Color Applications Studies (Part 2)

Due March 27

Assignment 7: Transparency Studies

• 7A (pg 87)
• Create a series of crosses demonstrating transparencies.
• 6 demonstrating median transparency
• 6 demonstrating dark transparency
• Make each square  of each cross no smaller than ¾” x ¾”.

• 7B (pg 87)
• Compose a design that contains several incidents of each kind of transparency.
• Although you may approach composition freely, strive for readability in color (avoid brushwork that will allow paper to show through) and shape description (keep edges of shape crisp.
• For examples look at figures 5.36 and 5.37 on page 87.

Assignment 8: Retinal Studies

• 8A (pg 91)
• Paint a series of three retinal landscape studies.
• You can crop to approximately 7”x9” for each.
• Create a viewfinder with the same aspect ratio (masking tape on a window or a rectangle cut out of the center of cardboard).  The viewfinder will frame the scene and reveal shapes in the visual field not only in relationship to each other, but to the edges of the picture plane.
• Block in the large shapes first, covering the entire picture plane before adding in additional tones and details.
• Try to render colors precisely as you see them, ignoring what your brain thinks it “knows” about what you see.
• If colors are mixed with care, the resulting picture can evoke time of day or the weather.
• You can choose to paint three different landscapes or the same landscape at three different times of day.

• 8B (pg 92)
• Paint a series of three retinal still life studies.
• You can crop to approximately 7”x9” for each.
• A viewfinder made by cutting out an aspect-matching rectangle in the center of  a piece of cardboard is helpful, but not required. 
• Just like before, try to render colors precisely as you see them, ignoring what your brain thinks it “knows” about what you see.
• Examples can be found on page 92.

Free Studies

• No less than two paintings that explore either progressions of color, the illusion of transparency, retinal color, or any combination of these.
• Free studies can be more loosely executed, but keep color readable.
• Experiment with how you apply the paint.  Consider using something other than your paintbrush.
• The support can be Bristol board or some other material of your choice.
• Examples can be found on pages 94-95.

Color Applications Studies (Part 1)

Due March 27

Assignment 6: Progression Studies

• 6A (pg 84)
• Paint two separate progressions on vertical rectangles of Bristol board at least 4” wide and as tall as you like.
• Each progression should involve at least two parts of color (hue, value, and/or saturation).
• Split each progression in half from top to bottom, then cut apart the strips of color in one half of each.
• Mount the original progressions on a sheet of Bristol board.
• Use the cut strips of color to integrate the two progressions and mount this new progression onto a second sheet of Bristol.
• Assignments 6, 7 & 8 due March 27

• 6B (pg 84)
• Create a design that incorporates progression in hue, value, and saturation.  For added interest you might extend the concept of progression to other formal variables such as shape or interval.
• Look at examples in figures 5.25-5.27 on page 84.
• Assignments 6, 7 & 8 due March 27

Sketchbook Assignment #3

Good/Bad Color Compositions

• Due March 1 when you turn in your sketchbook for midterm grading.
• Design a composition that utilizes a five-color palette, with one dominant color.
• Using gouache, produce two versions of this design in your sketchbook, each on a different page.
• In each composition, the design will remain identical, but you will use different colors.
• One which uses five colors chosen from your "Good" colors
• One which uses five colors chosen from your "Bad" colors
• This composition may be representational, done from observation of life or a photograph, abstract, or nonrepresentational.
• If you work from observation, you are allowed to incorporate tints and shades of your colors.
• If you work in an abstract or nonrepresentational manner, use only the five colors unaltered.
• Remember that one of the five colors should be dominant.

 

 

 

Color Interaction Studies

Assignment #5

Guidelines

• In Assignment #5, you will be doing your own experiments done within the parameters of Josef Albers’s method.
• This will require that each page have a series of paired concentric squares.
• Each square will be 2”x2” with a ½” square in its center.
• Use the measurements provided here to organize each sheet of 9”x12” Bristol board into 8 pairs of concentric squares with a 2”x9” space at the bottom for writing notes.
• After you draw the grid onto each page, erase all lines that cross into the margins around and between each pair.  
• This is to ensure that the colors you place on the page will only be interacting with each other and the pure white of the paper without interference from your graphite lines.

5A (pg 70)

• Try to make alter only the value of a single color by changing its surroundings.
• 4 pairs in which you alter only the value of achromatic grays.
• Hue and saturation are not present, so this is a fairly simple task.
• 4 pairs in which you alter only the value (and not the hue) in full color at various saturation levels.
• The presence of hue this time complicates the experiment.  Try your best not to alter the hue of your central color.

5B (pg 70)

• Now try to achieve a shift in hue but not value.
• `8 pairs in which you alter only the hue (and not the value) in full color at various saturation levels.

5C (pg 71)

• Now.try to achieve a shift in both hue and value.
• 6 pairs in full color at various saturation levels.
• Try to invert the procedure and attempt to make two different colors look as much alike as possible.
• 2 pairs

5D (pg 71)

• Now create a composition using the principle of simultaneous contrast.
• Try to give specific colors within the composition at least two different identities throughout your design
• The book says to use cut paper collage, and you can, but you may also use gouache.
• For an example, see page 72.

Free Study

• Create at least one composition on 9”x12” Bristol board that either carries over ideas from the color interaction assignments you’ve just done or conduct color experiments of your own.
• This composition can be in a format of your own choosing.

Color Terminology for February 13

• Afterimage – A common optical effect in which an additional color seems to appear at the edge of an observed color.
• Successive Contrast – The name for the visual phenomenon that creates complementary afterimages of a color after gazing at it for a brief but sustained period of time.
• Simultaneous Contrast – The effect two neighboring colors have upon each other as their afterimages interact along a shared border.
• Optical Mixing – An effect that occurs when color fragments are organized in a tight pattern, appear to fuse and, from a distance, appear as a single mixed color.  Optical mixing is facilitated by the effects of simultaneous contrast.
• Inherent Light – The light that seems to flow from within a color.

Beginning Color Studies: Assignments

Due: Monday, February 13

Assignment 1: Chromatic Gray Studies

• 1A (page 47)
• Make a small gouache painting (6”x6”) using at least six shapes not including the negative space color. 
• Use only chromatic grays.
• Mix using two complimentary colors or my mixing a prismatic color with one of your chromatic darks and/or white.
• Make the value range (the range of lights & darks) broad.
• Try to include chromatic grays form a range of hues.
• No color should be used more than once.

• 1B (page 47)
• Make a second study (6”x6”) also using only chromatic gray.
• Make the value range narrow this time.
• All the values should congregate around the dark, middle, or light part of the value continuum.
• Maintain a broad hue range.

Assignment 2: Muted Color Studies

• 2A (page 50)
• Make a small gouache painting (6”x6”) using at least six shapes with no repeated color. 
• Use only muted colors.
• Keep hue and value ranges broad.

• 2B (page 50)
• Make a second painting (6”x6”) in muted colors.
• Make the value range narrow.
• This will somewhat limit your hue choices.

Assignment 3: Prismatic Studies

• 3A (page 51)
• Make a small gouache painting (6”x6”) using at least six shapes using only prismatic color. 
• Make hue and value ranges broad.

• 3B (page 51)
• Make a second painting (6”x6”) using only prismatic color. 
• Make the value range narrow
• This will greatly limit your hue choices.

Assignment 4 : Combination Saturation Studies

• 4A (page 53)
• Make a small gouache painting (6”x6”) using at least six shapes. 
• Make hue and value ranges broad.
• Include colors from all saturation levels:
• Prismatic
• Chromatic Gray
• Muted Color

• 4B (page 53)
• Make a second painting (6”x6”) using at least six shapes. 
• Keep hue and saturation ranges broad.
• Make value range narrow

Free Studies

• Page 57
• Design your own composition within the guidelines below.  All other choices are yours.
• Guidelines:
• Make a group of related compositions (no less than 2)
• Use gouache, but the paint application can e more irregular in surface quality and opacity if you would like.
• You may also use collage, if you like
• Cut or torn painted paper
• Magazine cutouts
• Cut photographs
• Etc.
• Do not exceed 8”x10” on any individual study.
• Explore any of the color concerns we have discussed so far (hue, value, & saturation) in any way that you see fit.
• Keep the visual language consistent within the group.

First Sketchbook Assignmnets

Sketchbook Assignment #1: Good/Bad Color Mixing

• Experiment with mixing colors.
• So you don't overuse your gouache, mix using the technique we went over in class.
• No more than four colors can be mixed into each color you create.
• When you have a finished color, look at it and determine if it is a "good" color or a "bad" color.
• How you define these terms is up to you.
• You will occasionally come across colors you don't feel strongly about either way.  In those cases, classify it as "good" or "bad" arbitrarily.
• Create two charts in your sketchbook, one for "good" colors and one for "bad" colors.
• In each chart, create a column of squares, no less that 1"x1", on the left side of the page, leaving space between squares.
• Use as many sheets in the sketchbook as it takes to complete the assignment.
• Fill each square with a color that you have mixed and designated as "good" or "bad"
• To the right of each square, write down your "recipe" for that color.
• Include the names of each color used and the proportions of each.
• Continue until you have TWELVE GOOD COLORS and TWELVE BAD COLORS and their "recipes" entered into the sketchbook.
• 24 colors total.
• Materials:
• Gouache, all colors
• Sketchbook
• Water
• Round & flat brushes

Sketchbook Assignment #2: Color Mixing 1st Attempt

• Attempt to mix a color to match each of the colors I have on the sheet of watercolor paper I have given you.
• So you don't overuse your gouache, mix using the technique we went over in class.
• No more than four colors can be mixed into each color you create.
• Fill each empty circle next to a colored circle with what you mixed.

Due March 1 when you turn in your sketchbooks for midterm.