Sunday, July 13, 2008

Color Wheel error


Click any image to see an enlarged view.

Looking back at the first steps to create my very own color wheel, I see I made a mistake not in creating the color, but in placing it in its correct spot. Did you see my mistake?

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to work some more on the color wheel and do the first exercise.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Color wheel - spectrum colors

Click any image to see an enlarged view.

Finished with my color mixing for today.

I made all the colors found around the color wheel using the recipes in the book I'm using. The only adjustment I made was finding a sub for thalo green. I decided it was close enough to viridian. I looked at the color wheel I had printed it off from the handprint site. I can't seem to find the exact one at the handprint site but I did find this one ... a value chart of colors all lined up against a gray scale value bar. I thought it was pretty cool and did answer some questions for me. http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/vwheel.html all the information at handprint.com is for watercolors but you can learn much that translates to oils and acrylics there. After all, pigment is pigment.

Here's my color mixing for today.



Another point I found interesting at handprint is this statement:

Because most artists have been trained under the "color theory" dogma that paints are just "colors", even knowledgeable artists or authors such as Michael Wilcox, Charles Reid, Susanna Spann, Jim Kosvanec or the late Zoltan Szabo do not always keep the distinction clear between pigments (colored powders), paints (mixtures of pigments and liquid vehicle) and "colors" (the product names given to paints). This results in frequent inaccuracies and outdated information in art instruction books, as explained in my book reviews. The editors at publishing houses such as Watson-Guptill, North Light or Watercolor Magazine share in the responsibility — after all, packaging and distributing information is their business. This confusion is an entrenched habit, abetted by the marketing techniques of art materials manufacturers, but a conscientious effort by artists, authors and publishers can put it in the past.

Color Study

Click any image to see an enlarged view.

I'm beginning a study of color. I may have mentioned this a couple of times before, because I've started this color study several times and just got distracted. It would be good if I had a class that I had to show up to at a certain time and then get a grade at the end... that might help me finish up, but until then, I'm going to start again and again if that's what it takes. :)

For my study of color I'm going to use a book written by Arthur Stern called "How to see color and paint it". I may jump around a bit so I don't get bogged down in reading text and not getting paint on a canvas but I do intend on moving thru the exercises he gives. I've never made it past the third exercise before. There are 22 painting projects. I feel that finishing all 22 will give me a better understanding of where I go wrong with most of my paintings.

I'll post my progress if you want to follow along and welcome you to also post any exercise you might do too. Actually, if you would do the exercises with me, it might help me complete them. We could be classmates! :)

Get ready:

I'll be using 8 oil paints.
Alizarin crimson
Cadmium red light
Cadmium orange
Cadminum yellow pale
Phthalocyanine green
Phthalocyannine blue
Ultramarine blue
Titanium white

Palette knifes
Canvas
Palette
solvent and medium
view finder
set up box
easel
paper towels
pencil
tape
colored paper ... I may use material instead. (this is for taping to the set up box so you can change out the color of your background)
trash can
easel
lights

You might think listing these is silly but I'm also trying really hard to clean up my studio, so having a list of things I need helps me make sure I keep my essentials handy... ready to use.

I need to contruct a set up box. So that's what I'm doing today.