Following a Dream...

 Color Exploration continues… Have you ever wanted to create a light airy painting like the Impressionists commonly known as a High Key painting or have you wanted to explore creating a dark somber moody painting like the Old Masters’ painting referred to as a Low Key painting?  The information below gives you more or less a “recipe” for helping you stay within the parameters of your choice, making for a successful painting.  Happy Painting!

Value Relationships in Color

Choosing a Key to work in:  Low Key, High Key, Middle Minor Key, or Middle Major Key

Value Scale:  Using a scale of black and white with the Lightest value being white (#1) and the Darkest being black (#10).  Colors can be assigned a value on the gray scale corresponding to its lightness or darkness.  Keeping in mind a color’s value on the value scale will help you create a successful High Key, Low Key, a Middle Minor, or Middle Major Key painting.

Low Key Minor:  Working from a value range of say, 10 - 5

Low Key Major:  Working from say, 10 - 5, but reaching into light for accent.

High Key Minor:  Working from a value range of 5 – 1 (close in value) used by the Impressionists.

High Key Major:  Working from a value 5 - 1, but reaching into dark for accent.

Middle Key Minor:  Working in a close range from around 7 – 3

Middle Key Major:  Working with a full range of values.

Professionals usually work in the first four or all choices with the full range being the most difficult to control.

Language of Color

While we are on the subject of color, I thought I would share with you a glossary of color terms that I've collected over the years.   Becoming familiar with these terms will in itself go a long way to expand your knowledge and understanding of color.  Enjoy your journey!   Until next time…

Achromatic:  Literally, without color.  In art, a composition in shades of black, white, and gray.

Additive:  Colors made by light; the additive primaries are red, green, and yellow.

After-image:  The illusion of a visual complementary color image that occurs after staring at a hue, then shifting the gaze to a plain white surface.

Analogous Colors:  Refers to colors that are close to each other on the color wheel.

Attributes of Color: The three main descriptions or properties of colors are namely, hue, value, and intensity.

Balanced Color:  Colors that are balanced by their complements and varied across their values and intensities.

Binocular Vision:  Two retinal images, one from each eye, melded by the brain’s visual system into a single image that appears three-dimensional.

Chroma:  The degree of purity or brilliance of a color.

Chromaticity:  A term interchangeable with chroma, saturation, and intensity.

Color Constancy:  The psychological tendency to see colors we expect to see even when the actual colors are different.

Color Harmony:  The pleasing result of balanced color relationships.

Color Scheme:  A set of colors chosen to combine within a composition.

Color Schemes:  Recipes for using color combinations which help to tell the story of your painting in color.

Color Temperature:  Temperature dominance occurs when mainly warm or cool colors are used in a painting;   temperature contrast occurs when both warm and cool colors are used in a painting.

Color Wheel:  A two-dimensional circular arrangement of colors that reveal color relationships of the spectral hues.  

Color Wheel:  An arrangement of colors in a circle which can include the three primary colors,   three secondary colors, and six intermediate colors.

Complement, complementary:  Colors that lie opposite each other on the color wheel.  Placing them side by side enhances the brilliance of both; mixed together, they cancel the intensity of both.

Complementary Colors:  Colors that are directly opposite of the colors on the color wheel.

Composition:  The arrangement of shapes, spaces, lights, darks, and colors within the format of an artwork.

Cool Colors:  Colors that connote the coolness of water, dusk, and vegetation:  usually violets, blues, and greens.

Crosshatching:  A method of shading by using short parallel lines, often in superimposed sets of lines crossed at various angles to darken an area.

Double complementary:  A color combination of four hues:  two sets of complements such as red/green and blue-violet/yellow-orange.

Dyad:  A color scheme based on two colors.

Expressive Color:  Color that describes the subject as it really is or realistic color.  Local color is another description of the actual color.

Glaze:  A transparent film of color painted over another color.

Grisaille:  A method of painting that uses shades of gray in an underpainting to establish the value structure of a composition.

High Key Painting:   Light and middle values are used to make the painting.

Hue:  The name of a color.

Hue:  The name of a color.

Intensity:  Refer to the purity or saturation of a color.

Intensity:  The brightness or dullness of a color; also called chroma, chromaticity, and saturation.

Intermediate Hues:  Yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-orange, and yellow-orange.

Line:  A narrow mark that defines the edges of spaces and shapes in a composition.  Line can also be used for shading, as in crosshatching.

Local Color:  The actual color seen on objects or persons.  See perceptual color and expressive color.

Low Key Painting:  Dark and middle values are used to make the painting.

Luminosity:  In painting, the illusion of radiance or glow.

Monochromatic:  In painting, a work based on variations of one color.

Monocular Vision:  By closing or covering one eye, the brain receives a single image, which appears to be flat like a photograph.

Negative Spaces:  In art, the shapes that surround the objects; sometimes considered background shapes.

Neutral Mixtures:  Complementary colors mixed together create neutral or grayish colors.

Palette:  A surface on which an artist places and mixes colors.

Perceptual Color:  The actual colors of objects and persons.  See local color or expressive color.

Pictorial Color:  The adjustments to perceptual color needed to bring a color composition into unity, balance, and harmony.

Pigment:  Dry color ground to a fine powder and mixed with a liquid for use as a painting medium.

Primary Colors:  Colors that cannot be mixed from any other colors—for example, red, yellow, and blue.

Primary Hues:  Red, Yellow, and Blue.

Reflected Color:  Color reflected from one surface to another.

Saturation: A term signifying the rightness or dullness of a color:  used interchangeably with intensity, chroma, and chromaticity.

Secondary Colors:  Colors that are mixtures of two primaries—for example, mixing yellow and red (theoretically) makes orange.

Secondary Hues:  Orange, Violet, and Green.

Shade, Shading:   Color changes made by adding black, thus decreasing the proportion of the original color.

Shade:  A color to which black is added to make it darker.

Simultaneous contrast:  The effect of one color on an adjacent color.

Spectrum, Spectral Hues:   The sequence of colors seen in a rainbow or in the colors created by passing light through a prism.

Spectrum:  A band of six colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet) produced by separation of the components of light by their different degrees of refraction, e.g. in a rainbow.

Style:  An artist’s personal, usually recognizable, manner of working with images and art materials.

Subtractive Color:  Pigments and pigment mixtures used in painting that absorb all wavelengths except those of the color or colors apparent to the eye.

Successive Contrast:  Interchangeable with after-image.

Tertiary Colors:  Colors made by mixing a primary and it’s adjacent secondary—for example, the tertiary yellow-orange results from mixing the primary yellow and the secondary orange.

Tetrad:  A color scheme based on four hues equidistant on the color wheel—for example, green, yellow-orange, red and blue-violet. 

Tint:  A color to which white or water is added to make it lighter.

Tint:  A light value of a color.

Tone:  Refers to the graying or neutralizing of a color.

Toned Ground:  A thin wash of a neutral color on a surface, such as a canvas, panel, or board to prepare it for painting.

Triad:  A color scheme based on three colors equally spaced from each other on the color wheel—for example, yellow, red, and blue.

Triadic Color Scheme:  A set of three connected colors separated by two or three hues.

Underpainting:  A preliminary toning of the surface to be painted, often somewhat more detailed than a toned ground.

Unity:  The ruling principle of art and design that all parts of an artwork contribute to the harmonious unity of the whole.

Value:  Refers to the lightness of darkness of a color.

Value:  The degree of lightness or darkness of a color.

Warm Colors:  Colors associated with heat or fire, such as red, orange, and yellow. 

The Intensity or Saturation of a Color

When one speaks of the intensity of a color the words saturation and chroma are often used, as well. The chroma, intensity, or saturation of a color or pigment refers to its strength or purity.

 Tube colors consisting of a single pigment are the richest in intensity.  Once another color is added to a mixture, the subsequent colors are diminished in purity.  One can check on the purity of a pigment by looking at the back or side of a tube of paint where it lists the contents of the mixture.  The tube below shows a pigment mixture of PR#108 & PO#20, thus it is a composite mixture of a red/orange.  Not all manufacturers list their ingredients; however, contacting the manufacturer can be helpful.  The Gamblin Artists Colors Company is particularly helpful and they offer a DVD, Navigating Color Space which is an invaluable learning tool.  Go to www.gamblincolors.com.

  Colors can be desaturated in four ways: adding to a color its  compliment, the color opposite to it on the color wheel, adding a cool color into a warm color, mixing a black and white to create a gray and then adding color back into the gray, or simply adding black to a color. Grayed down colors, sometimes referred to as colors lower in chroma are beautiful in their own right, but when placed beside a purer color, the grayed colors help to make the highly chromatic colors sing!  Below are charts suggesting some of the ways colors can be desaturated, lowered in chroma or lowered in intensity.

Exploring color combinations on your own is a good way to expand your knowledge of color and to see what exciting treasures your particular palette holds for you and your viewers.

Happy Painting!  Until next time……

                          Color Temperature

As mentioned earlier, a color or hue can be warm or cool in temperature.  The colors red, orange, yellow, and yellow orange are considered warm colors expressing heat or warmth.  Blues, blue-greens, green, and yellow green are thought of as cool colors, colors associated with water, ice, snow, foliage, or the sky.  Skies, however, could be both warm and/or cool.  Another story for another day.

Color temperature, however, is relative.  As in all aspects of art, relationships are key.  A cool color, such as Cerulean Blue, could also be considered a warm blue, depending on which color blue is next to it, as in the case of Ultramarine Blue, a very dark cold blue. A red, such as Perylene Red, a true red, could be considered cool, when placed next to Cadmium Red Light, or it could be a warm red compared to Alizarin Crimson, a dark red leaning toward violet.  See the chart that is below for examples of warm/cool relationships.  

Warm colors help to bring objects or land masses forward and cool colors make objects recede.  Adding white to any color automatically cools a color, so be careful when trying to lighten a color.  Before grabbing a white, ask yourself what other color that is lighter than my present color could I add to make this color lighter?  Again, using the tomato as an example, to make one tomato lighter than say, one set deep into a shadowed area of a painting,  adding white would make the tomato look chalky, but by adding say, a yellow, or an orange, it would make the tomato look warmer and brighter, thus bringing it forward.

Cool colors help to create distance by making objects recede.  Cool colors are used to create aerial perspective.  Aerial perspective is the atmospheric effect of light that is observed when one looks into the distance and sees the blues of hills or mountains or the haze over the distant hills. The cool colors in the distance are both lighter in value, cooler in temperature, and lower in intensity.  

Next time we will discuss the intensity or saturation of a color…

                                                                                      Properties of Color

Most people are aware of the color wheel.  Also, most people can tell you that the primary colors are:  red, yellow, and blue.  But there is a lot more about color that one only discovers by studying color theory. 

Color is made up of attributes that help to describe its qualities.  Color, or hue can be warm or cool in temperature, saturated, or highly chromatic in intensity, and a color can be light or dark in value. 

Let’s take a closer look at the value of color.  Value is the range of lightness to darkness of a color.  On a scale of one to ten, with one being white and ten being the color straight from the tube.  In the case of a red, with red straight from the tube being a number ten on the value scale, a very pale pink might be a number one on the value scale.  A color can be lightened with white to become a tint or it can be darkened with black or its complement, the color opposite it on the color wheel to become a shade. 

 Being able to discern the value of a hue or color is keenly important for the artist.  Value helps to create form making an object look three dimensional on a two dimensional surface. To make an object look three dimensional, there are six tonal or value changes to consider. 

1. The Body Tone which is the actual or local color of the object in light.
2. The Half-tone (value) occurs as part of the object starts to turn away from the light source.  Adding a bit of a color’s complement can help to turn the object.
3. The Body Shadow occurs when the surface of the object is in shadow cut off from the light source. Again, the complementary color can help to create the shadow color.
4. 4.     The Cast Shadow is the dark tone or value that occurs on the surface where the object is placed.  The color of a cast shadow will be the complementary color of the surface’s color.
5. The Highlight is the lightest value or tone.  The highlight is usually a cool color and it can be made by adding a lot of white to the complementary color of the object that is being painted.  In the case of painting a tomato, the highlight would be white with the slightest bit of green added.
6. Core of the Shadow is the darkest tone or value.  It is the dark line under an object that helps to seat it on the table or surface on which your objects rests.

Next time, we’ll take a look at the temperature of a color…

Blog # 9                                                                     Enjoy the Journey

How many times when we set out to do a painting do we impose upon ourselves an expected outcome?  Yes, we all want our next painting to be our “masterpiece”, but are we unconsciously, at times setting ourselves up for disappointment or worse, yet, failure?  

  When a ball player walks out on to the field is he constantly thinking of winning, winning, winning the game?  Or does a writer sit down with the thought of putting pen to paper and becoming the next J. K. Rowling or the next Stephen King?  I don’t think so.  I think the ball player or the writer is thinking about doing his or her best and enjoying the game or the process of writing, which to me breeds success instead of stress.  It’s all about our attitude.  If we approach a painting filled with anxiety or timidity about making a mistake that apprehension is going to show up in our work!   I suggest we approach our next painting with the determination that we will do our best and enjoy the process.  As in life it’s the journey that makes for a good story, the destination is the result of what we’ve learned along the way.  Let it be so with our creative endeavors.

 Here is a recipe for a good painting:

1.  Have only one focal point!  This is the area of your darkest dark   and your lightest light, or strongest color contrast. 
2.  Examine the value patterns of the subject, the darks, lights, and mid-tones.  Have one dominate value pattern with the remaining value patterns in supporting roles. For example a large mass of dark tone, known as a low key painting, with smaller areas of lights and mid-tones.  Or a large light area, known as a high key painting, with smaller dark patterns and mid-tones masses.
3. Composition is also key to a strong painting.  Composition is a pleasing arrangement of the elements of the painting which help to lead the viewer’s eye through and around the painting.  There are many compositional tools, such as use of the Golden Mean, Harmonic Triangles, using the “S” as in the snake like shape of a river or stream to lead the viewer’s eye into the painting, or the circular or tunnel shape to name just a few. And, the old tried and true method of dividing the canvas into thirds both horizontally and vertically.  The points where the lines meet, known as the “Sweet Spot” is an ideal place to place your center of interest or focal point.
4. Have a dominate color theme or use a limited palette to insure color harmony.
5. Last but not least, give it your best shot!  You have a 50/50 chance of a mess or a masterpiece.  Happy Painting and enjoy the journey! 

Blog # 8                                                            Following Your Heart

“Man is not free to refuse to do the thing which gives him more pleasure than any other conceivable action.”  Stendhal

  What is it that secretly, if you had the opportunity to pursue, you would?  Has it occurred to you that you are a unique individual put on this earth to contribute one or more of your unique talents?  Talents, you say, what talents could I have?  Ask yourself this, what is it that you find yourself continually thinking about or yearning to see, do, or discover?  Is it to learn to play the piano, walk or run a marathon, learn to paint?  Could it be that you have a desire to write a book or learn the Tango?  I call these desires your spiritual DNA.  We are all spiritual beings whether we believe in God or not.  Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t make that something non-existent!  Just presume for a moment that God or a Higher Power does exit and He or She did create you in His or Her image and likeness!  That’s a powerful thought!  If the Creator of the Universe creates something or someone, as in our case, doesn’t it stand to reason that the created has creative abilities similar to its Creator?  That’s where the spiritual DNA comes into play.  It is my belief that our spiritual DNA comes in the form of little whisperings or a nudging we feel toward something, like that desire to learn to play the piano, write the book, or paint a landscape or learn to dance.  Maybe your gift is one of organization.  You just love making lists, setting goals, and putting into place plans to carry out those goals.  I believe those desires are planted in the deep recesses of our hearts and it is up to us, not only to discover them, but permit ourselves to give birth to those inner yearnings.  Our special gifts or talents when put into use can make the world a better place.

  Today, let us ask ourselves what endeavor makes me most happy?  Sophocles says, “Look and you will find it---what is unsought will go undetected.”  Let us give ourselves permission to yield to those inner yearnings.  Let us be brave enough to follow our hearts.  Let it not be said of us, as in the poem, Maud Muller, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’” John Greenlief Whittier (1807 – 1892).

First Impressions Do Count

Just as in life we sometimes want or need to press the “pause” button, so it is with a blog.  For several weeks, I’ve been trying to meet deadlines for a themed painting show, a final project for a class, and preparing for Thanksgiving.  Add to this mix, health issues, teaching two classes and taking two classes.   It was a wise student who said to me, “Maybe you’re trying to do too much.” For a person who thrives on anything related to art and learning her implied suggestion was a hard pill to swallow.   I’m not super woman!

As I stood before my easel and tried to “push” through some issues I was having with a couple of paintings, I realized this was not right.  I love painting but painting under pressure is not the way to create your best work. Granted, we all need a little pressure at times to spark us onward and, yes, there is what I call the “grim” stage of every painting where you want to walk away or toss the painting right out right the window,  but it is here that we do need to “push” through that wall of frustration to what lies on the other side of that wall, success.

  Creativity is not born in a storm, but in the calm.  And, rushing a painting just to meet someone else’s deadline can be disastrous.  I say, disastrous because what would be worse,  not finishing “on time” or releasing a painting that is not your best work?  You only get one shot at showing your work!  If a framed painting is not your best work that leaves a lasting impression with collectors and gallery owners.  Wine maker, Paul Mason, says, “We will sell no wine before it’s time.” We as artists could adapt that wise quote to read something like this, “We will release no painting, script, novel, or any creative endeavor before it’s time.” First impressions do count! 

  “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”.  Psalm 37: 4

In the spring of 1994, the Art Department at Kennesaw State University sponsored a trip to Paris!  Paris!!!  I was so over the top with excitement about the possibility of going to Paris and seeing, first-hand the many works of art we were talking about in Art History!  My husband was so supportive! It was hard to imagine that this desire of my heart was about to come true!   Our daughters were young women by this time, so I felt comfortable “leaving home”.

  As we approached De Gaul airport the clouds gave way to a golden sliver of light which soon fully illuminated the whole right side of the aircraft.  I could barely contain my joy and excitement!  It was like Heaven pulled back the curtain to reveal the treasures contained in the City of Lights below!  After going through Customs our first adventure was riding the Metro to our accommodations at the hotel, Campanile Paris in the 11^th Arrondissement or district.  The room was small by American standards but comfortable and we had a view of the busy street below from our balcony.  My roommate, Mary and I soon settled into our home away from home.

 Even though we hadn’t had much sleep on the plane, our instructor soon had us gather to take the Metro once, again.  We were off to visit the Musée D’Orsay, home of many Impressionist paintings!  The Musée D’Orsay is a converted train station and the enclosed glass ceiling helps  illuminate the vast cavernous space with ambient light.  As I moved along the walls, following the flow of traffic, I stopped at almost every painting by the Impressionists, fascinated by their use of light and shadow.  Then, from across the room a familiar painting caught my eye.  Walking over, I stopped dead in my tracks!  There in front of me was the painting,  The Angelus, by Jean Francois Millet!  Tears welled in my eyes.  I just couldn’t believe I was standing in front of the very painting that captivated me so as a child!  I always loved the way the sun fell on the figures as they paused for noon time prayers.   I felt overwhelmed for a moment that God had blessed me with this amazing trip!  Little did I know back in the eighth grade that I would  one day be standing in front Millet’s original work of art!  I can still see that painting in my mind’s eye on the glossy pages of our little pocket sized “Picture Study” book that I treasured all those years ago.  God is so good!

After the Musée D’Orsay, we ventured out for lunch.  There were many street vendors on or near the steps of the museum.  This not only saved us time, but it gave me a chance to practice my French.  Timidly, I said, “Je voudrais un jambon et fromage, si’l vous plaít.”   It was the best ham and cheese on a crusty roll that I had ever tasted, but of course, by this point, anything French would have been bliss to me! We enjoyed our tasty fare all the while being entertained by the many Mimes performing nearby.

In addition to the Musée D’Orsay, we visited the Musée Rodin, Le Marmottan Monet Museum, the Musée de l’Orangerie, and of course, the Louvre.  In addition, we visited Notre Dame and the Cathedral of Sacré Coeur located in Montmartre.

Our trip also included a visit to Monet’s home at Giverny.  Seeing the flowering lily pads floating on his pond was a magical!  And, walking through his kitchen was surreal!  How could this be happening?  What a gift to be able to see and experience such beauty and to be transported back in time, if only for a short while!  I felt in awe and humbled!  And, ever so grateful for this privilege!   

Albert Einstein once said, “Logic will take you from A to B.  Imagination will take you everywhere.”  I’d like to expound upon that quote by adding, following your dreams will take you beyond your wildest imagination!  

Until next time…

Pressing on…

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.   Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.  The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”.  Calvin Coolidge, 30^th President of the United States, 1923-1929.

One of the first things I learned in a formal drawing class at Kennesaw State University was that only 1% of all artists can draw anything out of their head in a matter of minutes, as I had previously thought.  The other 99% of us are taught how to draw.  Drawing is really learning to see, not just looking.  Looking implies a glance while seeing is comparing shapes, lines, angles, and forms to those around them.  In other words, you are taught to see relationships.  Thus, you can be taught to draw.

  My first art instructor at Kennesaw was Mr. Ayokunle Odeleye a tall, handsome man with a booming voice that struck fear in most of the students.  I was told “not to take” his class because he was “so hard”.  Those words were fighting words to me.  If Mr. Odeleye’s class was “hard”, to me that meant he would make us learn.  It turned out that Mr. Odeleye’s class was my favorite class!  He taught me the magic of chiaroscuro!  Our first assignment was to draw a penny that “would look like it would roll of the page”.  That sounds like a breeze of an assignment, but I remember, he made us do it over and over, again, until the viewer could not see even one simple pencil mark!  Truly, that penny did look like it could roll off the page.  I also remember Mr. Odeleye coming around the room as we worked on our still life pastel project.  He would point out this or that that needed tweaking and then move on to the next student.  I remember cringing when he approached my easel always afraid I wouldn’t get it right.  Sometimes, he would just nod and then move on to the next student, but one day he came back to my easel and said, “I don’t know how you do it, Leiby, but I’m going to start calling you the “Phoenix”. “I didn’t think you could work your way out of the direction you were going, but you pulled it off and pulled it off well”.  Oh, happy days!  I made Mr. Odeleye smile!  I loved his class because Mr. Odeleye inspired us to always do our best and not to be mediocre.  He made me do things in art I didn’t know I was capable of doing!  He taught me to really “see”.  He taught me to persevere!  And, he taught me to pursue excellence!   Whenever, I hear that old saying, “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”  I think of Mr. Odeleye.  Of all the instructors I had in college or since, Mr. Odeleye was by far, the most influential!  Thank you, Mr. O!