Materials Needed
- all gouache paints from Supply List or Reeves Color Set
- brushes
- ruler
- t-square
- pencils
- 9×12″ bristol
- Flashdrive or CD
Lecture
The Elements: basic components used as part of any composition, independent of the medium.
Color
- Hue: Designates the common name of a color, determined by the specific wavelength of a ray of light and/or its position in the spectrum or color wheel.
- Saturation: Refers to the relative purity of a color or its inherent light.
Levels of Saturation- Prismatic Color: As pure a hue as possible with pigments/paint.
- Muted Color: Colors that lie just outside the prismatic zone, created by adding black, white, gray or a complement of a hue.
- Chromatic Gray: Grays that exhibit a subtle, but discernible hue, created by adding larger amounts black, white, gray or a complement of a hue.
- Achromatic Gray: Grays that lack a perceptible hue and saturation.
- Luminosity: Refers to Value; lighter colors are more luminous than darker colors, but a lighter color is not necessarily more saturated.
- Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue – three colors that cannot be created from mixtures of hue and when mixed in equal or unequal amounts can produce all possible colors.
- Secondary Colors: Orange, Green, Violet – colors created by mixing equal proportions of any two Primary Colors.
- orange (mix red + yellow)
- green (mix yellow + blue)
- violet (mix blue + red)
- Complementary Colors: Colors opposite on the color wheel
- red and green
- yellow and violet
- blue and orange.
Lab
Exploration
Chromatic Gray Studies
- Prep:
- Mix together two containers or wells of chromatic darks using Ultramarine Blue and Raw Umber. One will be Warm and Brownish (more umber than blue) and one will be Cool and Blueish (more blue than umber). These will serve as your stock mixtures in order easily create a variety of Chromatic Grays by mixing with pure hues.
- Prepare 2 pieces of 9×12″ bristol by defining a 6×6″ square on each using your pencil and ruler.
- Exercise #1:
- Make a 6×6″ gouache, painted-paper collage using at least six shapes. All colors should be chromatic gray with a BROAD value range (light and dark) from a broad range of hues (colors). The white paper is not considered a color – the entire surface should be covered with paint.
- Use scrap pieces of bristol to create your painted paper shapes. Cut these out with scissors or exacto knife.
- Starting with a very small amount of a Prismatic Color (paint straight from the tube) add either the complementary color, white, or pre-mixed chromatic darks to achieve your range of chromatic grays. Adding white will create lighter value grays, adding pre-mixed chromatic darks or complementary colors will create darker value grays.
- The grays should have a discernable hue, but should lie closer to the center of the saturation spectrum (achromatic gray) than the outside (prismatic color).
- Arrange your shapes until you achieve a unified composition and then carefully glue down your pieces.
Exercise #2:
- Make second 6×6″ gouache, painted-paper collage using at least six shapes. All colors should be chromatic gray with a NARROW value range (high, middle, or low key) from a broad range of hues (colors). The white paper is not considered a color – the entire surface should be covered with paint.
HINTS:
- To prevent streaking, thoroughly mix paint before use, only adding enough water to get the constency of cream.
- Dry your brush on a pappe
- At the end of your painting session, paint out any extra paint onto scrap bristol for future use.
HOMEWORK
- Finish both Chromatic Gray Studies #1 & #2
- Purchase a basic Color Wheel from WC Art Supply or another Art Store.