I hope you can join us tomorrow - June 23 - at 2 p.m. Eastern for our monthly YouTube Live Chat. This one will be about my method of setting up the palette with a value line and the advantages of using this method for a limited palette.What is the best way to study a master painter's work? For centuries, people have been copying master paintings. Teachers often suggest doing so as a way of learning, but is copying alone the best way to learn from them?What if we study a master painting from a different
viewpoint? What if rather than copy it, we study how something within it is achieved, then apply that method to a totally different subject? Let's take this watercolor painting by John Singer Sargent. One thing we know about Sargent is that when he was not painting a commissioned work, he loved using a limited palette of complementary colors.
Studying what a master has done with an intention of discovering can be eye-opening. Let's dissect what he's done with color in this one. By moving throughout the painting and looking for the hues we see, we can determine Sargent's color scheme. I did some computer samples to drive home the point. Every hue we see in this painting is either in the orange or the blue range on the color wheel. The miracle of color is its ability to do three things: (1) Any hue can take on a
bit of its neighbor and still be perceived as its own identity. For example. orange can be a bit more yellow or a bit red and still feel as orange. Blue can lean a bit towards green or a bit more violet and still feel like blue. (2) Any hue can take on its complement and still be perceived as its identity. For example: various amounts of blue can be added to orange, changing its saturation, but not its hue until it
becomes totally neutral. Same with blue taking on orange. (3) Any hue at any saturation can be any value. Example: the darks circled here are still reddish orange or blue. With this analysis, locating how Sargent has used these color miracles, we could easily replicate the colors he's used in this painting. If we take how Sargent has used color in this painting and use it the same way in a study using a different reference, then we will have gained real insight into how Sargent used a complementary
color scheme to make this painting. Here is a photo (from pixabay.com) linked so that you can download it: Choose a complementary pair of hues from the red range and the green range, then do a study from the above reference using only these hues the same way Sargent used his complementary pair in this
painting. It's a brain teaser, but a creative way to explore and discover how a master painter uses a limited palette of complementary colors. Hint: Remember the three ways color can change. Have fun! Enjoy a fun weekend of discoverying color!
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Happy Painting,
Dianne
dianne@diannemize.com
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During my Language of Painting series, I explained the role of our visual elements. If you'd like to review those roles to better understand the behavior of elements, here are the links to each of those
discussions: Color --Value -- Shape -- Texture -- Size -- Line and Direction
You can access the archive of all my newsletters (as well as the Quick Tips and other stuff) at any time by going HERE.
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