A monochromatic color scheme uses just one color. This scheme is more theory than actual reality. Rarely will you see a “true” monochromatic color scheme - most often a couple of the color wheel “neighbors” will stick their noses in, as in this case, but the concept is an interesting one. And the harder you try to be true to the theory, the more harmony is assured. How can you possibly do a whole painting in just one color? You create variations of that color as follows:
Last month, we discussed how you can vary the intensity of a color by adding its complement. We repeat our sample chart here as a reminder.
This procedure, in theory, can produce an infinite number of varieties of a color - which can still be considered the same color because you have changed only the intensity, and not the hue (i.e. you haven’t mixed in another color that can move your color sideways on the wheel).
And, there is still another way to get lots of versions of the same color - lightening and darkening a color by creating tints and shades.By doing this, you are altering a color’s value, but again, not changing its hue.
You make tints (lighter) and shades (darker) by adding white and black. Now, this is one of those “blanket” recipes that you don’t always follow to the letter. When working with any transparent ink or paint (watercolor for example), you use the white of the paper instead of adding white paint to get tints. The reason is that adding white will add opacity and create a whole different look (like gouache). You use the white of the paper by diluting the transparent paint or ink with water - which will allow more of the paper to show through and make the color appear lighter.
Adding black should always be done with a minimalist approach.The smallest drop of black has tremendous staining power and you can make a color way too dark, way too fast. Many artists do not add black, but use a gray, made from mixing equal parts of the color with its complement, to darken the color. In the picture above, you would be mixing the gray shown at the left and using small amounts of it to create your “shades”. The color bar below shows many tints and shades of the same color.
Another very important point must be brought up here. Although Composition is another discussion for the future, there is an aspect that must be introduced now. Every composition must have a focal point.
A focal point is a point of interest that gives the eye a place to enter the piece. It's a simple enough concept, but surprisingly, can often be forgotten (especially in collage work). Something has to “stick out”. If nothing does, and all parts of the piece blend together, you have “wallpaper” or a “background”, but not a well composed piece of art. The reason I chose Kathy’s “Dragonfly Background” for our working piece this month is precisely because, in its original state, it is a “background” with no one image standing out from the rest. It will be up to you, when creating your color schemes, to change that status by creating the focal point that will make it a “painting”.
How is that done? By using contrast. In simple terms, you either make something lighter or darker or brighter or duller or bigger or smaller than everything else in the picture. This is an easy job in a complementary color scheme, where you can just make one item the complementary color of the background. It’s a little more complicated in a monochromatic scheme where everything is basically the same color. The turtle is the focal point in the monochromatic sample above, by the way, because it is the lightest object in the piece and it is a circle, which will always draw the eye. There's lots more to this story, but we will leave it for later and get back to our color schemes.
