The first thing to realize when you step into the world of lighting is that traditionally, light are going to be you absolute largest power draw- way bigger than your PA, your stage amps, and anything else you can throw up there. In fact, stage lights will draw so much current that most bars won't be able to support much lighting (if at all). Expect to flip a few breakers.
That said, technology is finally starting to catch up. High efficiency, low wattage bulbs are finally starting to infiltrate (albeit slowly), and LED cans are slowly starting to come up to spec with PAR cans, and with far less power consumption. Unfortunately, the price is often prohibitive.
So, you want to get into lights on a budget? There are 2 categories that you've mentioned that you want- stage wash and color wash (pointing out at the audience). The color wash doesn't need to be high wattage necessarily, and depending on how dark the performance space is, the stage wash might not need to be super bright either. I'd also suggest getting a small fog machine if you don't play in a lot of smoky bars (go out on Nov 1 and buy one in the clearance Halloween section). The light will catch on the fog or smoke and really help out your color wash. Depending on how low your budget is, here are some options.
1) Cheapo, cheapo, cheapo- probably $30-100:
Buy some shop lights with clamps built in. I'd suggest at least one per band member. Clamp this light to a mic stand, amp, cymbal stand, or anything close to the band member. Point it AWAY from the audience and at the band member.
Now you can see him. For color, you can buy a regular cylinder fixture and tape a colored gel sheet at the end (do it loosely so the gel doesn't get too hot). Alternately, you can buy a colored bulb and use the same cylindrical fixture- this time, though, get some tissue paper or something (especially if using the cool low wattage bulbs) and put it over the end to diffuse the light a bit. Be aware that incandescent bulbs generate a lot of heat- enough to melt gel packs and set fire to other things.
2) Less cheapo, the nice "bar band" option- probably about $3-400:
One of
these for stage wash, and one of
these behind the drummer. Alternately, you can get two of the lighting truss packages and set them up on either side of the band, crossfiring across the stage.
You might try one or two of these
LED lights, but I've got no experience with them and can't vouch for their brightness. Some say two cans can light up an entire stage. I don't know- two years ago I would have said no way after seeing some lousy ones in action, but today? Who knows.
For what it's worth, here was my first lighting system:
I bought some of those spotlight fixtures designed for outdoors, and plenty of 100W bulbs. I then bought some long plastic planters and mounted the fixtures inside. I bought some sheets of colored gel from a local audio rental shop and taped them to the edges of the planters. The plugs all ran out to a homemade dimmer made with household dim switches mounted in a Radio Shack box. Found out pretty quick that all that wattage was more than the dimmers were designed for...
So no matter what you do, your lights will be better than mine (although mine still worked perfectly).
Oh, one more thing. Please don't use a ton of color in your stage wash- not if that's the only thing you've got lighting the stage. Use your back line for color, and keep your front line fairly neutral- either naked bulbs or mute colored gels. To me, there's nothing worse than a band spending a bunch of money on lights just so that they will be washed out in green or red the whole night. Color will work if it's all on most of the time- the colors will mix to white- but you're just hurting yourself if the whole stage is one color all night long.
Check it out. Washed out. Red from behind, pink/magenta from in front. I'm sure this is just one scene of many in the concert, but imagine looking at this all night...
Much better. Red behind, some blues and yellows coming down, but the whole band is lit from the FRONT with neutral colors to make them visible and look good.
Another awkward example. Blue is coming from every direction. Would not be fun to look at for an entire show or an entire song.
Another really good one. You see some blues in the background, as well as some magenta, but the performers are in white.
Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now.
Good luck!