Analogous
Harmony and the Envelope of Light
by Mitchell Albala
Among the most defining qualities of the landscape
is atmosphere—a magical veil of varying color and density
that alters our perception of the world. Green poplars are bathed
in a fiery orange of sunset … color and form dissolve behind
a dense fog … and distant hills give way to blue and violet
hues. These are all effects of the “envelope of light”.
The Impressionists first used the term to describe
not just the effect of sunlight on form, but how the very color
and density of the atmosphere between the viewer and the form could
unify the light. One doesn’t have to be an Impressionist
to appreciate atmosphere and the “envelope” as one
of the key conveyers of the illusion of light.
Three principles
govern the envelope of light in a painting:
• analogous harmony
• reduced tonal range
• atmospheric perspective
Analogous harmony: unifying the light
One of the
most powerful strategies for unifying light is analogous harmony.
Analogous harmony describes the relatedness or compatibility of
colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Red and orange,
for example, are as familial as any two colors can be and, therefore,
innately harmonious.
Analogous harmony is one type of harmony. Many colors can form
a pleasing arrangement that we might call harmonious, but not all
harmonies necessarily unify the color of the light. However, since
landscape begs for a unified light, analogous harmony should definitely
be included in the landscape painter’s toolbox of color strategies.
The
degree to which an analogous set of colors asserts a unified light
can be expressed this way: the more closely knit the analogous
harmony, the more unified the light appears.
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Analogous harmony
December, Mitchell Albala, oil on panel, 12 x 16.
This painting creates a closely knit red-orange-yellow analogy,
infusing the painting with a dense, warm light. This painting
also demonstrates that analogous relationships do not have
to be absolutely strict to still be effective. Colors outside
the analogy can be introduced without breaking down the harmony.
In this case, I added small touches of phtahlo blue and green in the sky and
water. Even the green shares much of the yellow present
in the rest of the painting. |
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Analogous harmony
Orcas Squall, Mitchell Albala, oil on panel, 20 x
16.5, 2006. To capture the unified light so present in cloudscapes,
I used a fairly controlled analogous harmony, staying in the
blue green family. The blue of the sky is tied to the blue-green
cloud mass becasue of the blue component they share. The blue
that gives way to turquoise at the bottom has a strong yellow
component, a hue that is present in large amounts in the cloud
mass. Even the dull purple in the lower left corner, semingly
the most disparate color in the set, contains a blue component. |
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One-hue analogous
harmony
Mitchell Albala, Cascade Dusk, oil on canvas, 20 x 38, 2000.
If the colors within an analogous scheme are extremely close, then the maximum
colored light is achieved. Cascade Dusk is essentially a one-hue analogy—blue.
As a result, there is a palpable sense that everything in the wooded hillside
is drenched in a blue light. Color changes are achieved largely with value differences
and temperature shifts. The foreground snow is warmer than in blues in the distant
trees. Only one color expands the analogy, the pale warm orange-green on the
forward boughs of the trees. |
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