Introduction to Color in painting

A standard color wheel- you can purchase one of these at the bookstore or any art supply store.

Many of you have made a color wheel in the past. For those of you who have not, I request that you create one. It is important to learn how colors mix and interact. It is also helpful to have a pocket color wheel to refer to until you get more familiar with colors and how they work. 

Color, a workshop approach, is a great color theory book. I highly recommend it. I am taking a few images from this book to share with you-  

This is some of the illustrated glossary, I chose pages with terms and examples of some of the things we will work on specifically in this class. 

Color Progressions

We will be working on a number of color progressions with our first painting project. We will move through a complementary pair to their neutral, we will move through a complementary pair through a chromatic grey, we will move through progressions in hue, value, and saturation when working on describing observational light and shadow in our painting.

When we set up a pallette, 

we will use a certain method of organization.  I will show you the way I organize a pallette, 

and we will also work on a color study to unify our pallette at home on our own time over the next 2 weeks.

Painting Projects 2 and 3

Stine

Painting 1: 207 Project 2 and 3

The subject-reference for the next two paintings will be something current that you are interested in that you can find information about online and in print. This can be stories, videos, new headlines, underground things, events, objects, animals; the subject matter is open, but you must find information in print form and print online info in digital form.  From this information we will be building a 3d form and painting it as our “still life” subject, and then we will make a 2D collage and paint it as our subject. The 3D form & 2D collage should fit into your locker, or be stored within the painting storage rack area.

For project 2:

You will create a 3 dimensional object out of two-dimensionally organized information that references a three-dimensional world. Print material and digital material establishes a record, is destined for a particular readership, and is edited as a selective account of political, social, cultural, economic and natural forces. This “built” object can be an animal/person/creature/thing/place/scene/object/event- it can be made of more than 1 thing/element, but you will be building it out of 2d materials-- like paper, printed matter, images, text, clippings, even drawings.

Bring to class on Wednesday September 27th:

hard copies of information addressing the subject you are interested in;

these must include some text, you should have photocopies, digital copies (ink jet etc- color and black and white), magazine clippings, book pages, newspaper clippings etc-  your choice- but bring many.

-        masking tape /clear or colored packaging tape, hot glue and/or stapler

-        white drawing paper

-        some of your extra cardboard from project 1 if you have it

    

For the first painting: making something 3d out of something 2D- and looking at something 3D translating it into 2D :

Begin the project by looking at your printed information again. You will have already read it because you researched to find it, but reading it again in printed form, if it was digital, is a different experience. Identify stories, images, or an arrangement of pages that interest to you, or that provokes a question or idea.  Construct a three-dimensional / volumetric form* using the pages, copies, white and colored paper, and parts of one of your cardboard grounds + tape or staples, to create the form. (This is an extension of the challenges of spatial illusion in the paintings just completed, in black & white.) Develop this 3-D form to demonstrate some response to the subject or images which you have selected. The three dimensional form may be a simple volume to allow any image or subject to be visible across the planar paper surface; or it can replicate or respond as a more complex form, to the images or subjects you have identified.

Bring For Monday October 2^nd:

-        one of two stretched and primed, ready-to-go canvases that you made: proportions of your choice

-        your kit supplies: a full-color palette of paints, including black and white;

     *however*, for this painting you must work primarily with a limited color pallette: black (your own “mix” and tube) and white plus one of the complementary pairs: red/green, blue/orange, or yellow/violet;     

Create this painting from observation: You want to be able to reach in and imagine grabbing the item much like the still lives from the golden age. Consider the size of the form in relation to your canvas, and your point of view: depending on its character and your view of it, your construction may occupy what we might call “still-life,” “landscape,” or “figurative” space; consider the area under, around, or behind the form as a factor in your composition. Refer back to the slide collection to find inspiration and suggestions as to how to render white paper and forms in still life space.

For Project 3:

2D translated into 2D: collage into painting

For October 16^th:

• Bring your second completed primed and stretched ready-to-go canvas
• Bring your remaining print materials related to your chosen interest or theme. Print or collect more if necessary.
• Bring paper/canvas pad, glue sticks, tape, scissors, xacto.  

To get started, after building your second frame, stretching and priming with gesso, establish a “color” ground:  paint the surface with a color, tint or shade of your choice.

Then start to think about what kind of collage you would like to make as the subject of your painting. Stay away from “high school” collages, and imagine something closer to modernist collage. It can be abstract or create an image. This is a compositional exploration much like our 3^rd black and white painting, so consider both the positive and negative space being important and come up with something dynamic. 

Select one of these options for this painting:

•A collaged image: 2-D translated as an enlargement – must include some text or text fragments :

Assemble excerpts and images from one or more pages as a 2D collage on paper. You may want to use adhesive paste

for this,  I recommend YES paste or UHU glue stick.  Develop a painting based on the collage. Work from close observation.

Your prepared canvas should be approximately twice as large as your source or larger: enlarge the image of the collage so that it fills  or is adjusted in an exciting way within the proportion of your canvas.

•A collage image zoomed in or fragmented: 2-D enlarged to a greater degree : must include some text or text fragments :

Respond to a subject in your print media by selecting and excerpting a very small fragment of text and image.

Your collage should be less than 1/10th the size of your canvas. Little!! Paint this collage from close observation.

Enlarge all the information substantially, so that it fills, or is adjusted, to fit within the proportion of your canvas.

Refer back to the slide collection to find inspiration and direction.

Complete Painting 1 by October 16^{th-  (before class)}

(If the painting is not complete it is ok, but after October 16^th you can no longer work on this painting during class time. Try and manage your time effectively and finish by the 16^th.)

Complete painting 2 by October 30^{th- (before class)}

*both paintings are due for discussion and your Midterm exams:

critique day 1: OCT 30

critique day 2, NOV 1

inspiration for painting #3 of 3< Black, White, and Grey

above: George Braque, still life on a table with Gillette, 1914

Below:George Braque, Bottles and Fishes, 1910

 

Matisse, Memory of Oceania, 1952

Matisse, Composition in Black and Red, 1947

Alika Hershoff, Cosmic Lick, 2014

Alika Hershoff, 2014

Paul Klee, Black Columns in a landscape, 1919

Paul Klee, 2 dromedaries and a donkey, 1919

Ruth Root, untitled 2014

Ruth Root, untitled, 2014

http://www.magalieguerin.com/

Magalie Guerin, Hat tattoo, 2013

Magalie Gueren, Agnes, 2012

Painting 1 project 1: 3 paintings in black, white and grey

Painting 1 Project 1: three paintings in black, white and grey Special materials list:

You will need the following materials for Monday August 28^th:

·       3-4 sheets of corrugated card board (like moving boxes)

size 22 x 3o or larger: preferably found, but purchased is fine. Nicks and holes are ok/ good. As are flaps.

·       1 quart white latex interior house paint, water based flat

or semi gloss finish, inexpensive quality

·       1 quart black latex interior house paint, water based flat or semi gloss finish, inexpensive quality

·       Masking tape,

·       scissors or mat knife

·       Cups and containers to mix paint, hold paint mixed with

water etc. at least 5.

·       Household plastic or paper cups, egg crates, or other

things will work for mixing.

·       1 quart sized (approx.) container for water;

·       Cotton rags

·       Various tools to manipulate paint: brushes of various size

 and type, at least one 1 1⁄2 “ or larger

·       Small sticks sponges sqeegees, palette knife, other metal

or plastic tools

Objects:

Wednesday August 30^th: Along with all of your requested supplies for this project, bring a selected object to paint.

Requirements for object:

·       It must be shiny

·       You must be interested in it for some reason

·       You must want to paint it

·       It must have VOLUME (ie: don’t bring a silver string or stick.)

·       It must be bigger or equal to the size of a loaf of bread

nothing really small, no coins, phones, computers, no knives, keys- and nothing super fragile. Think shoe box sized.


Look for something with surface detail and volume, which could be simple and reflective, for example, an aluminum can or container (try a little harder please) something ceramic, something that unfolds or collapses, it could have a contemporary use, or a sense of history. Does the object have a purpose? Is it decorative?

Take time to find an object that looks interesting to you. Would you like to see a painting of it?

Bring a few in so we can choose the best object for your

project.

The object will be the subject of your work in class for

the first 3 weeks of the semester.

What we will do in class on the 28^th:

You will use your largest flat brush to paint 2 cardboard sheets white and 2 black. Your cardboard will warp, so you must paint the reverse as well to prevent this. Put your name on your boards with pencil and leave them until next week when we start painting.

With all of these projects we will consider the questions

of figure and ground in painting.

To begin your first painting: on white:

Select a white surface cardboard. Use a mix of grey paint to paint a line image or gesture of your object. Consider the placement of the object and your point of view to it: Does it sit on a surface? Is it suspended? Are you above, below or at eye level to the object? Consider the relative size of the object in relation to the surface area of your painting. Do you need to enlarge the image, or paint it smaller? Establish an image of the whole object and SPACE around it, capture the light and dark values that are held within or reflected from the surface of the object- these are the highlights and shadows that you see.

Consider the ground surrounding the object: the surface, if

on the table or floor, or atmosphere surrounding. NO FLOATING OBJECTS (unless you have suspended it). Ground them in your painting if they are on a surface. Focus on your object and work general to specific- largest shapes first, details very last. Using black white and grey of different levels and consistency with varied applications of paint to render or describe the light and dark value range, surface details or textures, reflections, etc. consider black onto white or grey, white onto black or grey, or grays onto either, or onto other grays. You may experiment with your marks, size, direction, weight, wet into wet, wet onto dry, thin with water for more transparency. Marks can become patterned or can be irregular. Rather than use a flat single color, work towards inflection with the brush, although it can be subtle if you wish.  Because the paint dries quickly, you will likely revise your work a number of times throughout the project.

Project one- painting 2: on Black

Using the black painted ground, begin a second painting of your object against the dark ground. Change the the point of view of the object. REMEMBER, your object is NOT sitting in black, so translate the value range in the space around the object the way you perceive it.

Project One- painting 3: zoomed detail as field/ abstraction/ shape, value, composition

Using your 3rd prepared ground (either white or black), refer to your object again, or, the two paintings you just made, as the basis for the 3^rd painting.

Develop an image/composition based on at least 5 but not more than 7 distinct details/shapes of your object/paintings. You will create a number of practice/thumbnails to choose the best composition.

Zoom in. Allow the shapes to touch and to interlock and fill the picture plane/surface from edge to edge. The shapes may be directly from your object or paintings, or they can be inspired by your object or paintings but there can be no recognizable images. This is a composition project. An abstraction from a representation. You will not render or model anything to appear to have depth or volume. This is a shape, value, and composition project, working in 2d flat space and dealing with the picture plane/surface, with limitations in order to help you solve a problem.

You may alter the ground and experiment with the appearance of positive/negative shapes. You may elect to use flat color application if you wish, or active brush work and texture to fill the shapes. Consider the relative size of the shapes you choose- are they equal size and style? Are they organic or rectilinear? Or are they different in size and form? Complete this three part painting project for critique on September 18^th