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#Post#: 18--------------------------------------------------
Yellow-purple traditional complementary palettes in scenery
DIR By: Pam
Date: May 20, 2021, 10:08 am
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Last week I looked at red-green colour palettes, this time I
want to look at one of the other two traditional 'complementary'
colour palettes.
As a comment pointed out last week, the use of the term
'complementary' for these palettes is somewhat outdated, as the
modern colour wheel is a bit different to the traditional one
teaching red, yellow, blue as the primary colours. Nevertheless,
all the art books I've read, and all the art folks I know refer
to these as complementary, so I'm going to refer to these as
'traditional complementary palettes' for now until a better way
of describing them comes along. The colour wheel they're based
on may be outdated, but these are still some of the most popular
2 hue colour palettes.
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The Dig is a great example of several variations on this idea.
Here we see a vivid purple foreground and a vivid yellow
backdrop, with dark purple and dusty reds and oranges showing
middle grounds nicely. The rich colours give the scene a classic
'science fiction' feeling of an alien world, and really pushing
their saturation is a great way of spicing up natural looking
forms to look both spectacular and memorable. Yellow rimlights
also help to delineate forms nicely. I love this particular use
of yellow, having the reds in between the two colours really
makes the scene glow.
HTML https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Htl_1-fT3I/WILNfcccZII/AAAAAAAAAr0/lt55-g1rdIky94n5Wua7B9tp4_XO0vC0ACEw/s400/98572-shannara-screenshot.png
Another example of using reds between the two colours to give a
warm glow is this scene from Shannara. The yellow candles not
only warm the scene up, but also help to distinguish foreground
forms, such as the human figure who sports his own personal
yellow purple palette. Interesting to see how the spines of the
books are hit with purple as though it was a hidden light
source, despite the fact that nothing else reveals the presence
of any purple light source. This may have simply been a way to
tie them more closely into the scene's tight palette.
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A much more exaggerated example of a red between the yellow and
purple is this scene from Sam & Max. The red is so prominent
here that I wouldn't call this a yellow/purple palette, but it's
interesting to see how shifting the balance changes things. The
purple here feels more like a background element, hitting
shadows and distant object more than anything else, but it's
still vivid enough to feel memorable. An odd colour combination
that helps this scene feel suitably bizarre.
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From a warm purple to a cool purple, The Dig once again provides
another example of this combination. The yellow in the distance
looks quite welcoming, from the rather alien purple in the
foreground, and can be used two ways - if we were walking in
from the yellow background into the purple foreground, it could
feel like entering from a 'safe' location into an uncertain one.
If we were going from the purple foreground to the yellow
background, it could feel like leaving a potentially dangerous
place into the welcoming safety of sunlight. I particularly like
how the yellow hits the edges of forms here, helping to show
distance and delineate form.
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Similarly cool purples are present in this scene from King's
Quest 6. Once again, the purple feels slightly mysterious
compared to the yellow middle ground, but here it represents
strange objects such as a skeleton, a crystal ball and a suit of
armour, and the area in which we can walk is all yellow and
'safe'. This bluish purple helps to offset the many yellows and
the whole scene has a light, airy feel that's framed nicely by
these slightly darker, cooler foreground elements.
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By making the yellow less vivid, or 'saturated' and making the
cool purple more vivid we get a nice futuristic feel, as in this
shot from Gateway. Because purple isn't a common colour for a
natural light source, nor is it common for ordinary, everyday
lighting, showing such a cool purple as a light really gives the
scene a feeling of advanced technology. The same applies for the
yellows - we're used to yellow lighting being quite warm and
vivid, whether from the sun or electric lighting, and showing it
in such a stark, cool form as a light makes it feel sterile and
artificial. A great way to help establish a science fiction
setting.
HTML https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dNc7jcK44C0/WILNdggMUQI/AAAAAAAAArY/in9u8I7zWCMVlrPEQ3Zdsam6y3-A4IgOACEw/s400/700234-the-dig-dos-screenshot-one-of-the-first-locations-you-ll-explore.png
Science fiction is also well suited by warmer colours when
dealing with more natural environments, though - this shot from
The Dig has a sunny, warm yellow showing the alien sun bearing
down on the landscape. This warms the purples up too,
particularly where they cast shadows on the distant forms, which
gives a strong feeling of ambient light. Once again, however,
the lack of saturation in this lightsource makes it feel
slightly off - it's too pale and washed out to be a sunset on
Earth, which is the time of day the colours and the shadows
would suggest, making this look alien and unusual.
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By contrast, the yellow highlights in this scene in King's Quest
6 fight to light up an oppressive expanse of deep, saturated
purple which feels gloomy and massive. Whereas the yellow in the
last shot lit the distant purples right up, here the purple
largely reigns, with just a few highlights of yellow here and
there. This is helped by the cavernous expanse of black water
which sucks up any light the torches shine also.
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Between the two extremes lies this middle ground from Gabriel
Knight - the purple in the darker areas feels cool and somewhat
gloomy, but glows where the yellow fire hits it, warming it
right up. This is a nice way of balancing out the cooler, darker
areas, by showing not only the yellow light source, but the
effect it can have on the purples of the image.
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A similar thing can be seen in this shot from Kyrandia - where
the sunlight coming in through the window hits the yellows and
purples they glow with rich colour, and in the shadowy areas
they both have less saturation, showing that the effect works on
yellow also. Here the yellow isn't a lightsource, and the deeper
colours and darker values make it feel less light and airy than
the earlier interior from King's Quest 6. The combination of
yellow and purple here also feels quite rich and regal - purple
especially brings to mind royalty, or someone important, and the
gold decorations would never be seen in a commoner's habitat. A
great way to convey status through colour.
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One last shot from Kyrandia, here showing a scene with no
visible lightsources, but nevertheless one that has light coming
from a clear direction. The purple dragon here feels more
'magical' than the more menacing, traditional red, black or
green dragons. Purple is an unusual colour to find in nature,
and the presence of it in a creature's colourings feels
interesting more than a threatening red or black. The purple
crystal ball also suggests magic, and the yellowy paper helps to
suggest the writings of a wizard in some long forgotten time
much more than clean, white paper we're used to seeing would.
This is an interesting example of how applying these colours to
materials provides insight into the setting.
As we've seen, the purple/yellow combination of colours is great
at suggesting certain feelings, and by cooling them down or
heating them up we can helps establish particular atmospheres. I
love studying how other artists have employed these hues
together, and seeing which combinations feel 'right' and trying
to work out why. It's a facinating palette, used by many
artists, and one well worth experimenting with.
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