Do you feel the need to learn more about how to produce appropriate colours for botanical subjects?
This page is a work in progress and will have a lot more content when it is finished. ​​

​This page covers:
Confidence in recognising colour

  • ​TIPS How to improve your recognition of colour 
BASICS: What you need to know about colour - and how it works
  • Colours and colour brands - and what makes colours different
  • Colouring agents: pigments and dyes - and how these can vary in performance
Painting with Colour
  • Colour charts and shade cards - with a short history of Bauer's colour cards 
  • How to mix colours
  • TIPS for creating colour charts and shade cards
  • TIPS for painting specific colours​ ​
​Books about Colour for Botanical Artists
  • Botanical Art Instruction Books covering colour - to be completed
  • Books about Colour for Botanical Artists - generic books about colour which have something useful tom say about colour
ADVANCED: What you need to know about colour - and how it works
  • Colour science and theory - you need to study to understand colour properly (but can skip at the beginning)
  • Hues: Colour Spaces and Schemes: it's good to get basics understood early but some of this is very scientific and beginners can leave

Confidence in using colour
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The handling and use of colour appears to be an aspect of painting in which beginners have least confidence and one which they fear the most
Anne-Marie Evans - the opening sentence of Chapter Five of her book "An Approach to Botanical Painting", about "Colour: Paint Qualities in Practice"
Many botanical painters start by being less than confident in using colour - but want to improve.

Often this is because they know very little about
  • how colour works and/or
  • which colours to use to develop a particular colour. 

Improving your confidence involves:
  • ​FIRST being able to see colour accurately - which means you need to train your eyes to "see colour" (see TIPS)
  • NEXT Learning how different colours work - on their own when diluted and when mixed with different percentages of another colour (i.e. make colour charts) and on different surfaces. The same colour can look completely different on different types and colours of supports. 
  • Learn how a colour looks when used in combination with others; and/or when next to and/or surrounded by another colour
​
The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart; 2nd edition (1966)
The RHS Colour Chart is the standard reference used by horticulturists worldwide for recording plant colours. Resembling a paint chart, it has 920 colours which can be matched precisely to flowers, fruits and other plants in order to record and communicate colours accurately across the world. Each colour has a unique number and letter code as well as a name.
TIPS: How to improve your recognition of colour
​
  • Practice identifying all the colours you can see in a plant - create a study of a plant and develop a related colour 
  • Use a colour recognition app (Apple or Android) - Develop your ability to both recognise differences between colours and sort them into the correct order - with instant feedback when you get it wrong! 
  • Practice naming colours - sounds odd but it works. Making yourself name a colour makes you look more carefully
  • Buy a copy of the RHS Colour Chart - The RHS Large Colour Chart (Sixth Revised Edition) is not cheap (£199) - but includes every colour used to categorise plants. 
  • Develop colour charts which include tints and shades. People often get most used by tints and shades - and yet tints and shades are very common amongst plants
  • Take your own colour charts into a the field and record colours like Ferdinand Bauer - see below for an explanation
  • Get your eyesight checked for colour deficits - sometimes the reason you have problems is because you have a weakness in seeing colour

What you need to know about colour - and how it works
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Colours and Colour Brands
​

Most artists start by buying colours. At this stage they very often don't know what they are buying or what they should be buying. Many may be buying colours on a list provided by a tutor without understanding why they have been put on the list.
I never know what to say to artists when they tell me about the specific paints they have used in a painting - and I know for certain they have included one or more fugitive paints - meaning those areas where the fugitive colours have been used will fade fast and/or change colour. On the whole I find it easier to preach the gospel of lightfastness and the importance of knowing whether you are using archival paints on an archival support!
Katherine Tyrrell
It's important that botanical artists use media which is:
  • lightfast and not fugitive i.e. if you sell a painting you need to be confident the paint will not fade. 
  • comes from a quality supplier - that maintains its standards over time

Many botanical artists prefer to work with:
  • media which where the colouring agent (pigment or dye) is a high percentage compared to other ingredients
WHAT MAKES COLOURS DIFFERENT?

A number of factors make some media better than others. It's important to understand about the manufacturer as well as the media if you want to avoid wasting money.
  • Not every manufacturer of paint is a quality supplier.
  • Not all quality suppliers maintain the same level of quality over time. You need to be mindful of changes in the way media is manufactured and where as this can affect quality
  • Some manufacturers prefer to prioritise quality over price; other prefer to be price competitive - even if that means changing the product (e.g. Sanford moved coloured pencil manufacture from the USA to Mexico as a cost-saving exercise and the quality plummeted. Winsor & Newton paint has changed since manufacture moved from Harrow to France)
  • Not every colour is made the same way by all suppliers - some have more pigment and less filler; others rely on fillers to reduce their prices; yet more change over time as the ratio of ingredients change to avoid price increases. 
  • Some provide comprehensive information about their colours - but not all do. Some are extremely secretive.

Pigments and dyes
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All media – oils, watercolours, acrylics, pastels and coloured pencils – are derived from the same pigments and dyes. What actually varies between different media is the vehicle used to bind the pigment together.
​Colour - a materials perspective #1 - pigments and dyes | Making A Mark
All colours (or colouring agents) come from pigments or dyes.  All media uses the same pigments and dyes as colouring agents.

​It's the other ingredients - and the ratio of other ingredients to colouring agent - which sometimes make a difference to how it behaves when you come to use it.
  • SUMMARY:
  • pigments and dyes come from a number of different sources
  • a pigment is a material which can provide colour but which does not dissolve in water
  • a dye is a pigment ground down to very fine particles which can impart colour when suspended in a solution or medium
  • pigments do not all behave in the same way - because they come from different sources
  • what makes paint vary can be the nature of the pigment - but it can also be the binder or filler used to make the medium. In other words it's not just about the pigment load.
Professional artists don't just pick colours 'because it looks right'. 

They ALSO need to know the properties of the pigments and dyes used in creating the colour - in particular the degree to which the pigment or dye is lightfast (meaning it's suitable for artwork of archival standards) 
  • Pigment behaviour is much more obvious when it is mixed with water than any other way of applying colour to a support. So the botanical artist MUST know in advance what pigments are in a colour and how it is going to behave - on its own and when mixed.
  • Pigment permanency is also really challenged when diluted in water. ​It becomes much more important that colours used are permanent/lightfast and NOT ones which tend to be "fugitive" (i.e. tend to disappear) when diluted and used in thin glazes.​

Some pigments and dyes are
  • very expensive - while others can be quite cheap
  • opaque while others are transparent
  • stain the paper - while others can be washed off without leaving a mark
  • can be ground very finely - or only with great difficulty
Fugitive colours in art media are colours which are based on pigments or dyes which have a short life. They are not lightfast which means they are not permanent. Katherine Tyrrell
What you need to know:
  • Lightfastness - Is it lightfast? (i.e. Is it permanent? Will your colours fade over time?); what ASTM grade has it achieved?
  • Pigment properties - Is it opaque of transparent? Does it stain? Does it have a tendency to granulate?
Permanence
The permanence of an artists' colour is defined as ‘its durability when laid with a brush on paper or canvas, graded appropriately and displayed under a glass frame in a dry room freely exposed to ordinary daylight and an ordinary town atmosphere'. This definition reflects the manner in which we expect to find paintings displayed.
Composition and Permanence Tables | Winsor & Newton

​REFERENCE: Pigments, Dyes and Permanence

Colour Science and Theory 
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Botanical artists also need to know about colour science and theory i.e. how colour works

I'm best known as an artist for my use of colour - however when I retired I decided I didn't know enough about colour.

​In July 2008 I undertook a very thorough study and review of colour - with a view to becoming better at understanding and using colour.  The project became known as The Making A Mark Colour Project with the findings recorded in blog posts on my blog Making A Mark. ​  I've included the main blog posts from that project on this page. They make for a long read!
REFERENCE: Colour Science & Theory
  • What is Colour? (2008)  - Sets out the seven ways I  decided to try and answers the question "What is Colour?" | Making a Mark
  • Colour - a scientific perspective | Making A Mark​ - This post focuses on the science of colour – in simple terms: the defining characteristics of colour; how colour is made and how we see and think about colour
  • Why your colours on screen don't look the same when printed | Making A Mark (10 March 2011) Have you ever wondered why your images on screen don't come out looking the same when printed? This post discusses: how the CMYK model works; why RGB files don't look like CMYK files and how to convert an RGB file to a CMYK file for printing purposes

DOWNLOAD Guides about Colour for free​​
making_a_mark_guide_-_colour_a_scientific_perspective_v1.0.pdf
File Size: 356 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Hues: Colour Space and Schemes
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There are a number of different ways of describing how colours can be organised in space - and hence what sort of relationships they have. People have written at great length about colour relates one to the other. For examp;e:
  • relationships: Complementary, Analogous, Split complementaries Triads and Tetrad

Personally I find I can tell when an artist understands about colour relationships by what colours they use in their painting and how these design the colour relationships within the painting. Even when all the botanical artist is supposed to be doing is recording actual colour.
Over time, many people have tried to develop ways of thinking about how colours relate to one another in space. I've been trying to learn more about this and also trying to find a way of making it all make sense to me.
Goethe's Colour Wheel | wikimedia
The following explains my summary of different approaches to organising colour on the left. 
  • the columns concern different approaches to analysing colour. I've used the additive, subtractive, partitive approaches to differentiate processes relating to different fields.
  • the rows are the different shapes which have been used over time for describing and modelling relationships between colour in space. The shapes - lines, circles, spheres, triangles, cones, cubes, columns, trees - are influenced by the principles which underpin each theory and are partly about how many colours are used for primary colours and whether or not the model is 2D or 3D.
  • I've provided a very brief synopsis about each person's theory beneath their name.
  • Footnotes indicate the periods of schools of painting which particular people influenced.
​​Describing a colour space - there's more than one colour wheel! | Making A Mark
You can download the PDF file which contains this Matrix of Colour Space Theories below - a Table of Colour Theories (see above left) organised by approach to colour theory - additive, subtractive and partitive
making_a_mark_guide_-_a_matrix_of_colour_space_theories.pdf
File Size: 144 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
REFERENCE: Hues, Colour Spaces and Schemes
  • Hues - a systems perspective | Making A Mark (2008) - Hues: primary, secondary and tertiary colours; How to represent colour ... Colour harmonics - complementary colours, analogous colours etc.
  • Describing a colour space - there's more than one colour wheel! | Making A Mark (2008) - About a Matrix of Theories about Colour Space - which is the method I've adopted to categorise some of the people who have tried describe colour in terms of spatial relationships - to describe a colour space.
  • A Matrix of Colour Space Theories (pdf file) (2008) About a Matrix of Theories about Colour Space - which is the method I've adopted to categorise some of the people who have tried describe colour in terms of spatial relationships - to describe a colour space. It provides a 
  • Complementary Colours and mixing neutral colours | Making A Mark (2008) - How to identify complementary colours in the context of different shapes which explain colour theory
  • Analogous Colours | Making A Mark (2008) - This post is an attempt to redress the balance on the paucity of online information about analogous colours - but it also recommends other sources of even better advice and information!
  • Colour Schemes: Split Complementaries, Triads and Tetrads (18 July 2008) 
    Discusses and explains three colour schemes used by professional artists: Split Complementary - a colour plus the two colours either side of its complementary colour; Triad - any three colours which are equidistant on the colour wheel and Tetrad - any four colours which are equidistant on the colour wheel​
Before James Gurney (Gurney Journey)  wrote his very popular book (Colour he posted on his blog about colour on a regular basis 

Painting with Colour
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Colour Charts and Shade Cards
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The major benefit of developing colour charts is that you can match the hue and tone on the paper to the plant in the field (or in your studio!)

The first - and probably the most famous artist to use colour charts ever - was Ferdinand Bauer who numbered all his colours and shades and then used numbers to annotate the sketches he could not paint on the spot with the colours he had seen.  (My Ferdinand Bauer page is in draft and now this page is started I must finish it!)

​Bauer's colour charts have been lost but it's believed that Czech botanist and explorer, Thaddäus Haenke found one. This is now kept at the Royal Botanic Garden Madrid along with other charts that Haenke developed. However we know more about the colours he had in his chart due to the numbered monochrome sketches he left.

In 2017, the Bodleian in Oxford developed a display to demonstrate how Bauer's system worked - in liaison with the publication of the book Painting by Numbers
REFERENCE:
Picture
Reconstructed and numbered colour charts used by Ferdinand Bauer - part of the Painting by Numbers Display at the Bodleian in Oxford (2017)
Picture
Painting by Numbers display at the Bodleian
Picture
Facsimile of Bauer's Colour Chart - 'digitally cleaned up'
Painting by Numbers: The life and art of Ferdinand Bauer 
by David Mabberley
This is the story of the life and painting techniques of Ferdinand Bauer.

​He perfected the technique of painting by numbers i.e. sketching and colour-coding in the field, and then colouring later using his pre-prepared and number colour charts on his expedition with Matthew Flinders to circumnavigate Australia. 
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: NewSouth Publishing
Publication date: 1 Nov. 2017
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1742235220
ISBN-13: 978-1742235226
Dimensions: 24.1 x 3.3 x 30.5 cm

BUY THIS BOOK
The author, Professor  David J Mabberley AM, is a British-born Australian botanist, educator and writer. He was consecutively
  • Director of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens;
  • Keeper of the Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; and
  • Executive Director of the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney
  • ​Emeritus Fellow, Wadham College, Oxford University
The very best way of learning how to mix colours is to

  • mix colours in a systematic way
  • create a colour chart.
  • mix colours using any media - dry media works just as well as paint.
  • Use the type of paper or support you'd use for an artwork as the support makes a big difference to how colour reads - and whether it sinks or stays on the surface
How to avoid spending a lot of money mixing paint to create charts of colours you may never use.

Sometimes it's best to start with
  • a specific purpose in mind
  • a guide from another source
  • and then focus in on the colours which you want to use.
Picture
Shade card of optical colour mixes using complementary colours of coloured pencils and vertical and horizontal hatching (by the author)
The two main ways of mixing colours

These are:

PHYSICAL mixing of one colour into another to create a new colour - using a brush or palette knife or pastel or pencil  What that colour looks like depends on
  • the power of each brand/pigment
  • the relative percentages used eg 75:25 50:50. 
Paint is typically mixed on a palette away from the support for the painting.

OPTICAL Mixing of one colour with another - laying one over the other but allowing the base colour to still be seen.  Optical mixing is typically created on the support. Examples include:
  • working "wet in wet" in watercolour
  • hatching pencils or pastels over one another
What the result looks like depends on:
  • the nature of the ground/support,
  • the relative strength of the underpaint and covering paint,
  • the control exercised over the mixing and
  • the extent to which a colour is opaque or transparent.
When using dry media there is a potential for all mixes to be optical since all mixing MUST be done on the support.
TIPS for creating colour charts and shade cards

Develop colour charts based on
  • different colour groups
  • analogous colours
  • complementary colours
  • testing different mixes of the same two colours e.g. and/or additions of white or black and/or dilutions and/or variations on which colour is the underpaint and which is the glaze.
Develop colour (hue, tints and shades) charts for:
  • specific paintings
  • specific projects or series of paintings 
  • different habitats / regions / countries
​Annotate charts with the names of the brand and colour used - and the specific painting or project if relevant.

File your colour charts in a folder and use them as a reference guide for colour mixing.
REFERENCE:
  • Making Radial Colour Charts - Eunike Nugroho produces colour charts of watercolour paints that you can hold up to the plant, flower or vegetable

​Getting Colour Mixes, Charts and Glazes Right ​
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A series of articles by Carolyn Payzant 
​Other non-botanical bloggers
In terms of art supplies I can to tell you there's massive endorsement for Daniel Smith watercolours - particularly the quinacrodines - and the Winsor and Newton Permanent Rose (another quinacrodine PV19) and Winsor & Newton Winsor Violet (Carbozole dioxazine PV23).
Katherine Tyrrell
“Greens look unnatural when used straight from the tube, so I prefer mixing my own. I am a devout believer in the utility of shade cards – they save time and will help you learn about the properties of paint." Mary Ann Scott SBA

TIPS for painting specific colours
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Painting White
Painting Yellow
If you have examples online of specific exercises involving how to paint using specific colours - which you would like me to share a link to - please contact me

Books about Colour - for Botanical Artists
​

Few books providing botanical art instruction cover colour, how it works and matters relevant to painting botanical art in any depth. Most confine themselves to "how to" examples which provide a list of specific colours
The Botanical Palette: Colour for the Botanical Painter 
by Margaret Stevens
It includes an overview of the colour issues which crop up time and time again at the beginning and throughout the book. This was informed by a survey of students on the SBA Diploma course - in which they identified problems they had with colour.
Katherine Tyrrell - see links to my book review below
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Read my detailed review 
The second book produced by the Society of Botanical Artists with Margaret Stevens. 

It focuses solely on the subject of how to achieve the right colour in botanical art.

One of the major issues for botanical artists is making sure they get colours correct when painting botanical specimens. Understanding colours - and how to create the correct colour shade, tone and mix - and understanding colours - are ESSENTIAL competencies for  every botanical artist.

This book provides a very authoritative and helpful guide to this topic - and will doubtless be welcomed by all those seeking to develop and improve the quality of their botanical art - and improve their mastery of the colours found in plants.
Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Collins (2007) / Smithsonian in USA (2008)

This book is out of print - however you can still get hold of copies second-hand - but it's very expensive!

I recommend you:
  • check out the offers under "used" books. 
  • use a supplier who has a very high satisfaction score.

I'm a big buyer of second hand books - on Amazon and elsewhere - and have very rarely been disappointed when buying from those rated above 95%

BUY THIS BOOK

Botanical Art Instruction books - covering Colour
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BELOW I will develop a summary of the chapters and pages primarily devoted to composition in various botanical art instruction books ( as I have started for design and composition) - in order of the quantity and quality of the content. 
It's NOT yet started and if you know a book you've found particularly useful please let me know.

Other RECOMMENDED books about Colour for Botanical Artists
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​BELOW are links to my blog reviews about other recommended books about Colour 
- which are NOT related to botanical art
These are also links to my websites about:
INDEX
EDUCATION ​​Need Tuition? ​Other Opportunities​