the same relationship to white as the choices on the previous page (Figure 4).

REVERSE ENGINEERING MATISSE

“When I put colors together, they have to join a living chord, like a musical chord or harmony.”
--Matisse

Figure 1. Using the HVC Color Composer, we found a very conscious and coherent proportional scheme underlying this Matisse masterpiece. This arrangement by Matisse is very similar to the recommended master Colors’ Progressions.

Figure 2. Two variations of Matisse’s composition using the same numerical arrangement in the same places. In the illustration second from left, we divide the numbers provided by the HVC Color Composer by ten to get a feeling for the proportions that are created by Matisse’s composition. Ten steps on the Composer represent one distinct whole step.

LEARNING FROM THE MASTER

Matisse is the father of modern graphic design. His late cutout series deals with many of the same problems that modern graphic artists wrestle with today. Flat areas of colors, highly stylized shapes, abstract compositions. Matisse created these masterworks by having his assistants paint large pieces of paper with brilliant gouache colors. He would then cut out the shapes he wanted before placing them into his compositions. The results were astonishingly beautiful. What can we learn from Matisse? With the HVC Color Composer we can analyze these works to a degree never before possible and get a true feeling for how he organized his color compositions in an orderly, harmonic way.

Another interesting Matisse quote: “I strive to create striking proportions (with color).” The way to create striking and powerful color combinations in your work is to use the HVC Color Composer and to use the Master Colors’ Progressions to compose your works. These progressions are designed to provide an underlying harmonic orderliness to the work. (See our first ColorBlog article.)

“Colors have their own distinctive beauty you have to preserve, just as in music you try to preserve sounds. It is a question of organization, of finding the arrangement that will keep the beauty and freshness of the color.”
--Matisse

Great knowledge from the master! There is probably no other artist that translates as well as Matisse’s cutout works in reproductions. This is another aspect of his work that makes Matisse so relevant to today’s professional artists, because most of the work must go through the printing process for publication. In this article we used the HVC Color Composer to see if we can find an underlying harmonic in Matisse’s works.

What we have found is that Matisse consistently used simple and repeatable numerical proportions to achieve his extraordinary virtuosity in the use of color. Now at last we have a tool to try to discover more specifically what he meant by his remarks. This way, every art student in the world can study Matisse’s work, or the works of other masters, in a practical way and apply this knowledge to their own work.

HVC stands for hue, value and chroma (intensity). To create meaningful proportional relationships, the numerical relationships between colors have to be determined. There are different ways of explaining this idea of color harmonics, but perhaps one of the clearest and most useful ways to get at this subject is through the idea of contrast.

The HVC Color Composer takes one or more of what we at Master Colors call “Target Colors” and finds all of the colors that are a certain requested distance from those colors. Master Colors uses a scale of 88 steps, which is the distance between black and white, the highest numerical contrast, and which, coincidentally, also happens to be the same number of keys on a piano. The connection between color and music is more than an analogy. In fact, music and color work exactly alike. Both musical harmony and color harmony are based on simple, underlying numerical and proportional relationships.

When we think of contrast, we generally tend to think of a gray scale, or values. The only meaningful definition of contrast, however, has to take the two other perceptual elements of a color into account, those being hue, and chroma, which is a measure of how weak or strong a hue is.  So at Master Colors, when we refer to contrast, it is always the combined HVC Contrast that we are quantifying with our software.

This way of organizing and understanding color space in terms of hue, value and chroma was developed by the great color scientist Munsell over a century ago. The Munsell system is to this day the world’s standard in the identification of color and the appropriate perceptual organization of three-dimensional color space for artists and designers. (See illustrations below.)

Figure 3. For this interpretation of the Matisse, we started with a blue that was 50 steps from the white, which provided a different range of available colors in Master Colors’ HVC space. Most of the strong hues are between 40 to 60 HVC Contrast steps from white, except of course the very light hues like yellow and gold. In the illustration on the right, we used Matisse’s scheme but did not put the contrasts in the same places Matisse did, gaining access to a host of different colors in HVC space.

REALISM AND THE HVC COLOR COMPOSER

The main purpose of our ColorBlog is to examine specific problems in every genre of art and to talk about how the HVC Color Composer can be used to help resolve these issues successfully in a work of art. Here we are going to take a very specific angle on realism with the idea that no matter how complex the work may get, there is no reason to lose control of your colors as the work progresses.

In our previous ColorBlog entry, we introduced Master Colors 7 Progressions, which are essentially HVC contrast scales, each of which provide soft, middle to strong contrasts and should be more than sufficient to successfully complete any work of art. For this exercise we are going to work in the First Progression (5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 80 plus). Our progressions are organized to provide the artist with a harmonic shell that will automatically give the artist a coherent contrast scheme, which will thus provide a beautiful underlying orderliness to the work (just like music).

As soon as we begin to apply colors to a work of art, we are creating numerical contrast relationships whether we wish to or not. You can see how quickly the work can descend into chaos unless these relationships are being controlled by you. In fact, this experience probably isn’t new to you. Every artist has experienced how quickly you can lose control of a complex color composition as a work proceeds. (It is one of the less pleasant experiences an artist can have.) Master Colors is dedicated to eliminating that frustrating experience for artists and to giving the artist absolute control of every color in their works. (It’s not that hard and the rewards of mastering the HVC Color
Composer are profound). It is essential to control these contrast relationships to build powerful, stunning color compositions in your work. The HVC Color Composer allows the artists to take control of these relationships so that every color you add to your work adds to the overall beauty and power of the work.

Our Progressions may make more sense to you if we divide by 10, in which case the First Progression would be: .5 (a half step, 1 (a whole step), 1.5, 2, 3, 4 and 8 steps. Any way we combine those numbers gives us coherent, simple proportional relationships, which is what harmony is. Musical scales are organized along the same idea, and you can imagine what music would sound like without a system of organized scales and harmonics.
Master Colors takes the mystery out of the myriad field of color theory by organizing our approach around the unifying principle of HVC color contrast. That allows us to reduce a relationship to a single number, which is the key to controlling color. With these numbers, we have created harmonic contrast scales whereby we can then easily control the work of art, no matter how complex the color composition may get, from simple 4 to 5 color compositions to compositions involving hundreds and even thousands of color relationships. (HVC stands for Hue, Value and Chroma, which is another work for intensity.)

For this article, we are going to work with a photo of a landscape. We start by tracing the larger areas and using the eyedropper to pick an average color for each of these areas. (See illustrations below.)

Figure 1. Here we start with a detail of a photo and trace out the major shapes, then eyedrop a representative color into that space. At this stage of the work we get something reminiscent of an early Vuillard, a great 20th century French realist. Now we can choose to develop the piece a far as we wish to attain the results we want. Our goal is to keep control of the work as it progresses.


Figure 2. Within the large areas we colored in, we are going to further subdivide the picture by filling in two light patterns on top of the colors representing the larger shapes, one lighter and one darker. These light patterns are one whole step (10 steps on the Composer) from the representative color of the larger shape. For purposes of color composition that large-shape field color now becomes your Target Color. In Figure 2 above, we laid the lighter light pattern down. (Next: See Figure 3 below.)


Figure 3. What the lighter patterns look like on their fields. Now we will lay in the darker patterns, see Figure 4 below). These are all 10 steps apart (one whole HVC Contrast step).

Figure 4. The darker light patterns, which are 10 steps from the field colors they are on.

Figure 5. Now the lighter and darker patterns are revealed as the piece starts to take on a more complete look. Using the HVC Color Composer, we are still in control of everything that is happening in the picture. All of the colors on top of the larger areas of color are 10 steps from the colors they are on. Now we will take the piece one step further as we start to fill in some of the painterly dots, dashes and patches that normally constitute a work of realism (see Figure 6, below).

Figure 6. Here we are starting to fill in some of the smaller dots, dashes etc. that make up the Melody Line that provide some of the sparkle contained in the way the light plays along the foliage. These are relationships from the First Progression and are mostly tens, twenties and forties. See Figure 7, below.

Figure 7. We are going to leave this exercise here, where we have begun to put in the smaller elements that constitute a work of realism. From here the artist could develop the piece in a Wyeth- or Vermeer-style realism emphasizing local color effects or more in a Bonnard-style realism where the direction is more decorative and abstract. The main thing is that you the artist are still in control of the work. Next article: We discuss how to mix paint when using the HVC Color Composer. An artist should be able to mix an accurate color in 20 to 30 seconds, and we will show you how. Stay tuned.

PROPORTION IS HARMONY, CONTRAST IS CONTROL

COLOR CAN BE CONTROLLED, COMPOSED, ORGANIZED AND HARMONIZED AT THE FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL OF CONTRAST.

You can only control color if you can quantify color relationships. That means determining the numerical distances between colors. The HVC Color Composer is the only existing technology that can accomplish this task.

Simple proportions are inherently harmonic. Once we can establish the numerical distances between colors, what do we do with these numbers? The answer is to apply the numerical distances to the artwork in an orderly way. Master Colors is recommending seven different HVC Contrast Progressions, which are similar to the idea of musical scales. Each of Master Colors’ progressions contains a range of soft, middle to strong contrasts. These progressions provide an orderly structure into which the ideas and feelings of the artist can be placed into the artwork in an organized and beautiful way (just like music).

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Figure 1. If Beethoven had composed all of his music in the key of C major, it still would have been great music. But a little variety is nice. In the same way, merely one of Master Colors’ progressions would be sufficient for an art career. But many artists will enjoy exploring Master Colors’ “7 Progressions” with their rich variety of proportional relationships, and each with distinctly different and interesting moods. Artist using Master Colors’ HVC Color Composer may want to print this out to have easy reference to our progressions.

Notice the two Grid Compositions in the upper right corner of Figure 1. Grid Compositions are great exercises for mastering how to construct a color composition, three colors at a time. Try Lesson 6 from our free online color composition course, titled “Nirvana: 6 Lessons to Color Enlightenment”, which uses the Grid to solve three colors touching problems.  http://www.master-colors.com/tutorials.php

The two arrangements at lower right on the light gold and blue fields are “Golden Mean” compositions. This is the first time we have been able to see what this classical progression looks like in color.

The other swatch arrangements in Figure 1 are intended to illustrate what color looks like when we begin to organize colors around the idea of numerical contrast distances. We have to remember that as soon as we start applying color to a surface, numerical relationships are getting established whether we wish them to or not. The colors can either pile up on each other in a random and uncontrolled manner, or we can take control of this fundamental level of color organization and build the work in an orderly and beautiful way.

Once we have decided on the progression we wish to work in, the artist’s can be free to work in a very free and intuitive way. In fact, by taking care of the underlying contrast organization we can forget about the numbers.  Subsequently, every addition to the artwork can be a joy as your work unfolds before you like a beautiful symphony.

Numbers, like colors, are the artist’s friends. They can either help or hurt the work. If you take control, you can rise to a higher level of expression in your art than ever before. The HVC Color Composer contains the knowledge and practical technology to take an artist to new heights with a just a few hours of practice. Go ahead; make music with your colors.