Warm vs cool colours

9 May 2024

Video - Level ◆◆◆

Often in a lesson, particularly when we are painting a landscape, I might ask you to mix up a cool blue, or a warm blue; a cool yellow or a warm yellow. I realised that I haven't spent much time explaining in detail what I mean by this and why it is important.

Knowing more about cool vs warm colours will give you a tool to help you create the right mood in a painting - soothing, sunny, calming, energetic, or somber. It will also help you create the illusion of depth in your landscape paintings.

I'm also often asked by students why their painting doesn't seem as vibrant as mine. While the answer to this is quite detailed and is another lesson all of it's own, part of the answer lies in knowing more about what colours you're mixing together and whether they're warm or cool.

This a rather different lesson today - a sort of combo of skills, theory and Q&A. I've given you the worksheet I've created to download and keep, but I recommend you paint along with your own palette and make a worksheet of your own too.

Happy painting!