COLORING: STRUZAN PART 2

The Struzan coloring studies continue. While learning about “Primary Warm Secondary Cool” in Part 1 of this series, I noticed some didn’t quite fit in that category and I found more and more that fit in that bucket. I’m calling those that did not quite fit: “Primary Warm Neutral Cool”. This is for montages with the main character having the key light and shadow fill light be warm, but uses cool colors in the key light and fill light for the neutral part of the character. For example, below, Indy is mostly Primary Warm and Secondary Warm, except for his shirt which is Neutral Cool:

In the comparison below, the left shows what the image would look like if Indy was “Primary Warm Secondary Cool”. The right shows how Struzan keeps it “Primary Warm Neutral Cool”:

This keeps the main hero of the composition with a face rich with blood and boldness against any other cool colors in the composition. In the example below, we see Han with no traces of blue. He is Primary Warm Neutral Cool because only his gun and shirt are blue. But all of the secondary characters are Primary Warm Secondary Cool (blue in shadows and neutrals).

Similar concept at play below. Mostly monochromatic color scheme, but Han is Primary Warm Neutral Cool: