The key to mastering colour is to limit your palette and practice mixing your colours until you are familiar with the characteristics of all your colours and how they interact.  Then when you add more colours you have a solid base from which to understand the new colours.   There are a number of colour schemes that help you use your colours in a logical way.  An analagous colour scheme is one of these ways. In the analagous colour scheme you choose 3 colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. In these 2 examples I have added one of the 3 colour’s complement to allow for some darkening of the colours.
The bottom example is using cad yellow medium, cad orange, cad red light and the complement cerulean blue. In the top example I have used violet, thalo blue, viridian and the complement  Quinacridone Rose. In the top example I also corrected some of the compositional weaknesses I noticed in the lower example. By working this way again we are learning how these colours mix and also we have complete colour unity. Just on a personal note I have heard many times that bright warm paintings sell but unfortunately, for me, I’m drawn to cool colours. I just like them.

This again is one of the topics covered in my new class Mastering Colour, offered through the Calgary School of Art.  For information contact me.