Bold Color: A Simple Strategy with Jeannie McGuire
Bold color doesn't happen by accident.
For artists like Jeannie McGuire (Ep.88), in fact, bold color is a direct result of a strategy. For McGuire, that strategy includes a hard limit on the number of colors she uses in a single painting.
So while the artist has a palette of up to 20, full wells of color… she will only ever use a few at a time.
Here’s how she approaches it (and why).
McGuire has a rule: No more than four tubes of paint (plus the white of the paper) per painting.
When she starts a painting, she can start with any color she wants.
That first color helps her choose her second color and then her third and then her fourth. And then when she's hit four, she stops.
McGuire wants her paintings to have one dominant color. So much so that if she sent you into her studio, she could say, "Grab the red painting" and you'd know which painting she was talking about.
It's not that the painting is all red. There will be additional colors and a lot of mixing. But she wants one color to be the star color of that particular painting.
That sense of color dominance is part of what helps her work feel so bold.
Put it to Practice:
It can be easy to think that bold color is the result of using ALL the color on your surface.
But rules like McGuire’s four pigments can go a long way to creating bold color.
But not only that, there are other advantages that might surprise you.
First, your paintings will have unique color combinations.
Second, you won't feel any limitations going into a painting because you start with all your options.
Third, your final paintings will be beautifully harmonious due to all the color mixing between just four colors. .
And then fourth, for the next painting you do, you can choose a different combination of four colors. This will keep your experience as a painter fresh as well.