Color Exercise

In oil painting, color is associated with the physical substance of paint- thick or thin. As artists we have the role of applying, mixing, blending, or layering color to achieve a variety of effects from a standard palette. When mixing or preparing a single hue, we can use colors right out of the tube or combine several colors. As a result, the color can have an identity through its simple color, degree of brightness, and light value. On the canvas, colors also have relationships to one another- which affect not only how one is interpreted (red next to green vs. red next to yellow), but also the feel of the whole image. We will be exploring both how to mix colors- and how to consider them within a painting.

Terms
Adjacent color- colors next to each other on the color wheel. Red and orange, blue and green.

Saturation/Chroma- the degree of brilliance of color away from neutral value. High chroma is brighter, low chroma is more neutral. Tube colors like cad red or veronese green tend to have higher chroma than those same colors mixed from several hues.

Complimentary color- colors opposite one another on the color wheel. Red and green.

Hue - the simple color of a substance, for example: red, bluish red, or yellow-red. Sometimes we think of this as the color out of the tube.

Shade- a color with the presence of black/dark. Also, a darker shade of a color. Navy is a shade of blue.

Tint- any hue color that has been mixed with white.

Value/Tone- degree of lightness and darkness.

Consider
In what ways can we interpret colors that we observe?
How do we create colors from our palette?
How can we create an effective method for understanding color and color mixing?
What are the properties of each color in our palette and how might this be useful in an oil painting?

Materials
Gessoed canvas, palette, brushes, turpenoid or water, all oil paints, rag, gloves, glass jars w/lids for thinner.

Color Mixing Chart
due February 10

Create a large color mixing chart on gessoed canvas. This chart will be a representation of all (one to one color) combinations for our standard palette with tints. Follow the guide to construct the chart w/colors labeled. Use the following colors:

White, Cad Yellow Li, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Siena, Cad. Red, Aliz Crimson, Magenta,
Ult. Blue, Cerulean, Viridian, Sap Green, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber

For each color intersection

Cad Red and Cad Yellow = Mixture

Tint 1: 50% Mixture/ 50% White

Tint 2: 25% Mixture/ 75% White