Artists divide the wheel into warm colors (reds, oranges and yellows, the colors of fire and sun) and cool colors (greens, blues and violets, the colors of water, shade and distance).
Key idea
Reds, oranges and yellows read warm; greens, blues and violets read cool. But temperature is also relative: a color looks warmer or cooler depending on what is next to it.
Why it works
We judge colors by comparing them. Put violet beside blue and the violet's red side shows: it looks warm. Put the same violet beside red and its blue side shows: it looks cool. Even within one hue there are warm and cool versions: a red leaning toward orange is warmer than a red leaning toward violet.
Worked example: Warm and cool light in a painting
In Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Banjo Lesson (1893), an older man teaches a boy to play the banjo. Neither light source is shown, but cool, bluish light comes from a window at the left and warm, yellow light from a fireplace at the right. What does the pairing do?
- Two temperatures of light fall on the same figures.
- Cool light on one side and warm on the other model their forms and set them apart from the dim room.
- The warm glow also makes the small room feel close and homelike.
Answer: It models the figures with warm and cool light and gives the scene a warm, close feeling.
Common mistake
Thinking a color is warm or cool in itself, everywhere. Violet looks warm next to blue and cool next to red. When you plan a picture, judge temperature by the neighbors, and do not try to label yellow-green or red-violet as one or the other: they lean either way.