Welcome to
The Painting Lesson
by Linda Carson
big black pig studio
98 King St. N., Waterloo Ontario Canada
www.bigblackpig.com
Saturation or Intensity
One of the characteristics painters use to describe a colour specifically is saturation, how vivid or clean the colour is. This is different from hue (what colour family it belongs to, such as green or yellow) and value (how light or dark it is). Saturation is the difference between a bright orange colour (i.e. saturated) and a burnt orange or terra cotta (i.e. unsaturated colour), between the red of a stop sign or a fire truck (i.e. saturated colour) and the red of burgundy or oxblood.
Saturated colours—also known as intense, or high-intensity, colours—are usually straight out of the paint tube. Unsaturated colours—also known as low-intensity colours—are smoky, muddy, murky or "greyed down."
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For example: The vivid red "frame" is a saturated colour, and the inner squares grow increasingly unsaturated as they approach the centre. |
These example paintings also feature saturated (or intense) palettes:
Who wants muddy unsaturated colours? You do. Unsaturated colours are the olive greens and khakis and mosses and gunmetals and ivories and taupes you need to paint twilight, landscape and flesh tones. The easiest way to make them is by mixing complementary colours.
These example paintings feature unsaturated (or low-intensity) palettes:
Back to the main lesson?Art & Text (C) Linda Carson 2002
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