Join me tomorrow (September 15) at 2 p.m. EASTERN for our monthly YouTube live chat. The topic will be Getting Color Harmony in Your Paintings.
Now to today's Tip:
When we buy a new car, folks ask "what color is it?". The lay person will identify color by a single hue, but the aware artist sees the fluctuation of
hue--how it changes on a single image depending on the location of its light source and what's being reflected onto its surface.
I found a photo of a new red Honda and sampled various areas of it. Here are the results I found.
Next, I did the same sort of sampling with a photo of a red tomato.
In both examples, notice how the hue changes according to where it lives in shadow or not in shadow areas. Add to that other colors it might be
reflecting from its environment. Sages advise us that we see what we look for. If we're looking for red tomato, we will limit what we see. But if we are looking for changes in color, that's what we will see.
When we are limited in what we see, we are limited in how we create a painting. When we develop an awareness of seeing the characteristics of color,
we use that awareness while we are painting. That's how it works!
- Find such an image of a single local color-- a lemon from your fridge or a squash or bell pepper or anything with one local color-- then place it under a single light source. (Or find a photo.)
- Examine areas not in shadow for how many changes in color you see. Make sample splotches of each of them with paint or on your computer.
- Examine areas in shadow and do the same thing.
- Now, paint a study of that image using those color variations you discovered.
Enjoy a delightful weekend of discovering color!
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