Evaluating Triads 1: Are there impossible Triads?

Are there triads that are impossible to use for a good painting or a joyful experience when painting?

Let’s have a look at that and let’s define our impossible triad first. As Logan mentioned in previous blog posts (Color Theory 101 and What’s more important: hue, value, or chroma?), a painting needs contrast.

This can be achieved by 

• value: light and dark
• chroma: neutral or colorful
• hue: color category such as red, yellow, blue

When I triad doesn’t provide at least one of these, the paintings won’t be a joy to look at. Of course, there is always the possibility to paint monochromatic. But we are talking about triads here. And there are certainly triads that are challenging to use, but are they impossible to use? I had three challenging triads in my Triadvent. 

The evil triads

The first of these challenging triads was a triad that was garishly bright with the additional challenge that darks weren’t easily mixed: Roman Szmal Aureolin Hue (PY151), Winsor and Newton Transparent Orange (DPP) and Rosa Gallery Cobalt Turquoise (PB28). Besides this Cobalt Turquoise is low tinting in comparison with other Cobalt Turquoises, I really missed a dark value for painting shadows. But somehow, the painting worked out fine. In comparison the shadows are dark enough and the colors provided a big enough contrast. But it’s for sure not the painting that brought me the most joy. 

The second of these challenging triads had colors that all had the same vibe: Winsor and Newton Magnesium Brown (PY119), Renesans Intense Cadmium Bordeaux (PR108) and Daniel Smith Undersea Green (PB29, PY150, PO48). Somehow they all look brownish and low chroma. It felt like the hues were not that different. At least undersea green provided some dark values. That triad lent itself well to paint something… brownish. Therefore I decided on some greenish-brown acorns. I exaggerated the light values, so that I could mix some darks that depended not only on undersea green. 

The third of these triads had two dark greens: Rosa Gallery Chromium Oxide Green (PG17) and Holbein Echinops Green Grey (PB29, PG17) with the addition of Roman Szmal Hematite Violet Shade (PR102). Why exactly did I put some greens with the yellows…? But even though all the colors were low chroma and not so varied in hue, they provided a big enough value range, a good enough difference in chroma and hue as well as some nice mixed neutrals. And to my surprise, painting with these three colors and its mixes worked very well. I really enjoyed it!

Conclusion 

There are certainly very challenging triads that I would only pick when the colors are random. The first of the three above-mentioned triads was probably my least favorite of whole Triadvent. But it’s possible to paint with all of them. Surprisingly, it can even be fun!