Fall 2010 - Color Theory

Next up in my end-of-semester round-up posts is my Color Theory class with Cameron Wasson.  First and foremost, Cameron is such a delightful and knowledgeable teacher!  Her metaphors--which, for the record, she concocts in an improvisational manner--make learning fun, and her zest for art both classic and contemporary is truly inspiring.  I have made a couple of previous postings about my work for this class: my first Design Project and my analogous split-complimentary color scheme portrait painting.  Here are some of the other projects I created for this class, starting with the Optic Mix painting:

As you can see, I started with the blue bird on a branch photograph, which I then cropped.  Next, I created a black & white Value Study of the image, followed by a Color Study.  The idea behind an Optic Mix painting is that the colors are mixed in the viewer's eye as opposed to the artist mixing them on the palette.  Therefore, the final image is a series of tiny dots created with a ruling pen.  It was a mind-bending experience, for sure, and I was never pleased with my control over the tool or the limited palette we were allowed.  Next unposted project was a Color Temperature painting:

Here, Cameron gave us a box of colored blocks from which to pick and create an interesting arrangement.  We then photographed that arrangement under a filtered light, in this case a warm filter.  After the standard value and color studies, a final painting was created.  The yellow block is all but lost in this painting, and the shadows were far too blue.  Since this was a "learning" class--as opposed to a "create amazing portfolio artwork" class--I didn't choose to redo any projects.  As long as I was learning from them, I felt they were as successful as they needed to be.  And finally, we have the final project for the class:

The final project was a landscape illustration that showed Atmospheric Perspective.  I went to my not-so-massive library of personal images and found some great ones from Lake Tahoe (from when my parents were kind enough to fly out here to San Francisco to visit me and free me--for the weekend--from this dreadful city).  Following Cameron's advice to cater the image towards our Majors, I decided to use a cinematic aspect ratio, so I had to move around a few of the elements from the photograph before I created the usual value and color studies.  You can also see a rare work-in-progress image just above the final painting.  One thing I definitely learned from this final painting--besides how far I've come in my knowledge of painting with gouache paint and of color theory itself--is the importance of designing everything thoroughly in the early stages.  Lack of design (as seen in the far-to-rough value study) lead to problems with the foreground plant life and ultimately really ruined what was otherwise a very pleasing painting.  Lesson learned for next time!

Color Theory - Project 3

The third assignment for my Color Theory class was to pick a celebrity and create an analogous split complementary painting that tells their story with color.  Easy, I know.  After failed attempts at the likes of Megan Fox, Natalie Portman, and even Sarah Chalke, I finally came back to reality and chose Steven Spielberg.  I found a fantastic picture of him in that famous director pose where they use their hands to frame a shot.

Then, I had to render that image, simplifying the shapes and assigning values that create form.  Additionally, I had to think about the story I wanted to tell with my illustration.  I also had to find another picture of Steven where I could actually see his left hand (since the right part of this image is blocked) and had to try to blend it into the scene.

You'll notice I also placed extra emphasis on the eyes to make sure that the focal point is clear.  He sees the composition of his shot through his hands with his eyes.  This was actually drawn roughly on paper first, then values were cleaned up and assigned in Photoshop, which made it much easier to play around with the values and colors of each shape.

Speaking of the colors of each shape, I decided to go with the Red Analogous Split Complementary color scheme, using the complementary Green around the eyes and splashed around the "Golden Rectangle" that his hands create.  Cool colors for the hair and background, oranges for the face, and reds for the hands.

You can then see how all that work was for not, as my horrid painting abilities killed all my weeks of preparation (okay, so I can honestly say that it looks a bit better in reality than this scan shows, but it's still not so great).  Gouache painting is not as fun as you may think...especially when you also have Layout Design and Preproduction work to get done, too.  I think I'll be rather pleased when this semester is over...

Color Theory Class

Been a bit busy between homework & work, so the blog postings have been sparse.  I shall do my best to post stuff from my classes as I finish projects.  First up to bat: Color Theory.

My Color Theory class is lead by the brilliant instructor Cameron Wasson.  It is, believe it or not, currently my favorite class.  Such an intense class (read: lots of working in-class and lots of homework hours), but I have already gained so much knowledge that I can use forever (...or at least until I pay people to do this kind of stuff for me).  Gouache paint costs way too much money, though, so that's a real downside.  Plus, I also seem to be buying a bunch of things that I don't foresee myself ever using again in other classes.  Still, can you put a price on knowledge?  The Academy seems to think so.  And it's pretty high.  Also, Cameron is not only a great instructor/teacher, but she has THE BEST anecdotes!  It's a real treat just to watch her formulate them on-the-fly.  Most importantly, she clearly has a real love/passion for what she does, and I think I respect that more than anything else and can certainly get behind it.

At any rate, our first project is to be turned in this week and I thought I'd share my interpretation of it here.  Using the Golden Rectangle, we had to create a 9-value design, then colorize it.  Below are exploratory marker sketches, the B&W painting, and the color version, done in gouache paint.

On a related side-note, Mark Kennedy (awesome Disney story artist) has been doing his own color theorizing in his free time and posts a few great thoughts on color over at his Temple of the Seven Golden Camels blog.  It's worth a read.