Rambling on color

 

"Color, A course in mastering the art of mixing colors", by Betty Edwards

Here we are getting the typical fall weather- a succession of strong storms moving in from the Pacific with lots, and lots of rain. Sometimes a steady light drizzle, sometimes a heavy downpour.
This is amuse-yourself-inside kind of weather.

I am reading a book on color theory by Betty Edwards, which expands on her experiences with painting. I am trying some of the color mixing exercises which included creating a circular gray scale for isolating and evaluating different value and intensity levels by laying it over an area of color and matching the relative values through the little punched holes in the wheel. This was more difficult to create than I expected- I adjusted the value segments several times, and still don't have an even distribution.
The color wheels were much easier to do, although I didn't have the suggested paint color to use on the green and the violet sections. I was familiar with lightening a color by adding white, but had not tried darkening down colors by adding black, having been cautioned that would deaden or flatten the color. I'd always just added another dark hue to the mix.

I discovered a whole new range of colors by adding a tiny amount of black to a pure color, or to a simple mix. The paint does not always react the way you expect, due to the chemistry.

I also discovered I am not paying attention to the difference between the lightness of a color vs the intensity of a color.

According to Betty, my brain might be getting in the way of seeing what is really there, a phenomenon she calls "color consistency", where you revert to your early training of coloring the sky and water blue, and the foliage green, and the sun yellow.
Sometimes a problem can be fixed by simply adjusting the value or intensity of a color to work better with the others around it.

Cat 70

Cat 70, Lizzy
12" x 12", acrylic on board

From a shot taken in 2012. This painting was fast, and I didn't over fuss it for a change.
Again with the goal of softening edges, and brush strokes showing. Worked with the three primary colors: ultramarine blue, cad red light and cad yellow light. And White.
I like the softer approach of neutral colors and lower contrast, with only a few detailed lines.

Cat 69 Lizzy in the studio #2

Cat 69, Lizzy in the Studio #2
9 x 12", acrylic on board

Using the same photo reference as the previous painting. In a vertical format instead of square, and the color base is blue and orange (mix using cad red light & yellow light).
This was a response to the ongoing struggle with #68. I wanted to try a different approach, working with a more neutral pallet. Drawing with the paint using a filbert shaped brush resulted in a looser line quality. Still a little rigid, but heading in a good direction.

Cat 68 Lizzy in the studio #1

Cat 68, Lizzy in the Studio
12 x 12", acrylic on board

From a shot taken in 2011. The idea was to work "looser", let brush strokes show, and have softer edges on the forms. I used a limited palette of red and green as the base colors, modified with white and blue.

I puttered ineffectively for months on this. I neglected to get the proportions and the placement on the board correct to start with- I automatically plop the subject in the center.
And then, I was reluctant to paint over the (very) few areas that I was happy with.

I shelved it for a few months, pulled it out to work on it again, and finally threw in the towel and painted over the whole darned thing.

Lessons learned:
Make better choices when selecting a photo to work from and pay attention to the crop & composition.
Sometimes walking away from a problem painting for a long time can be very enlightening.
 And if it's clearly bombing, it's best to stop and make a fresh start.

Cat 66, Tiger on the porch

Cat 66 Tiger on the porch
acrylic on canvas, 12" x 16"

   Once again I reverted to the bad habit of getting too involved in details before establishing the basic structure and had to put this painting aside for 2 months to come back with a fresh eye, and the courage to paint over some nicely executed- but poorly placed- brush work. Ack!
At least it's getting closer to what I want to see.
 Not really done with this yet- I intend to work on the right side of the painting. Still can't paint trees/foliage. Who knew it would be this perplexing?

What I intended to do:
1. Work out the composition in thumbnail sketches before picking up a brush.
2. Work with a very limited palette.
3. Establish the large forms in terms of value patterns.
4. Utilize warm and cool colors
5. Sculpt the shapes with the brush.
6. Add details at the end.

Snoqualmie River at Fall City

Snoqualmie River at Fall City
acrylic on board, 12" x 12"

   I dusted off my collection of oil paints from the 1970's, and spent a considerable amount of time prying lids off the tubes and cleaning up the threads and caps. Most of the tubes were not salvageable, especially the ones where the lids had popped off over time, but a few were still pliable after all these years. I'm baffled as to how the lids had come off, as they would have to be unscrewed. I have some suspicions of sabotage.

My first mistake was to set up inside to work from a digital photo taken at the river on the old IBM computer. After applying a thin wash over the board, the fumes from the "odorless" mineral spirits and lavender spike oil drove everyone out of the house.
After moving all my supplies outside to the covered porch, I returned to open windows and set up a box fan to clear out the fumes. Oops.
I continued working on it outside by using a small printout of the photo for reference.

Mistake Number 2: I picked up a couple more tubes of paint from a local inexpensive craft store. The low end paint had very little pigment, and excess oil, making it very difficult to mix successfully with the older but better quality paint.

The oils have more resonance - for lack of a better term. The seem richer and deeper in color than the acrylics. If the solvents weren't so overwhelming, I would switch to using this medium in a heartbeat. But for now, I will have to limit them to outside only. Or try using them without any thinners.

Ebony

Ebony
acrylic on board, 12" x 12"
Sold.

   This is Nancy's dog, Ebony; a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. I think. I've never actually met her.
 I meant Ebony, not Nancy.

I'm still sticking with a limited palette strategy: this was done using four colors, plus black and white.

The wood panel was toned with a wash of Raw Sienna. After roughing in the dogs form with pencil, I built the value masses.
 The darker areas are mixes of Raw Umber & Ultramarine Blue, later overlaid with Mars Black.
 The lighter areas are Raw Sienna with a touch of Ultramarine Blue & Titanium White.
 Burnt Sienna was added to create the more intense warm browns on the legs.

 I added mixes of Ultramarine Blue to the washed background. There is a wee bit of Dioxazine Purple mixed into the cast shadow. I'm now wondering if I should have worked a little purple somewhere into the background to create more unity. But it's also fine as it is.