How Color Affects a Paintings Mood

Color affects us all subconsciously. When we are in a colored room, and think “oh that’s hideous, I feel angry just looking at it” or on the other hand, just feel a sense of calm. Certain ones make me wonder how something can be so rich in catching my attention, or make my eyes averted. In painting, it is true color is particularly important for artists to pay attention to, but also is extremely beneficial for anyone to be able to analyze the psychological effects that color can play on the paintings mood- which directly alters our feelings in the moment of viewing.

But first, what are the elements of color?

Hue- One of the main properties of color. The human eye can see red, green, and blue light with our cone cells. The full spectrum we can see is labeled as ROYGBIV (shown below). In 1672, Newton conducted experiments with prisms and discovered that white light could be separated into a spectrum of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The hue in combination with value and color mixing, creates the full ranged “artists wheel”.

Full spectrum of hues that the human eye can see.

Saturation- The intensity of color, or purity of it. Intense saturation tends to attract our eye right away and can even make certain hues seem like they are closer to us in distance.

Value- The light or darkness of shades. The classic example is the charcoal greyscale which is shown below. The value of colors is key to making objects look 3D. If you ever take an intro art class, you are likely to do the value scale and practice this while drawing objects in black and white. Contrasting lights against darks is a whole topic within itself.

Harmony- The visually pleasing effects color can give off, especially while in combination with a bunch of hues.

Examples of various color groupings that can create a sense of harmony.

With that little refresher of elements we should know for this topic, there is a better knowing of how to gaze at a painting and on deciding the feelings we get from it.

Let’s examine a color study…

Image from Draw Paint Academy (click the photo to see credited post link).

As you can see, the above color arrangement really alters the overall mood of an image. This is the thing that fascinates me most, is that the whole piece heavily depends on the color palette. Without intentionality, it can lead the viewer to become confused, and make them quit the experience of viewing the painting overall.

Here, the artist has painted in the same location at different times of day. This caused each atmospheric color palette to be slightly different from one another. It is true that the piece of most resonance will be different from each person, but overall we will get related feelings and mood from each of the separate images.

If observing this painting, to me, the bottom left grabs my eye as a mysterious, magical, and slightly deep scene. This is due to the high saturation of the sky color which is a bright and stimulating orange, against the dark blue of the tree. There is also a little bit of a play on complimentary colors, which here are the orange and blue. The values, hues, and harmonic combination tell our eyes its a picture to ponder about.

The intensely warm picture on the top right is depicted during peak daylight hours, and is light, amicable, and comforting. This is due to the overall saturation and bright value. This is the type of painting that can fit a more “commercial aesthetic” because it’s not out of the ordinary, or particularly dark.

The other two paintings are excellent at capturing natural contrast that occurs during mid-day and sunset hours. Nature somehow makes every photo seem cohesive and attractive. What do you think the mood of these paintings are? You can always leave a comment below!

We’ve examined some naturally occurring color combinations which alter the mood of the same composition. All of the colors here can not be argued with- because the artist did not alter them from what they had seen in real life. Now, in an abstract painting, this is not always the case. Thus, the abstract artist creates its own color combination from within their minds, and invent a mood effect. In both observing or making a creative painting, a deep knowing of color theory is important to determine the overall message that is intended.

Determining the mood when a painting is not observed directly from nature

Stated above, semi-abstracted, or abstracted paintings can be an interesting piece to dissect. While the painting below is not completely abstracted, because we have clear forms and objects, it is certainly not done directly observing nature. The artist here did an excellent job at evoking a mystical, calming, and stimulating mood just from the abstract colors they used.

Nancy Boren, "Echoes Along the Slipstream," 2016, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Not getting too deep into color psychology yet (that’s for a later post!) we can know that blue positively communicates feelings of tranquillity and calm, and green evokes feelings of peace and balance. These teal and blue colors are varied in value- they range in strokes of light to darks. The range in value allows for a dramatic effect, while not being too dark, and highlighting the shape of the woman’s head and bodily expression.

The mood is then contrasted with a pop of warm and bright yellow, which intentionally is spread from the bottom left into each corner of the rectangular canvas. This sense of harmony gives out a feeling of balance in both warm and cool families of color.

What we should ultimately look for

It is important to gather the paintings hues of choice, values incorporated, and see if they used a strategic method of placing each element. With these aspects combined, there is an infinite list of adjectives we can feel from the said image. I find it so wondrous that the more you study color and its meaning, the more you can contemplate the piece and appreciate art in general.

If you are collecting art, or creating it, be aware of the mood that the artwork gives off to you and the room you are in. Of course, there is much more to understand about your newly collected original artwork than just the element of color, but that is a key part.