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Art School Six
Working With Colors
The color wheel: yellow, yellow orange, orange, red orange, red, red purple, purple, purple blue, blue, blue green, green, yellow green.
The wheel is as a circle of color that represents for us in a way the physical spectrum of light that we see as color. Although I think we can maybe even sort of subconsciously also see purple ultra violet and Infra red red. There may even be pigments one can use that give off such color. Of course to make certain, we must use instrumentation.
The colors are enriching in themselves and tend to tell us of the universe and even possible of sorts of things we cannot yet understand as mere humans. However aesthetics can even get us beyond the limitation of our understanding. Color can however have deep meaning, especially when observed on the markings of animals and in aspects of the plant life around us. The colors of the lithosphere can be particularly revealing, hence the awe and fascination over gem stones and the intense desire for individuals to own them.
In art we have simplified the basic grasp of color in said color wheel to use as a tool to produce more
exquisite art work. You may find that you develop a distinctly personal command of the use of color as you progress, but the wheel is there for those who might find themselves inhibited by a weakness in the comprehension of it's use.
Color of pigments does different things when mixed than pure light does. In the world of pigments as in the chemicals that give paint it's color, we are dealing with color that happens when white light is reflected off the painted surface. This as opposed to, for instance, a stage hand using color spotlights, or the rgb monitor with it's dots of phosphorescent colors.
In the world of paint, when colors are mixed, you would want to know what you'll get. Especially as you mature in your work, you will now the nuances of the paints. The slight reddish tinge of cobalt blue or the green afterglow suggested in the thalo blue.
When using the colors, a lot depends on your developing your power of decision. You will find yourself, more and more, being able to decide quickly how you are going to emulate the color you
perceive or the one you want to set down.
When the color list above is set on a wheel or circle, you can then study what color is the
opposite of another, so that, when mixed they begin to cancel each other out into
grays and browns which can be used to great advantage in the composition of a skilled artist.
The collection of colors named above are then delegated into three groups: primary, secondary and tertiary. The rest of the colors can be made with the three primary colors, although it's important to know that the chemistry of the pigment, or the finely ground powdered colors put into paint to give it it's color, will affect slightly the secondary and tertiary colors your try to make. Cadmium red and ultramarine blue (the kind made with aluminum, not
lapis) make a different sort of purple than you'll get from alizerine crimson and Prussian blue.
Also remember that a color is not a color unless it is next to another color. One method to study color is to
juxtapose bits of colored paper, though I say you're far better off observing color juxtapositions, what happens when certain colors appear in proximity to others. You're also going to find that reality, especially natural surroundings are going to serve you lots of
grays, "mauves" (sort of purply grayish colors), browns and brownish versions of so-called purer colors, rendering them, as the expression goes, into the more earthy colors.
Some come straight from the tube such as yellow ochre, rust red, and so on.
So then, for openers, we have on our color wheel the primary colors, yellow, red, and blue; the secondary colors, what you would ideally get when mixing two primary colors, orange, purple, and green; and then the more subtle changes in color betwixt all that, the tertiary colors, yellow orange, red orange, reddish purple, bluish purple, the beautiful blue green, the lively yellow green. Of course, not to scare you, but there is the
quaternary set of colors and the quintic set. But I never studied those. You may find that as you work with the main bunch the rest comes automatically and the mind begins to sort things out even without you muddling around too much with your conscious thought.
You will find that you'll need much more white paint than anything else, because most of the color we see in standard sorts of illumination
occurs in the form of mere tints of the colors, and, of course, with the tints come the shadows or the shades. With a command of light and shade, you will come to the point of being able to produce a picture, or, more
precisely, a work of art.
Also remember the brush stroke plays an important part as, among other things, it determines the surface texture of the painting.
When toning things down use equal values.
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