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Celeste McCall · 01-05-2004, 05:21 PM

Hi all,
Regarding unity in a painting. I was told by one of my teachers a long time ago to "put a little peanut butter on the chocolate and a little chocolate on the peanut butter".

She was referring to integrating the colors. For instance:

If your painting had an overall background of warm analogous hues with the key color being Orange, and just for an example then let's say it is a formal room that is behind the subject.

Now, of course the subject will look very nice in blue clothing as a contrast against that nice warm orange room behind the subject.

So, If you have a child sitting on an orange sofa with the background being almost entirely analogous to the sofa color, then wouldn't you want to attempt to get a little blue into the background and a little orange onto the dress? To integrate it? Or have I been told wrong about this?

I think that I also read where Vermeer would not integrate his colors. Maybe it was considered verboten back then?

Yet, when you design a painting then it's kind of like designing an interior isn't it?

If you have a large zebra striped chair with 2 zebra striped pillows on it and a large tan/brown sofa with several pillows done in Gold tones.

Then in order for it to look like it goes together, wouldn't one put a gold (with tan/brown in it also)pillow on the zebra chair and take one of it's pillows and add another animal fur print type of pillow to the sofa?

Just wondering if I'm wrong about doing this on portraits as I'm currently planning an oil painting of an asian girl and I want to integrate the colors of her kimono with the background.

01-05-2004, 05:21 PM	#2
Celeste McCall Juried Member FT Professional PA Joined: Dec 2002 Location: Southlake, TX Posts: 162	Unity again Hi all, Regarding unity in a painting. I was told by one of my teachers a long time ago to "put a little peanut butter on the chocolate and a little chocolate on the peanut butter". She was referring to integrating the colors. For instance: If your painting had an overall background of warm analogous hues with the key color being Orange, and just for an example then let's say it is a formal room that is behind the subject. Now, of course the subject will look very nice in blue clothing as a contrast against that nice warm orange room behind the subject. So, If you have a child sitting on an orange sofa with the background being almost entirely analogous to the sofa color, then wouldn't you want to attempt to get a little blue into the background and a little orange onto the dress? To integrate it? Or have I been told wrong about this? I think that I also read where Vermeer would not integrate his colors. Maybe it was considered verboten back then? Yet, when you design a painting then it's kind of like designing an interior isn't it? If you have a large zebra striped chair with 2 zebra striped pillows on it and a large tan/brown sofa with several pillows done in Gold tones. Then in order for it to look like it goes together, wouldn't one put a gold (with tan/brown in it also)pillow on the zebra chair and take one of it's pillows and add another animal fur print type of pillow to the sofa? Just wondering if I'm wrong about doing this on portraits as I'm currently planning an oil painting of an asian girl and I want to integrate the colors of her kimono with the background.