Thursday, April 3, 2008

5 4 Friday - Color

Color.
  1. Instead of thinking about warm versus cool colors, try thinking intense versus dull. Let an intense color "pop" against a grayed or non-intense color.
  2. Never use only one color where two or more will do much better. Two greens for a tree. Three blues in a sky.
  3. Begin your painting with the color idea first. Think, "this painting will be a triadic composition of yellow, blue-violet and red-violet". And that means DON'T PAINT ANYTHING BY IT'S LOCAL COLOR. If you must make something it's local color, do so at the end of the painting.
  4. Try a session where you don't use any browns (sepia, umber, ocher, etc.). It will improve the overall intensity of a painting.
  5. If you are familiar with painting in the abstract, do an abstract with the colors you are thinking of. Why not use those for your next realist work, too?

2 comments:

Deborah Paris said...

Love these last 2 pieces Casey. BTW, have you ever reviewed Terry Ludwig pastels? I use them almost exclusively. In fact, they have a "Deborah Paris" landscape set. They are softer than Unison and,square shaped and wonderful. check them out!

Casey Klahn said...

I'm thrilled that you like these works, Deborah. I am still playing with this "experimental" theme of far hills on a soft paper surface.

I do have the MP set of Ludwigs, which is a basic values and hues set. I am wanting to review them, but I may wait til I have more experience with them.