Experimental Approaches to Color
Oil paintings made during an online course of in-depth study of color taught by Zoey Frank.
WEEK 10: Using Expressive/Arbitrary Color
Make a painting using expressive and/or arbitrary color influenced by a selection of four artists’ images that differ from your current approach. Dial-in complex, specific color relationships; use one dominant color relationship and add a dissonant color. Braque, Kewley, Nicholson, Arikha (pre-realist phase).
Palette of double primaries warm/cool & 2 secondaries: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red Light, Quinacridone, Ultramarine Blue, Hydrangea Blue; plus Hansa Yellow Deep, Cadmium Green Pale, Underpainting White (fast drying).
Oil, 8″x10″ Guerilla Cartón board, GAC 100 primer.
WEEK 9: Color Pathways
Use repetition of color spots to move the eye through the composition.
Double primaries & 2 secondaries: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red Light, Quinacridone, Ultramarine Blue, Hydrangea Blue; plus Hansa Yellow Deep, Cadmium Green Pale, Underpainting White (fast drying).
Oil, 8″x10″ Guerilla Cartón board, white acrylic gesso primer.
WEEK 8: Heightened Chroma & plus 2 secondary colors
Intensify color chroma & use simultaneous contrast to make the same color in two places appear to be different.
Double primary palette: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow (first use), Cadmium Red, Quinacridone, Ultramarine Blue, Hydrangea Blue, Underpainting White (fast drying); Secondaries: Cadmium Green Pale, Hansa Yellow Deep (yellow-orange).
Oil, 8×10 inches, Guerilla Cartón Board, GAC 100 primer. Toned lemon yellow ground was not intense enough at start of painting due to color of Cartón board.
WEEK 7: Reflected Light
Focus on shadows and reflected light, use reflective surfaces, white objects, and cast shadows from raking light. Example: Wayne Thiebaud cake paintings with shapes of saturated blue for shadows.
Double primary palette, same as last week. Oil, 8×10 inches, Guerilla Cartón Board, GAC 100 primer.
WEEK 6: Local Color
Focus on the intrinsic color of each object, minimize bouncing color or reflected light, simplify and match hue of shadows. Focus on object placement and on balance of color shapes across the composition.
Double primary palette, warm/cool of each yellow, red, blue: Lemon Yellow, Aureolin, Cadmium Red, Quinacridone, Ultramarine Blue, Hydrangea Blue, Underpainting White (fast drying).
Oil, 8×10 inches, Guerilla Cartón Board, GAC 100 primer.
WEEK 5: Alternate 3-Primaries & Transparent Layering
Limited palette of three alternate primaries with two that are transparent: Indian Yellow as red (PY110, PY128; transparent), Cadmium Green Pale as yellow (PY35, PG18), Hydrangea Blue as blue (PB15; transparent), Underpainting White (Fast Drying).
Oil, 8×10 inches, Guerilla Cartón Board (warm brown of substrate shows through), GAC 100 primer.
WEEK 4: Near Complementary Color
Use five pigments of one hue & an opposing color one step removed from its complement for a mixed dark: Lemon Yellow from first week Munsell chart and four yellows: Aureolin, Nickel, Hansa Deep, Indian. Mix dark near-complement: Ultramarine & Violet Dioxazine.
Oil on 10 x8 inches, Guerilla Carton Board primed with GAC 100.
WEEK 3: Analogous Color
Make a painting with close color harmonies, observed temperature and value shifts.
Three adjacent hues on color wheel: Lemon yellow, Hansa Yellow Deep, Cerulean Blue/Chromium, Underpainting White (fast dry). First pass concerned with warm shadows in cool light; after feedback added cool reflected touches within narrow color key.
Oil paint, 8×8 inches; Guerilla Cartón Board, GAC 100 primer.
WEEK 2: Warm/Cool Temperature Contrast
White object on white ground using two colors: Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine Blue, and Permanent White.
Gouache & watercolor on Arches Aquarelle Rough watercolor block, 140 lb., 7 x 10 inches.
WEEK 1: Hue, Value, Chroma
Munsell color system chart and grey scale of Lemon Yellow. Black substituted for Raw Umber that shifts hue to green. Palette: Lamp Black (Winsor & Newton), Lemon Yellow (Daniel Smith), Cremnitz White (RGH).
3-color compositions with mixed color from chart in each: Lemon Yellow, Cerulean Blue/Chromium (Daniel Smith), Cadmium Red (Winsor & Newton), Cremnitz White (RGH).
Oil paint, 11 x 14 inch canvas board, Allback Swedish organic boiled linseed oil, Turpenoid.
Double Primaries — warm & cool of yellow, red, and blue: Lemon Yellow, Aureolin, Cadmium Red, Quinacridone, Ultramarine, Hydrangea
Near Complements — Lemon Yellow, Aureolin, Nickel Yellow, Hansa Yellow Deep, Indian Yellow, Violet Dioxazine, Ultramarine
Transparent & Opaque — Cadmium Green Pale, Indian Yellow, Ultramarine,