White Key Color Study - 2

Decided to do another key color with white - since the first one turned out so bad. This time I worked with 3 accent colors - blue, violet and green - but as the painting progressed I brought a fourth and fifth color, yellow and orange, into the mix.

Color palette included:
Primary Blue
Deep Violet
Phthalocyanine Green
Primary Yellow
Cadmium Orange Hue
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

White Key Color - 2, January 27, 2014 (18x24)

Black Key Color Study

Friday night I began work on a Black Key Color Study using blue, green and violet as the colors I would mix black with - my key focus color. About an hour into painting I realized a minor problem. No matter how much color I loaded up my brushes with I wasn't getting very good coverage. What I mean is when I made a brush stroke, whether my intention was to completely cover over the surface or another color - replacing it completely with the new color - it didn't work very well. It was if I was painting on the back, unprimed surface of a canvas. So guess what... I was painting on the back, unprimed surface of the canvas pad.

I considered starting over with a new canvas pad or maybe even flipping the canvas pad over to the correct side and starting over. Instead I decided to continue the wrong side (ala Francis Bacon) and finish what I started.

So here it is. Pretty bad. Couldn't really do any better.

Color palette included:
Primary Blue
Deep Violet
Phthalocyanine Green
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

Black Key Color Study, January 24, 2014 (18x24)

Analogous Warm Colors Study, Y, Y-O, O, O-R, R

Worked on the other side of the color wheel with warm analogous colors - yellow, yellow-orange, orange, orange-red, red. I think it turned out well.

Perhaps I'll try 3 analogous colors next.

Color palette included:
Primary Yellow
Cadmium Orange Hue
Naphthol Crimson
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

Analogous Warm Cool Study, Y, Y-O, O, O-R, R, January 22, 2014 (18x24)

Analogous Cool Colors Study, V, B-V, B, B-G, G, Unfinished

My first two analogous color studies didn't work out so well, but I think I understand why. First, there was no one dominate color with subordinate colors. The colors were used as equals and when colors are used that way they tend to fight each other.

With this study the green started overwhelming the blue, blue-green, blue-violet and violet so I decided to develop green as the dominant color leaving the others to either be subordinate or accent colors.

I think with more time this would have been really cool... get it?... ..."cool"...

Color palette included:
Deep Violet
Primary Blue
Phthalocyanine Green
Titanium White
Mars Black 

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

Analogous Cool Colors Study, V, B-V, B, B-G, G, January 20, 2014 (18x24)

January 17, 2014 Analogous Color Study, B, BV, V, VR, R

Didn't come out so well. I picked 5 analogous colors - blue, blue-violet, violet, violet-red, and red. Moving on...

Color palette included:
Primary Blue
Deep Violet
Naphthol Crimson
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

 

January 17, 2014, Analogous Color Study (18x24)

January 15, 2014, Analogous Color Study - G, YG, Y, YO, O

Decided to move onto working analogous colors last night and decide green, yellow-green, yellow, yellow-orange, and orange would be the five analogous colors I'd work with. I know we can work with fewer and perhaps tonight I'll pick three colors from another side of the color wheel and give it a go.

This was very challenging for a while, the colors quickly got away from me and I ended up green and orange competing too much for attention. Near the end of the night I finally decided to favor orange and let the green go a bit. Even though there appears to be blue added - there was no blue used.

But the orange is too overpowering.

Color palette included:
Phthalocyanine Green
Primary Yellow
Cadmium Orange Hue
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 15, 2014, Analogous Color Study (18x24)

January 13, 2013, Yellow Key Color Study

This might be it for my key color studies.

I feel good about what I have accomplished with the six main colors. I've done blue, purple and green recently along with yellow (today). I did red and orange last year but didn't identify them as key color studies.

To complete Yellow Key Color Study I decided to take the complimentary - violet (instead of purple this time) and the other two primary colors - blue and red - to help balance the painting. Because this is a key color study of yellow the other pure colors are mixed in with yellow and not often will you ever see me using a pure color unless I feel it hits the spot just right. I ran out of Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue halfway through and had only tubes of Primary Yellow (which I planned to change to because I think Cadmium feels too orange).

Feels a little too orange doesn't it? Yellow when used with other colors doesn't maintain it's hue too well. It's like working with white - whatever color you mix in it, even in very small amounts, it becomes that color.

Color palette included:
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Primary Yellow
Primary Blue
Deep Violet
Naphthol Crimson
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 13, 2014, Yellow Key Color Study (18x24)

January 10, 2014, White Key Color Study

"Meh...", is about all I can say about this. Question is, should I try another study and come up with a better resolution or should I not worry about it. Actually, I ask myself about that with every study I've done this year and last. I think where this got out of hand is from the very beginning, when I decided to use all 6 primary and secondary colors. In my more successful studies I pick fewer colors that will work well together and I allow one or two to become more dominant. The more colors you work with, the more they compete for attention and the harder finding balance becomes. That's what happened here. White Key Color Study is a study in futility. And it isn't really even white either.

Color palette included:
Titanium White
Cadmium Orange Hue
Primary Blue
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Dioxazine Purple
Naphthol Crimson
Phthalocyanine Green

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 10, 2014, White Key Color Study (18x24)

January 9, 2014, Black & White Study

Since I am working to improve my knowledge of colors and I have focused on the primary and secondary colors I decided to focus on the two that don't fit into those categories - black and white. The goal was to work with black, white and various shades of gray, seeing how I could work them against each and into each other. I honestly don't know if they are considered compliments since they aren't across from each other on the color wheel and adding certain amounts will never make brown - a key trademark of complimentary colors. Black and white are more like supporting colors used to augment the main 6 primary and secondary colors. Yet I have seen paintings by artists where, through their mastery of color, they can make black and white a color like any other. Max Beckmann (Wikipedia) comes to mind for starters...

I think I have some work to do with black and white. Perhaps I'll do a key color study of black and then one of white.

Color palette included:
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 9, 2014, Black & White (18x24)

January 8, 2014, Brown Compliments Study

I've wanted to try an predominantly brown painting for a while but instead of using browns from a tube I mixed my own browns from the three cool colors and their compliments. Doing this isn't as easy as it seems, though. Mixing an equal amount of two compliments doesn't make a brown but instead makes a darker version of one of the colors - usually the cool color - that is, blue, purple and green. I find the best way to make a brown is to start with a lot of the warm complimentary color - red, orange or yellow and add small amounts of it's compliment - green, blue or purple (respectively) until I get a good brown. Yet the browns are not equal. A brown from yellow/purple isn't the same as red/green or orange/blue. When I look at a pure brown from the tube I don't see the colors used to make it, I see something that has transformed into brown - and I wouldn't mind knowing the recipe.

Anyway, I used white and black to lighten or darken the colors as needed.

Color palette included:
Cadmium Orange Hue
Primary Blue
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Dioxazine Purple
Naphthol Crimson
Phthalocyanine Green
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 8, 2014, Brown (18x24)

January 6, 2014, Blue Key Color Study, Unfinished

Had some challenges with this study. Took me until the end of the evening to figure out how to bring orange and yellow into the painting to help set up the blue, but it was late when that happened. Since I am spending no more than one evening per painting this one will have to stay unfinished. Tonight, Tuesday, I will be too busy to paint. Will do a new painting Wednesday evening.

Color palette included:
Phthalocyanine Blue
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Cadmium Orange Hue
Naphthol Crimson
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 6, 2014, Blue Key Color Study, Unfinished (18x24)

January 3, 2014, Purple Key Color Study

Another key color study working in purple, another color I don't feel like I have a good handle on. I think this turned out better than the Green key color study from yesterday.

Color palette included:
Dioxazine Purple
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Cadmium Orange Hue
Naphthol Crimson
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 3, 2014, Purple Key Color Study (18x24)

January 2, 2014, Green Key Color Study

I've been having problems working with the color green - tints, shades and various color combinations where green comes out dominant. So I decided to do a key color painting focusing on green to get a better handle on the color.

Not quite there yet. I plan to continue to work on green throughout the month.

Color palette included:
Phthalocyanine Green
Phthalocyanine Blue
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Cadmium Orange Hue
Naphthol Crimson
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 2, 2014, Green Key Color Study (18x24)

January 1, 2014, Waterfall

Happy New Year!

Here's the first painting in 2014. I have to confess, it isn't finished but I have decided to spend my time moving forward from painting to painting as opposed to spending great deals of time bringing a work to completion. Last year I tried to do a painting a day but I kept getting waylaid by thinking and obsessing too much on one idea. I'd rather leave something unfinished, and move on, then spend a month trying to figure out how to finish something and then end up over-working it.

Finished last night, posted today. It's an abstraction of a waterfall.

Color palette included:
Phthalocyanine Green
Phthalocyanine Blue
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Cadmium Orange Hue
Naphthol Crimson
Titanium White
Mars Black

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

January 1, 2014, Waterfall (18x24)