A Checklist for Judging a Colour Study

A colour study is finished when you can say what each mixture is doing. It is not finished when the paper is covered. This checklist is a way to look, in order, so you do not only stare at the passage you enjoyed painting. Run it on a small study first. A large picture hides from a checklist by being impressive.

Value still separates

Squint until hue fades. If the subject disappears into the background, the colours may be attractive and the values are too close. A greyscale photograph of the study should agree with the greyscale photograph of the subject in its large shapes. Small accents may differ. The masses should not.

Value First: Why a Grey Study Saves the Painting is the longer version of this first question. Do not skip it because the study is already in colour. Painters forgive their own hue and miss their own tone. If the check fails, adjust lightness before you repaint the colour from scratch.

Temperature has a direction

Name the light in one phrase. Then point to one place that is warmer because it faces that light, and one place that shifts because it turns away. If you cannot point, the temperature is a habit rather than an observation. A single blue used for every shadow is the usual tell. Shadow Colour: Studio Temperature Mistakes lists the rest.

The check is comparison, not theory. Hold a warmer and a cooler candidate up to the study. One of them will belong. If they both look possible, you are too close to the paper. Step back until the light of the whole study tells you which one is the intruder.

Every mixture has a parent

You should be able to say, roughly, which tubes made the background, the local colour and the darkest dark. If a note appeared from a dirty brush and you cannot reconstruct it, it will fight the next study and you will not know why. Limited palettes make this check easy. A Three-Colour Palette You Can Finish is training for it. On a wider palette, the same question applies: is this green a mixture I chose, or a guest?

Look for one hue that does not appear in the subject and is not a deliberate accent. Stray violet in a warm kitchen, stray green in a brick study. Remove it or repeat it on purpose. An accident that happens once looks like a stain. Repeated, it can look like a decision.

Edges, harmony and the last tube

Find one firm edge and one soft edge. If every boundary is equally blended, colour is being asked to draw, and it will not. Overblending: How Paint Loses Its Freshness describes the loss. Restate a single edge and look again.

Then ask the unkind question: which tube could leave the palette with no damage to this study? If the answer is several, the study may be more harmonious than you thought. If the answer is none, because every tube has a small job, you may be collecting colours instead of mixing them. Repaint one passage using only the parents that did the real work. The comparison is worth more than another half hour of tinkering.

Pin the study up for a day before you decide it needs a rescue. Fresh paint flatters the maker. Tomorrow the checklist gets shorter, because the faults that remain are the real ones.

Frequently asked questions

How long should the checklist take? A few minutes. If it becomes a second painting, you are avoiding the next study. Note one fault, fix that one, and stop.

What if value is right and the colour still feels wrong? Then look at saturation and at whether the hues belong to one scheme. A correct tone in a hostile hue still jars. Grey the intruder slightly before you change its lightness again.

Can I use this on a design? Yes. Squint for contrast, name the dominant hue, check that accents are few, and ask which swatch is unemployed. A layout fails the same tests as a painted study, only faster.