When I was learning about painting and color, I specifically did not understand how red could be “cool,” because red is naturally a warm color. Now that I understand it, I try to explain it in a fairly simple way. Say you have a red ball and use a light source near the ball, like a bulb. Where the actual light from the bulb hits it, where you can see the visible light shining on it, that is the warm red. The shadowed area is a cool red. So, the ball never changes color, but the bulb changes the red in the areas where there is no light directly hitting it (or there is). The shadow area is where you will have that cool red.

Basically, the DNA of the bulb is red and the DNA cannot change. It still has to have qualities of red in there. To create a cool red, we would have to start adding a little bit of blue or black to mute and cool it down. Even raw sienna could create a cooler red. This would be in relation to the lighter area. It is all relative to the sense of how cool you are going to make something. It has to be next to something that is warm. In essence, we put a fair amount of white into areas we want to make lighter or appear lighter. We still use white for warmth, but the shadow areas are where you need to be more careful. White will also lighten the value. It is a battle to keep it dark enough but also cool enough.

Again, think of the red ball when thinking about any cool color. You can have a blue ball and one side is direct light while the other side is in shadow. It has to be cooler in relationship to the warm side. You will always see that contrast when using this type of method in your head.

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