Vicky's Home: Color

Showing posts with label Color. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Color. Show all posts

Equinox Effect

Equinox Effect

Here's an unusual effect in Indiana where the sun is setting directly behind us due west on the autumnal equinox, and the light bounces ...

10:52

Pixar supercut arranged ROYGBIV

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/105089367" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe><br /> <a href="http://vimeo.com/105089367">ROYGBIV: A Pixar Supercut</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/rishikaneria">Rishi Kaneria</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />Editor Rishi Kaneria excerpted short scenes from the Pixar films and arranged them according to the spectrum, showing how much individual sequences are shifted to a particular narrow color gamuts. (<a href="http://vimeo.com/105089367">Link to Vimeo video</a>)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhczcBb2vsZAoec80lmFJdaapFR8lRM231eAdx0jsqlfJYCt_rEwG0jhB_8BFmeeeM_SBAzVUEZOo1s1cv29kZYCV-l_H_A2m2mlCKA13HuAp62ivZsFOFczdJAwQ5JAZe3Wj5Y0JvtwLgF/s1600/Pixar+Color+Script.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhczcBb2vsZAoec80lmFJdaapFR8lRM231eAdx0jsqlfJYCt_rEwG0jhB_8BFmeeeM_SBAzVUEZOo1s1cv29kZYCV-l_H_A2m2mlCKA13HuAp62ivZsFOFczdJAwQ5JAZe3Wj5Y0JvtwLgF/s1600/Pixar+Color+Script.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="flex-video" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4e5860; font-family: 'FF Tisa', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.7999992370605px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div>Here's the color script for the movie "Up." The high-chroma sequences are interspersed between gray or neutral ones, and the intense colors are reserved for important emotional moments of the film.<br /><br />Film = color + time.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisXlyjtmHvfEwvlT7ZQayRjLBfsU82i2tAEn5up5YH82pM_w066_rm3msZDsjgLlXQPO-hz-AQ5OTr5T0vsN45K93sdsSDLeG7ddpqamTEigBObg0QU3u1lUaZUwfM4ko-3-CVuVobEFS7/s1600/Color+Script+Incredibles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisXlyjtmHvfEwvlT7ZQayRjLBfsU82i2tAEn5up5YH82pM_w066_rm3msZDsjgLlXQPO-hz-AQ5OTr5T0vsN45K93sdsSDLeG7ddpqamTEigBObg0QU3u1lUaZUwfM4ko-3-CVuVobEFS7/s1600/Color+Script+Incredibles.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>This color script for "The Incredibles" not only suggests a palette of colors for each sequence, but a set of basic geometric ingredients, known as the "shape language" for that part of the film.<br /><br />All images © Disney/Pixar, via<a href="http://thenextweb.com/creativity/2014/09/20/pixars-palette-explored-captivating-color-blocked-supercut/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNextWeb+(The+Next+Web+All+Stories)"> TNW</a>

Pixar supercut arranged ROYGBIV

Pixar supercut arranged ROYGBIV

ROYGBIV: A Pixar Supercut from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo . Editor Rishi Kaneria excerpted short scenes from the Pixar films and arranged the...

06:05

Abbott Color Wheel

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfxhBBcRF5I9vp939-InGONXxsFQv7JVMH04dW1noXGwlRSsOFGwiJAzxdOyp_cwjL7KtvdKRqB1ROUSJXJe_vaaz183rviZwaWhd4tq89DsWAXLNUA4MXmiepsYrT3UROE1lxBXpTQ8R/s1600/Abbott+Color+Wheel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfxhBBcRF5I9vp939-InGONXxsFQv7JVMH04dW1noXGwlRSsOFGwiJAzxdOyp_cwjL7KtvdKRqB1ROUSJXJe_vaaz183rviZwaWhd4tq89DsWAXLNUA4MXmiepsYrT3UROE1lxBXpTQ8R/s1600/Abbott+Color+Wheel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="no" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russabbott/abbott-color-wheel/widget/video.html" width="480"> </iframe></div><br />Russ Abbott is launching a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russabbott/abbott-color-wheel">Kickstarter campaign</a> for a gamut mask tool that lets tattoo artists select exactly the color scheme they want from the wide range of available ink colors.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russabbott/abbott-color-wheel">Abbott Color Wheel on Kickstarter</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740797719/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0740797719&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20&linkId=M7DCCWLDB36L7LSG">Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0740797719" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, #1 on Amazon/Painting

Abbott Color Wheel

Abbott Color Wheel

Russ Abbott is launching a Kickstarter campaign for a gamut mask tool that lets tattoo artists select exactly the color scheme they want f...

07:08

Complementary Shadows

Arbi asks: <i>"Could you please explain about 'complementary shadows?' </i><i>Some attribute complementary shadows to the Impressionist habit of painting the reflected color of blue sky in shadows, and others attribute it to simultaneous-contrast. Is it real? </i><i>Do you use it in your painting, and how do you implement it?"</i><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WegAf2SVnQ77R3a9BBU9AjjYVMRDzfvu657esArMcmyDJY3ScFxWrwAAZ20M1fMdYsatfgGHViHxyRvB3eVZ0vA6Rbf6cA-0BlbnwjJdGAyo_jegdJEX4KUNmQgcefBN-X-fLXxY1SIj/s1600/Maxfield+Parrish+landscape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WegAf2SVnQ77R3a9BBU9AjjYVMRDzfvu657esArMcmyDJY3ScFxWrwAAZ20M1fMdYsatfgGHViHxyRvB3eVZ0vA6Rbf6cA-0BlbnwjJdGAyo_jegdJEX4KUNmQgcefBN-X-fLXxY1SIj/s1600/Maxfield+Parrish+landscape.jpg" width="328" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maxfield Parrish</td></tr></tbody></table><i><br /></i>Arbi, it's a little of both. In most sunny conditions, shadows really are in a complementary color range compared to the sunlit surfaces because they're lit by the relatively blue skylight.<br /><br />By contrast, the sunlit surfaces are lit by the sum of the sunlight and the skylight, with the sunlight dominating. It's easy to demonstrate this with a camera that is color balanced to sunlit white paper. When you take the same white paper and photograph it again in shadow, it's clearly bluer.<br /><br />The effect is heightened late in the day as the sun is lower in the sky. More of the short-wavelength is scattered out of the sunlight, leaving more orange or red light, and making the color contrast between light and shadow more obvious.<br /><br />(A brief caution on the above: the shadow side of any object receives not only skylight, but also reflected light from other sources, so if those sources of reflected light are very warm, and the sky is blocked by trees or clouds, the shadow might be very warm, too.)<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR1giEG7IhPt6Wqw2HVFD_H-xzjzurrks016zFxnEfutLP_B6n8nGHLbztcyqdITXhXNZZq4FWgArA-uN06ZyczGMZL7xA0oQ9tJqYOTn1NvTJbZeeDpVTfr8JAUlyOfyvp9zdCseHg4E/s1600/Reflected+Light+Det.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="81" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR1giEG7IhPt6Wqw2HVFD_H-xzjzurrks016zFxnEfutLP_B6n8nGHLbztcyqdITXhXNZZq4FWgArA-uN06ZyczGMZL7xA0oQ9tJqYOTn1NvTJbZeeDpVTfr8JAUlyOfyvp9zdCseHg4E/s400/Reflected+Light+Det.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These are all from the shadow side of a white building. From the post "A White Building in Shadow"</td></tr></tbody></table>At the same time, our visual system is set up in such a way that exposure to any color causes adjacent colors to appear complementary, so a yellow square next to a gray square will make the gray square look bluer.<br /><br />This is an effect I like to use a lot, not only to simulate the "Golden Hour" time of day, but also in small ways, to alternate relatively warm and cool colors throughout a picture.<br />-----<br />Previously on GJ:<br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/01/golden-hour.html">Golden Hour</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/05/induced-color.html">Induced Color</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2007/12/color-warm-and-cool.html">Warm and Cool Colors</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2012/06/white-building-in-shadow.html">A White Building in Shadow</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740797719/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0740797719&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20&linkId=TPKGDSEBPZOCKYED">Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0740797719" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> on Amazon<br /><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>

Complementary Shadows

Complementary Shadows

Arbi asks: "Could you please explain about 'complementary shadows?' Some attribute complementary shadows to the Impressionist ...

07:06

Modulating Greens in Watercolor

<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: white; color: #761d15; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.3999996185303px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; color: #612e00; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="background-color: white; color: #612e00; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Blog reader Diego Conte says:<br /><div>"I am a young self taught artist in Spain, and your books are probably the best resource I have ever found. And your watercolour video is amazing. I'm recommending them to every artist I know."<br /><br />"I don't know if there is any article in your blog on this matter, but since there is a chapter on your book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740797719/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0740797719&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20&linkId=AUQCDL4XDBNEWSRE" style="color: #003366;">Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0740797719" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i>, I think it is not a bad idea at all to ask this question. How could I establish a good green harmony using watercolours? My mixes always end up looking muddy on the paper when I try to use green... it always look too cool If I need it to be warm or vice versa. I see a lot of great watercolor masters simply avoiding it using ochre or brown colour schemes instead. But I want to be faithful to my subject harmony. I don't know if it is an interesting topic for such a thing as an article, but any short tip or direction would be great."<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4bS2w89Ow2njw_DzBTc94X0PkhX6EIcXS8QWn_uuDAa70RS7RftukN7A1R7d-d9HqpyuXK2cy5wn0qIE-VA9aCoTvXyR4iMzk0yCXiMIWB9ISzprud7i92yiijDEW2aqWztlPXMCqphd/s1600/Martin+Rico+Ortega+Watercolor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #003366; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4bS2w89Ow2njw_DzBTc94X0PkhX6EIcXS8QWn_uuDAa70RS7RftukN7A1R7d-d9HqpyuXK2cy5wn0qIE-VA9aCoTvXyR4iMzk0yCXiMIWB9ISzprud7i92yiijDEW2aqWztlPXMCqphd/s1600/Martin+Rico+Ortega+Watercolor.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.3999996185303px;">Martí<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">n Rico y Ortega, watercolor</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Thanks, Diego. Good question. Greens can be wonderful in watercolor, and it's a good goal to be faithful to nature.<br /><br />The Spanish painter <a href="https://www.blogger.com/Rico%20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_Rico" style="color: #003366;">Martín Rico</a> (1833-1908) is good to look at for how he uses greens. In this one he moves toward the blue-green hues. But it's not the hues, so much as the values that makes it work. He avoids muddiness by organizing the picture into three basic tonal areas: 1. light sky, 2. dark trees, and 3. middle-tone stream bank.</div><div><br />Simple, strong value schemes never look muddy. This is something Rico learned from Daubigny, one of the French Barbizon painters. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyqOkEnKw5oIs_QACd3J0hiqWidPCbPb8RqhLkKhyphenhypheneS_sPP_W21pg_1zY6rS9B6JS0rDwbctiSJ-D6IlrMUSg6yXY8UoWuRdhQx1dmjZ78RV6_6yNUeANXDmbSsgT938qkSs8S19P2uBHl/s1600/Martin+Rico+Ortega+Watercolor.det.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #003366; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyqOkEnKw5oIs_QACd3J0hiqWidPCbPb8RqhLkKhyphenhypheneS_sPP_W21pg_1zY6rS9B6JS0rDwbctiSJ-D6IlrMUSg6yXY8UoWuRdhQx1dmjZ78RV6_6yNUeANXDmbSsgT938qkSs8S19P2uBHl/s1600/Martin+Rico+Ortega+Watercolor.det.jpg" style="border: 0px;" /></a></div><div>Here's a small detail of the same painting. He uses a variety of greens, including blue greens, grey greens, and yellow greens. That doesn't mean he necessarily had a lot of separate green pigments on his palette. It just means he was conscious of varying the chroma and hue of the mixtures. Rico was also interesting in the way he left little white dots on the picture, which gives it a little sparkle.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some artists leave green off the palette altogether and mix their greens from yellows and blues, because that way there's always variety in the mixture. In foliage there is variety of green in each leaf, variety in each small group of leaves, and variety from one tree to another, and variety from foreground to background. </div><div><br /></div><div>But all that variety must happen <i>within those simple tonal areas,</i> and that's what's a bit challenging.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_vWtteLey7pMePFnBwfxGl-6D7jW1vZFStpRnLgiuopz9JX8403-SQj7Y3k9tK7Uaaf2gWR79dtl794efARXZ4YUraxN1IRZ80t2q396apKjloJN8wJqJFp7jOM1nR4XpW5OwCU8Ll23k/s1600/Palmer_Harry_Sutton1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #003366; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_vWtteLey7pMePFnBwfxGl-6D7jW1vZFStpRnLgiuopz9JX8403-SQj7Y3k9tK7Uaaf2gWR79dtl794efARXZ4YUraxN1IRZ80t2q396apKjloJN8wJqJFp7jOM1nR4XpW5OwCU8Ll23k/s1600/Palmer_Harry_Sutton1.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here's another watercolor landscape, this time by an English watercolorist named<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Sutton_Palmer" style="color: #003366;">Harry Sutton Palmer</a> (1854-1933). Even though his range emphasizes yellow-green, he uses a subtle variety of colors, which would be more evident in the original.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">One of the secrets to both this painting and the last one is that they chose not to paint a bright blue sky. A bright blue sky behind bright green leaves might look good in a photo, but it can often be deadly in a painting. However, green foliage against sky filled with a high white cloud layer can be very attractive.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn3S3vi_FUlHElmOLSN62JoImV-Qka_je4LSPEu3GwYTLCd12AAwyWzAbTcPODhf9ART94n6P0Nns-fdHoBGKe66ifRk4tRbEd1IBWkBwbSNv5BGOnDU5psWzr4dBxCqlwsmUlI7Wsk4G4/s1600/Palmer_Harry_Sutton1ontheousebarcombemill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #003366; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn3S3vi_FUlHElmOLSN62JoImV-Qka_je4LSPEu3GwYTLCd12AAwyWzAbTcPODhf9ART94n6P0Nns-fdHoBGKe66ifRk4tRbEd1IBWkBwbSNv5BGOnDU5psWzr4dBxCqlwsmUlI7Wsk4G4/s1600/Palmer_Harry_Sutton1ontheousebarcombemill.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="400" /></a></div>Here's one last watercolor by Harry Sutton Palmer. Those greens are all composite mixtures, and none of them are too high-chroma. They're probably muted quite a bit from what he actually saw. And he obviously worked hard to simplify his values to the general midtone of the leaves, the light sky and distant area, and the dark areas of the tree bases.<br /><br />Diego, I hope that helps. Good luck with your greens. Enjoy them while they remain before autumn and winter come.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Previously on GurneyJourney: <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/06/green-problem.html">The Green Problem</a></div>

Modulating Greens in Watercolor

Modulating Greens in Watercolor

Blog reader Diego Conte says: "I am a young self taught artist in Spain, and your books are probably the best resource I have ever foun...

04:11

Prismatic Palette

<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFeYD5fgTwuQBYzn3Xf6O75Mwq49TaT6bWMPVvCPW4L154GzCdb5Rs3YppkEb0PakAWMHWs2XlkvHMSx7lXiNkmNmy-m3XtbkihEsFeU2b8_3v2LLIjz2oFb77Xwu4qgpRJfZ1Wh9YGMUs/s1600/91291046_039823d05c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFeYD5fgTwuQBYzn3Xf6O75Mwq49TaT6bWMPVvCPW4L154GzCdb5Rs3YppkEb0PakAWMHWs2XlkvHMSx7lXiNkmNmy-m3XtbkihEsFeU2b8_3v2LLIjz2oFb77Xwu4qgpRJfZ1Wh9YGMUs/s1600/91291046_039823d05c.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://www.frankmason.org/">Frank Mason</a> (1921-2009) was a painter and teacher at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Students_League_of_New_York">Art Students League </a>who used a shelf-like palette arrangement for his oil paints called "The Prismatic Palette." One of Mason's students, <a href="http://keithgunderson.com/works/557746/frank-mason-demonstrating">Keith Gunderson</a>, explained it to me this way:</div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxN47xPgGtsNls8OzY6Ojwk3k2y4SSFzdVp1_FWFkLYTLgH4I0pPI0plDhyphenhyphenk6LhfewS9Xkb_-3xJNb0ZPbLKfO_Dpb82Dlz_fUUp3xn0Wx6k4bzTLBeLaBritcIjsuF-X_zbjrvmh_4r-x/s1600/Prismatic+Palette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxN47xPgGtsNls8OzY6Ojwk3k2y4SSFzdVp1_FWFkLYTLgH4I0pPI0plDhyphenhyphenk6LhfewS9Xkb_-3xJNb0ZPbLKfO_Dpb82Dlz_fUUp3xn0Wx6k4bzTLBeLaBritcIjsuF-X_zbjrvmh_4r-x/s1600/Prismatic+Palette.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prismatic Palette by Leslie Watkins</td></tr></tbody></table><div>"The value scale was the essence of the shelf arrangements, with emphasis on “Orange Value” as the unifying tone of the lights. The shelves were arrayed with a string of greens made from “Parent Green”; premixed value strings of Blue, Violet, and Grey to calibrate atmospheric perspective; a shelf for pre-mixed tints for the sky; and a “Control String” of pure colors squeezed from the tube, arranged by value from light to dark." </div><div><br /></div><div>"Modulating a color with it’s complement was often substituted by mixing grey or brown into that color... perhaps an influence of Frank’s teacher  [Frank Vincent] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_DuMond">Dumond </a>(1865-1951) and Dumond’s teacher, [Jules Joseph] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Joseph_Lefebvre">Lefebvre</a> (1836–1911)."</div><div><br /></div><div>I have also heard "parent green" referred to as "vegetable green," the color of transmitted light through backlit young leaves.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNvzdKhgPWd2DhGmeiRdiY47dzpznBpdho_odpq215H9P9GQZ47l2ayFKiwYl8NMhIBjMEueadoBx8wRzssv7bgfBCKuviFIN0hZc9AAydH7hGJ6FSU3U2nR66cN0JEPzqec3ApDZuq014/s1600/17am113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNvzdKhgPWd2DhGmeiRdiY47dzpznBpdho_odpq215H9P9GQZ47l2ayFKiwYl8NMhIBjMEueadoBx8wRzssv7bgfBCKuviFIN0hZc9AAydH7hGJ6FSU3U2nR66cN0JEPzqec3ApDZuq014/s1600/17am113.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Landscape by Frank Vincent Dumond</td></tr></tbody></table>Here are a couple of paintings by League instructor and link to the French tradition, Frank Vincent Dumond, showing his very sensitive approach to color.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikBv5qBSt1hhwF0LCYtMh1C9X-zc6GBuuatroZtVOnkGfDgaskcLF22KU3G40KXUW3E4d5UxTfXIMLG4qxZR5nBn7W4auecg0jlOuXJ4dt163ISALTvDffKV-ifD_AdtHJUJRsOm2IMCUi/s1600/DuMond,+Frank+Christ+and+the+Fishermen+1891.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikBv5qBSt1hhwF0LCYtMh1C9X-zc6GBuuatroZtVOnkGfDgaskcLF22KU3G40KXUW3E4d5UxTfXIMLG4qxZR5nBn7W4auecg0jlOuXJ4dt163ISALTvDffKV-ifD_AdtHJUJRsOm2IMCUi/s1600/DuMond,+Frank+Christ+and+the+Fishermen+1891.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dumond, Christ and the Fishermen, 1891</td></tr></tbody></table><div>Leslie Watkins, another Mason student, describes the prismatic palette this way:</div><div><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDBXQgfB2ZmhZf-RPzHNioq4LRMQkKsAMcAQBZT9aB7UWcgtDBqw8HxUTYxUKLleUyUb8EFDSG4co_ey70NLo-Y__d_fqcSYzAKajxY4SIfB6C0k7EQE6l5gp4KerOH-uAX_6Mn4GSetHP/s1600/1c58d0200008de31d3452d3ee876e336.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDBXQgfB2ZmhZf-RPzHNioq4LRMQkKsAMcAQBZT9aB7UWcgtDBqw8HxUTYxUKLleUyUb8EFDSG4co_ey70NLo-Y__d_fqcSYzAKajxY4SIfB6C0k7EQE6l5gp4KerOH-uAX_6Mn4GSetHP/s1600/1c58d0200008de31d3452d3ee876e336.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Pinterest via <a href="http://www.outdoorpainter.com/tips/pre-mixed-prismatic-palette-667.html">Outdoor Painter</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div>"It clarifies several strings of colors into even steps, with the lightest or highest values descending to the lowest or darkest tones." </div><div><br /></div><div>"The steps are based on pure colors from cadmium lemon yellow to alizarin crimson. The different strings of colors consist of grays, violets, blues and greens."</div><div><br /></div><div>Another Art Students League teacher (and another Frank), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_J._Reilly">Frank Reilly</a> (1906-1965), also taught a value-based system of premixing palette colors, but it was different from Mason's. Reilly's lineage connects him to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me">Gérôme</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Delaroche">Delaroche</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Boulanger">Boulanger</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Both systems are descendants of a common practice among painters before the 20th century to premix colors in sequences of stepped values, analogous to the keys and manuals of a pipe organ.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm obviously no expert on the League instructors' systems, so I welcome further insights and discussion in the comments.</div><br />Previously on GJ <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/03/premixing-color.html">Premixing Color</a><br /><a href="http://www.arttimesjournal.com/art/Art_Essays/May_Jun_12_Leslie_Watkins/The_Prismatic_Palette.html">More on the Prismatic Palette by Leslie Watkins at the Art Times Journal</a><br />------<br /><i>Edit: After reading the post and the comments, Mason student Keith Gunderson adds this:</i><br />"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">Thanks for an excellent post on the Mason prismatic palette."</span><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">   </div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">"I might add though that although most artists that studied with Frank had these shelf boxes at the ready when they painted both plein-air and in the studio, this palette functioned more as a landscape palette, especially with a great gob of “orange value” violet as a harmony- orange value being the lowest form of light. This violet was often brushed over a dried venetian red ground and would infiltrate all the subsequent colors that were applied on top. Unfortunately this would sometime result in an overly chalky appearance in the coloration."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">"The palette would be organized along a string of nine values (sometimes more)—the four upper values representing values in light, Yellow Ochre value at value 5 in the middle of the string or “the turning plane,” and the lowest four values representing shadow values. In this case, Cad Orange was the lowest value of light and Cad Red was the lightest value of shadow."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">"Often times artists would arrange their color strings on the shelves to mimic the progression of horizontal landscape bands, for example the control string would occupy the lowest shelf with the grey above this shelf, violet above this, blue above this, and finally the light pinks occupying the top shelf (or shelves)."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">"Greens would be modulated by inserting a bit of the blue, violet or grey dollop of paint (or a combination of the three) from the value string that was  the equivalent value in the vertical position above or beneath that green value on the string. As I said before, this meant that there was an abundance of white being mixed into the paint, since white was mixed into the violet, ivory black, and ultramarine blue base from which these strings were mixed."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">"Parent or “vegetable “green pure ( Cadmium Yellow Lemon with a touch of Phthalo green at the value of Cad yellow medium) was scaled up two values with White and  then scaled down to Ochre Value through the addition of Cobalt Blue and finally scaled down to the darkest values with the mixture of an Ultramarine Blue-Alizarin violet. Modulating these already-mixed greens with the blue, grey, and violet tint mixtures was an issue as all this modulation tended to muddy the greens."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">"Often,  F.V. Dumond and Mason, in an effort to keep the green’s chroma intact would use the green string unmodulated which sometimes resulted in “garish greens”. Personally, I was always amazed at how Dumond’s earlier paintings done in Paris where more subdued when compared to the “electric greens” of his more Old Lyme influence period paintings."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">"Finally, the notion that greens could be modulated with their complements (reds) was never really broached, since this system sort of replaced a more truly prismatic approach as evidenced in the teaching of Gruppe and Hawthorne."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">"Well, I could go on and on but I think you get the gist of all this. Having studied with Frank for many years, I was able to glean much from this approach to color, although I find it now to be limited in certain respects. Frank’s teaching was very intuitive and sometimes I think he himself was always trying new theories . I think that ultimately this approach was devised, whether in the studios of Paris or in Old Lyme, as a way to think about color and that it was less about matching the correct color and more about the emotional equivalence that color evokes in the mind of the viewer."</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><i>Thanks, Keith, for sharing all that valuable information. <a href="http://keithgunderson.blogspot.com/">Check out Keith's Blog, "Classic Realism."</a></i></div>

Prismatic Palette

Prismatic Palette

Frank Mason (1921-2009) was a painter and teacher at the Art Students League who used a shelf-like palette arrangement for his oil paints c...

06:04

Color Corona from a Bright Sky

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I'd like to wrap up our extended Watercolor Workshop Week by talking a little more about a light effect that I mentioned on the video "Watercolor in the Wild."<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdxA_89Ja1avyby19SPF3ChItyOhnwMRxGu4UWsMqVvu3lSwxOjSBs0NJf32cmzWGovBqWiY3ukSpAsjSpVSthFs4uf72jNKI1qpeL9WsTwKU82W0qH29MLjzZTepQgyoM4SOcS2Gq-bu/s1600/Wilderstein+Carriage+Barn.sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdxA_89Ja1avyby19SPF3ChItyOhnwMRxGu4UWsMqVvu3lSwxOjSBs0NJf32cmzWGovBqWiY3ukSpAsjSpVSthFs4uf72jNKI1qpeL9WsTwKU82W0qH29MLjzZTepQgyoM4SOcS2Gq-bu/s1600/Wilderstein+Carriage+Barn.sm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">While I was painting this carriage house on location, I tried to convey the feeling that the sky was both very blue and very bright. I wanted to simulate an effect that I have noticed in photography, where a bright sky bleaches out the camera's receptors and then spills over into small forms, making them take on the blue of the sky. (Edit: one aspect of this effect is an axial chromatic aberration called "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_fringing">purple fringing</a>.")</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I painted a very light cool wash in the sky, and then laid in the turrets, tree trunks, and branches with a mid-range blue. I also used a blue-gray watercolor pencil for the branches. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The scene didn't actually look this way to my eye—the sky actually looked like a light to mid-range high-chroma blue, and the branches looked extremely dark. I had to consciously override what I was perceiving and paint an effect that I was imagining. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxKU_hTD3A_w8PF0x8qd7f6ymN77XqNvZbmJ98YcGEuGJMHUN3I6kzFuwWTEno3r9iCUE1UCQxzeW4gjIF6jzIkul5gcCsUmyJQpacVkNkFH7_uqF_PF8-FCm-Q5aBapIeH1ocQxrpIhgT/s1600/Carriage+House+Photoblowups.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxKU_hTD3A_w8PF0x8qd7f6ymN77XqNvZbmJ98YcGEuGJMHUN3I6kzFuwWTEno3r9iCUE1UCQxzeW4gjIF6jzIkul5gcCsUmyJQpacVkNkFH7_uqF_PF8-FCm-Q5aBapIeH1ocQxrpIhgT/s1600/Carriage+House+Photoblowups.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>While I was painting the picture, I took a photo to see if the camera actually did see it that way, and sure enough, the small forms turned quite blue.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9P1W0ldefbY6J0onQAchM2llCg1n8jdAc4-wcGQIkF43jb1BKs9-QwiAWnm9ANCWuFPm2Dnx0sRnVYpCs6XXf_1mUMvAE5zMaSkTzf2geNAw3Jk7Z9ffXZFHDfiLk25HlqlP46cKvQDro/s1600/Churchyard.sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9P1W0ldefbY6J0onQAchM2llCg1n8jdAc4-wcGQIkF43jb1BKs9-QwiAWnm9ANCWuFPm2Dnx0sRnVYpCs6XXf_1mUMvAE5zMaSkTzf2geNAw3Jk7Z9ffXZFHDfiLk25HlqlP46cKvQDro/s1600/Churchyard.sm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>I used the same basic idea of colorizing small forms against a bright sky when I painted "Churchyard," the final demo on the video. This time, though, I wanted the sky to look warm, so I laid down a very light yellow-ochre wash and then drybrushed the branches using a dull orange watercolor.<br />----<br /><div style="margin: 0px;">In case you missed the full-length video, here are the links.<br /><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/watercolor">"Watercolor in the Wild" HD download: (Credit Card) </a><br /><a href="https://sellfy.com/p/Pvxb/">"Watercolor in the Wild" HD download: (Paypal)</a><script src="https://sellfy.com/js/api_buttons.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><a href="http://kunaki.com/MSales.asp?PublisherId=136361">"Watercolor in the Wild" DVD: (NTSC, Region 1) </a><br /><br />And here are the links to the additional 28-minute video, available only as a download.<br /><div style="margin: 0px;"><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/watercolorbonus">"Watercolor: BONUS FEATURES" <b>(</b>Gumroad via Credit Card)</a><br /><a href="https://sellfy.com/p/WY1j/">"Watercolor: BONUS FEATURES" (Sellfy via Paypal)</a><script src="https://sellfy.com/js/api_buttons.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><div><br /></div></div></div>

Color Corona from a Bright Sky

Color Corona from a Bright Sky

I'd like to wrap up our extended Watercolor Workshop Week by talking a little more about a light effect that I mentioned on the video ...

08:26

'Girtin-spiration'

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2ZlZAa7mphbEgRGTaqljDTEiDaAktfwynGDig-ZQpxgYYFZ0r2_4Ijxn694ZP9Avcpc-Cqh9Mou6jejPrrnMsVxMeRgysfHqsOnPsj_rweD6zYMD9DRbYmNLtPjw1f8oNmMZ-LjQT5wt/s1600/Greenhouse.sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2ZlZAa7mphbEgRGTaqljDTEiDaAktfwynGDig-ZQpxgYYFZ0r2_4Ijxn694ZP9Avcpc-Cqh9Mou6jejPrrnMsVxMeRgysfHqsOnPsj_rweD6zYMD9DRbYmNLtPjw1f8oNmMZ-LjQT5wt/s1600/Greenhouse.sm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the "Greenhouse" segment of my new video, <i><a href="https://sellfy.com/p/Pvxb/">Watercolor in the Wild,</a> </i>I mentioned that I ignored the green colors and painted the scene with browns, ochres, and blues instead. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Why would anyone want to do that? Why not paint what you see? Let me explain that decision a bit more. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEbb76_zjm6jorzdUMFDAl96P7GpwTJBPERhPyFrBjpYtmHEOvagA-TMvPjOT8HggkILGUi2c2YaCfa5WB-s7pBpAxj3MlJbBhEKW2XUaVuw_ZJ-jk5V5PThFLZCOMPkMTpJKIeha_K5AC/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-14+at+6.03.14+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEbb76_zjm6jorzdUMFDAl96P7GpwTJBPERhPyFrBjpYtmHEOvagA-TMvPjOT8HggkILGUi2c2YaCfa5WB-s7pBpAxj3MlJbBhEKW2XUaVuw_ZJ-jk5V5PThFLZCOMPkMTpJKIeha_K5AC/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-14+at+6.03.14+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>Here's a photo of the scene as it appeared to the camera, with fairly strong greens.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj31aOt7VNGvuUv5qgVT_ZToyCuAeBHC3SC_1SyF1jFNOawDD7hQrUQdv05vicLrluKpbAC0k3qiYbPPpeNBwQtmYYPcURW9KP-x5VTffXpzbULxBcqffpU3S87MedVMBVBKsmhqLkQ1UYZ/s1600/Greenhouse+Gamut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj31aOt7VNGvuUv5qgVT_ZToyCuAeBHC3SC_1SyF1jFNOawDD7hQrUQdv05vicLrluKpbAC0k3qiYbPPpeNBwQtmYYPcURW9KP-x5VTffXpzbULxBcqffpU3S87MedVMBVBKsmhqLkQ1UYZ/s1600/Greenhouse+Gamut.jpg" width="296" /></a></div>This was the gamut, or range of colors, that I was interested in painting instead. It's a complementary slice of the color pie that ranges between blue and yellow-orange. Greens and reds are excluded.<br /><br />What I was after was the most basic color scheme possible, just one step away from a monochromatic rendering.<br /><br />I wanted to focus on the most basic dimension of color, warm vs. cool.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiwCSxWK5MTM3echtFfTVBtIIOT-z3raSXoGOw7vWjQiuTbXUo_W0V_Xq-VTqVxJkgXtJHENbLsdcWS5KJSQg2zzoGZ0UenPbBpw-5ulbR_vRp3XANwkCZJ4dUVMc2-dzS6vH7poFQ_dzV/s1600/4-Hosp-watercolour-painter-scenery-Thomas-Girtin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiwCSxWK5MTM3echtFfTVBtIIOT-z3raSXoGOw7vWjQiuTbXUo_W0V_Xq-VTqVxJkgXtJHENbLsdcWS5KJSQg2zzoGZ0UenPbBpw-5ulbR_vRp3XANwkCZJ4dUVMc2-dzS6vH7poFQ_dzV/s1600/4-Hosp-watercolour-painter-scenery-Thomas-Girtin.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>As I was painting, I was thinking of (though aware that I was falling far short of) one of my favorite English watercolorists, Thomas Girtin (1775-1802). Girtin was a friend and rival of J.M.W. Turner, but, sadly, he died young, just 27 years of age.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7auCXI4Sdy1WQ7ewPadkMXUw834GDt0oUPVzQcW5N832uC2E5-tYIE2tNRI8GthuYbppXef19knJPsuJz5iZj7SihAQsCtfqL_OMw5mQUWPynxt8TYv02kmYnJJttfWWKXrTDjswdsFIw/s1600/Girtin_Interior_of_Lindisfarne_Priory_1797.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7auCXI4Sdy1WQ7ewPadkMXUw834GDt0oUPVzQcW5N832uC2E5-tYIE2tNRI8GthuYbppXef19knJPsuJz5iZj7SihAQsCtfqL_OMw5mQUWPynxt8TYv02kmYnJJttfWWKXrTDjswdsFIw/s1600/Girtin_Interior_of_Lindisfarne_Priory_1797.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thomas Girtin, <i>Interior of Lindisfarne Priory, </i>1797</td></tr></tbody></table>His skills were so formidable in his short life that Turner said, "Had Tom Girtin lived I should have starved". <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEBXKl1ngPpffMVfvf9-6qDPD3YCbHeSPEZNMy2HCnluQFjgGHG3qRZvRkDV7XwNun6z_5MczHNlXeLNs3jrQoBXY-zM8ZPEUva7wG6YXq67vdfMdPjlFgW6u_LlG6tevcIHaHbgW2PXzN/s1600/Girtin_KirkstallAbbeyYorkshire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEBXKl1ngPpffMVfvf9-6qDPD3YCbHeSPEZNMy2HCnluQFjgGHG3qRZvRkDV7XwNun6z_5MczHNlXeLNs3jrQoBXY-zM8ZPEUva7wG6YXq67vdfMdPjlFgW6u_LlG6tevcIHaHbgW2PXzN/s1600/Girtin_KirkstallAbbeyYorkshire.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Girtin's paintings have a wonderful otherworldliness that I adore. Part of his appeal is the way he restricts his painting to those bones of color.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8QUMxvIZ9qEehRTsqMIUqsYPR74Bprw_QRv15uw2LXVjZw1amKtKYF5fgRRee9SrMru0mkT1TC5swc66swu0xRhMz3GZFhZEFouoSVS-ubQJ1DvB8yT-OFDlr1Xm3NArNh9Inba464auC/s1600/T.homas_Girtin_Guisborough_Priory,_Yorkshire_1801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8QUMxvIZ9qEehRTsqMIUqsYPR74Bprw_QRv15uw2LXVjZw1amKtKYF5fgRRee9SrMru0mkT1TC5swc66swu0xRhMz3GZFhZEFouoSVS-ubQJ1DvB8yT-OFDlr1Xm3NArNh9Inba464auC/s1600/T.homas_Girtin_Guisborough_Priory,_Yorkshire_1801.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thomas Girtin, <i>Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire </i>1801</td></tr></tbody></table>How did he arrive at that? He must have been looking at greens and ignoring them.<br /><br />But wait—Is it possible that he used a wide range of bright colors, and that the greens have faded? Well, yes, there might have been some color loss, especially in the reds.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn50ZW5LZ2STGQro5wk062pZlSie5cfEwspMvv9HtgGSeEGl6XXp64_Vf2pmi58jj-gIpT9quBq1Wuwx-k9iXGoR_qLDCU_1jKksiHDb5BcdvKSgernpjJfONCHrRrTGdzH_8E9MvEkf5X/s1600/1280px-Thomas_Girtin_-_Ouse_Bridge,_York_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn50ZW5LZ2STGQro5wk062pZlSie5cfEwspMvv9HtgGSeEGl6XXp64_Vf2pmi58jj-gIpT9quBq1Wuwx-k9iXGoR_qLDCU_1jKksiHDb5BcdvKSgernpjJfONCHrRrTGdzH_8E9MvEkf5X/s1600/1280px-Thomas_Girtin_-_Ouse_Bridge,_York_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thomas Girtin, <i>Ouse Bridge, York</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But if his palette was anything like Turner's, <a href="http://www.winsornewton.com/na/discover/articles-and-inspiration/palettes-of-the-masters-jmw-turner">according to Winsor and Newton</a>, there really weren't that many reliable greens available at the time. There were some <a href="http://www.naturalpigments.com/18th-century-watercolor-palette.html">green earth pigments,</a> but none of the greens that we're most familiar today. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Copper arsenates, Emerald green, Viridian, and Phthalo green all came into use after Girtin's death.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinbYKavHgeE-VZx6EyctkzT8OuGWnY7I_rB5Vhql14pRUMMHyclaY9EDszdRAYHovihFB2Fc2KwNgJXyLN59Nk2sv_MJroXCAo2vpdT3uYSju-dfhftgWacG1yEFIJaAbZ8ni-Qcjrfu2X/s1600/1024px-Thomas_Girtin_-_Dover_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinbYKavHgeE-VZx6EyctkzT8OuGWnY7I_rB5Vhql14pRUMMHyclaY9EDszdRAYHovihFB2Fc2KwNgJXyLN59Nk2sv_MJroXCAo2vpdT3uYSju-dfhftgWacG1yEFIJaAbZ8ni-Qcjrfu2X/s1600/1024px-Thomas_Girtin_-_Dover_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Girtin, <i>Dover</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">More than that, artists of the day were quite deliberate about restraint of color in landscape.  Here Girtin gives just the barest hint of green. The painting's reserve gives it a quiet dignity, a storybook quality.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">You can find this chromatic reticence in the work of Claude Lorrain and Richard Parkes Bonington and so many others. In our own time, artists such as Andrew Wyeth, Erik Tiemens, Alan Lee, Brian Froud, and J.B. Monge have worked in very restricted palettes with wonderful emotional effects.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The way to get those effects is to either 1) Bring fewer paints in your sketch kit or 2) Ignore the colors you see and paint the colors in your head.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">------</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><b>Resources</b></i></div>To watch the greenhouse segment and the rest of my new video, pick up your copy of "Watercolor in the Wild":<br /><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/watercolor">HD download: (Credit Card) </a><br /><a href="https://sellfy.com/p/Pvxb/">HD download: (Paypal)</a> <a class="sellfy-buy-button" href="https://sellfy.com/p/Pvxb/" id="Pvxb">buy</a><script src="https://sellfy.com/js/api_buttons.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><a href="http://kunaki.com/MSales.asp?PublisherId=136361">DVD: (NTSC, Region 1) </a><br />Digital creators: <a href="https://sellfy.com/gurneyjourney2013/recommends/">Learn more about selling content on Sellfy</a>.<br /><br />Previously on GurneyJourney:<br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2014/08/watercolor-in-wild-materials.html">Watercolor Materials</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/06/green-problem.html">The Green Problem</a><br />Read more about Girtin and Turner's colors in <a href="http://www.winsornewton.com/na/discover/articles-and-inspiration/palettes-of-the-masters-jmw-turner">"Palettes of the Masters: JMW Turner, via the Tate"</a><br /><a href="http://www.winsornewton.com/na/discover/articles-and-inspiration/palettes-of-the-masters-jmw-turner">Winsor and Newton's essay about Turner's palette</a><br />Catalog to 2002 Girtin Exhibition: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810962543/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0810962543&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20&linkId=2DRSYYJCC2JJLKME">Thomas Girtin and the Art of Watercolor</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0810962543" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />

'Girtin-spiration'

'Girtin-spiration'

In the "Greenhouse" segment of my new video, Watercolor in the Wild, I mentioned that I ignored the green colors and painted the ...

04:15

Pruett Carter's Palette

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZpG_77mRpoMvJB3UyiXTzZYzmOysGJVuU276rFUDWXAXnx0NoXYeaF6oYSz6RKR3tG4un_9g87pi-V4N5H8aOqO2ZOPm_a7YxvBsYrdHFxypPUC6QZ5Fx2hyP9f74fVEhKX7mLEGwbXbM/s1600/carter-Pruett.sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZpG_77mRpoMvJB3UyiXTzZYzmOysGJVuU276rFUDWXAXnx0NoXYeaF6oYSz6RKR3tG4un_9g87pi-V4N5H8aOqO2ZOPm_a7YxvBsYrdHFxypPUC6QZ5Fx2hyP9f74fVEhKX7mLEGwbXbM/s1600/carter-Pruett.sm.jpg" width="367" /></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>While I'm on the subject of American illustrator <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2014/06/pruett-carters-preliminaries.html">Pruett Carter</a> (1891-1955), I thought I would share some notes about his palette and his use of light and color.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaGUygKYxAlu7Uj0FrF0Yw2_uLB5eifoEGHcS-A_w9K4I6vp_1QHBa75M9xoES2fWtxCWuXi2ZKXNYFjZArOL6HRNQ8bC0ghO7eKsw46Eo9STf_B0eu1b9SMtRniNla1ftYITNSo_lZ7A/s1600/Pruett+Carters+Palette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaGUygKYxAlu7Uj0FrF0Yw2_uLB5eifoEGHcS-A_w9K4I6vp_1QHBa75M9xoES2fWtxCWuXi2ZKXNYFjZArOL6HRNQ8bC0ghO7eKsw46Eo9STf_B0eu1b9SMtRniNla1ftYITNSo_lZ7A/s1600/Pruett+Carters+Palette.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />Here's his palette. Ernest Watson writes, "Note that the colors on the palette's edge follow the color circle of the spectrum—from ultramarine through the blues, greens, yellows and reds to alizarin and rose madder. The colors on the inside row are extra or additional pigments to be used for their particular color identity. The earth group—ochres and siennas—are kept by themselves at the top right of the palette."<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCH5I8wGEqa8yjbgUHpxCZ7vYhvbNjskRnQMJ0GgOkjBS8sQT790wKtM1D2gLDnwrnda9NLGe81gubdeFj9A7HLOIWmFoTBfmwiktDwLnQnvTa2yb_KfnC8WXwakflokZVk6NJkEVRTKM8/s1600/Carer+Pruett.sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCH5I8wGEqa8yjbgUHpxCZ7vYhvbNjskRnQMJ0GgOkjBS8sQT790wKtM1D2gLDnwrnda9NLGe81gubdeFj9A7HLOIWmFoTBfmwiktDwLnQnvTa2yb_KfnC8WXwakflokZVk6NJkEVRTKM8/s1600/Carer+Pruett.sm.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />In his early career, Carter, like Loomis, Lovell, Rockwell, and other contemporaries, worked within the confines of restricted color palettes. These two-color schemes were usually determined by the magazine, which could only afford black plus one other color of ink. This painting, for instance, would have been printed only in black and yellow, so all the cool colors had to come from grays. This discipline produced great colorists when the magazines made the full printer's palette available later on.<br /><br />During the period that Carter worked exclusively from life, he would pose the models in a section of the studio where he could black out the ambient light and control the illumination with artificial lights only. However his painting area was under a skylight. Between the two parts of the studio, he drew a black curtain, opened just enough to see the models posing.<br /><br />One other note: as <a href="http://stuartngbooks.com/">Stuart Ng </a>mentioned in the comments, Pruett Carter taught at Chouinard Art Institute, where one of his students was Mary Blair, a stylist for the Disney films, herself noted for her bold color designs. There's an <a href="http://www.waltdisney.org/mary-blair">exhibit of Mary Blair's work at the Disney Family Museum </a>through September 7 which includes a Pruett Carter original.

Pruett Carter's Palette

Pruett Carter's Palette

While I'm on the subject of American illustrator Pruett Carter (1891-1955), I thought I would share some notes about his palette and ...

04:01

Color temperature in the shadow out-of-doors

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDIBJ21DRIpRY-fa9HJ_A3h1VjTDXLq3m1FmKvEbxlh0GEgp54ygzkdMTA5THw_oAYJUAt0V3JdBKO8FILoA7FHFMPoZKKx400LT0mEQlyVeDmYTyMp4hQJi3U6u80ub-1V8dz3OhQYcii/s1600/Sorolla+Bath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDIBJ21DRIpRY-fa9HJ_A3h1VjTDXLq3m1FmKvEbxlh0GEgp54ygzkdMTA5THw_oAYJUAt0V3JdBKO8FILoA7FHFMPoZKKx400LT0mEQlyVeDmYTyMp4hQJi3U6u80ub-1V8dz3OhQYcii/s1600/Sorolla+Bath.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: start;">The Bath, (Ba</span>ñ</span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">o or Jávea), 1905 by </span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;"> Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Spanish, 1863–1923)</span></td></tr></tbody></table>This ebullient painting by Joaquín Sorolla is an example of the common principle: <i>In the shadow, up-facing planes are cool and down-facing planes are warm.</i><br /><div><br /></div><div>The shift from warm to cool occurs both in the figure in the foreground and in the rocks in the background. The reason for the shift in color temperature is that the up-facing planes pick up more of the sky color and the down-facing planes receive more of the ground color. The actual color mixture is a combination of the surface color of the skin and the color of the light striking it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjta1VZWlpAXoI8pGn1Ey5FS7kG1rNBSP11hAG7MGHV5EvU4D7YbjBdks27EocRf-XlP6MNMoEVgemTZyAk67dXTxas5mLb7ZHWFq_xNNUTBDkAqLz7I0Co3bW1XE-ictUeECTkOHGTbH3b/s1600/Sorolla+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjta1VZWlpAXoI8pGn1Ey5FS7kG1rNBSP11hAG7MGHV5EvU4D7YbjBdks27EocRf-XlP6MNMoEVgemTZyAk67dXTxas5mLb7ZHWFq_xNNUTBDkAqLz7I0Co3bW1XE-ictUeECTkOHGTbH3b/s1600/Sorolla+detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />One last thing to note is that the warm/cool shifts in the shadow planes can occur at nearly equal value, and it's often very effective to paint them that way.<br />------<br />Oil on canvas; 35 1/2 x 50 1/2 in. (90.2 x 128.3 cm)<br /><div>The painting is in the Metropolitan Museum collection, though not on view now.<br /><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Joaquin_Sorolla_y_Bastida_-_El_ba%C3%B1o,_J%C3%A1vea.jpg">High res file available from Wikimedia Commons</a><br />Sorolla book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847839338/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0847839338&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20&linkId=YVH63MDLHF2PTQVR">Sorolla: The Masterworks</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0847839338" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />My book on Amazon: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740797719/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0740797719&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20&linkId=A44WGXT26O677ERV">Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0740797719" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><a href="http://jamesgurney.com/site/213/color-and-light-a-guide-for-the-realist-painter">My book on color, signed for you</a></div></div>

Color temperature in the shadow out-of-doors

Color temperature in the shadow out-of-doors

The Bath, (Ba ñ o or Jávea), 1905 by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Spanish, 1863–1923) This ebullient painting by Joaquín Sorolla is an examp...

07:30

17th Century Color Book

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJkYB8DlUsqrdvwHDcElK7-n5apxhblVi3dQsp3wUrgkdgIg_dWtPuveNKAyzfsG870XoJukt7NibNfMdCkM0pCU1gu9cFkbfgVepsXW3l-0DOegW7R-RDE4MXWOGUnv3zIjO9n9f58mT/s1600/colors-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJkYB8DlUsqrdvwHDcElK7-n5apxhblVi3dQsp3wUrgkdgIg_dWtPuveNKAyzfsG870XoJukt7NibNfMdCkM0pCU1gu9cFkbfgVepsXW3l-0DOegW7R-RDE4MXWOGUnv3zIjO9n9f58mT/s1600/colors-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In 1692, Dutch artist A. Boogert made a one-of-a-kind teaching manual with over 800 pages of color swatches, meticulously cataloguing the many possible colors that he could mix from watercolors.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">More at<a href="http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/05/color-book/?src=footer"> This is Collossal</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thanks to Roberto Quintano, Dustin Wilson, Tim Fehr, and Steve Gilzow for telling me about it.</div>

17th Century Color Book

17th Century Color Book

In 1692, Dutch artist A. Boogert made a one-of-a-kind teaching manual with over 800 pages of color swatches, meticulously cataloguing the ma...

14:59

Giant insect mech vs. T. rex

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>In this concept art study, a crab-like mech, surrounded by a cloud of drones, tackles a tyrannosaur, while two archers try to take it down. <div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqMxyrKXV539mrmfFO6MUtF3PEaIoshmXS2WU-8jBER5fDNUINM6jMgIoV-p9XcNeYJYlCPJnpzYGXuSPtdmpe3WvelD2gUUo9vfnPpt6njKsBQfc33xlZVgX0PXtmR-JDytxjcP2Yk2lu/s1600/Grapple+Hold.sm3.W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqMxyrKXV539mrmfFO6MUtF3PEaIoshmXS2WU-8jBER5fDNUINM6jMgIoV-p9XcNeYJYlCPJnpzYGXuSPtdmpe3WvelD2gUUo9vfnPpt6njKsBQfc33xlZVgX0PXtmR-JDytxjcP2Yk2lu/s1600/Grapple+Hold.sm3.W.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div>It's painted in gouache, using white and black, warmed with yellow ochre and raw umber. I chose monochrome to evoke the look of an old photo. The gouache gives me more precise control over the recession of values in the dense, backlit atmosphere. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGRjJLeyw48eCRkOFirRjQiJ_JsjKRIrXUPcpE7DIpsGzSSWLC_SXhcZhhfVZk1Gltce519VXQLGkkLbF5uHyqBfBFSjiAS5JOdvPh_EmnnjuYZK5TojlLneJtYYckppQzX0pzepPnqtN_/s1600/Grapple+Hold.LG2.det.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGRjJLeyw48eCRkOFirRjQiJ_JsjKRIrXUPcpE7DIpsGzSSWLC_SXhcZhhfVZk1Gltce519VXQLGkkLbF5uHyqBfBFSjiAS5JOdvPh_EmnnjuYZK5TojlLneJtYYckppQzX0pzepPnqtN_/s1600/Grapple+Hold.LG2.det.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of Tyrannosaur's head in "Grapple Hold" from Dinotopia: First Flight by James Gurney</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>I reserved the darkest values (though still not black) for the dinosaur's tail. The darks on the dinosaur's head are much lighter, closer to 50%. </div><div><br /></div><div>To give it a photographic look, I tried to paint each section with just three values: a light value, a dark value, and a much brighter edge light. Those values step back together as you go back in space, like paired notes in music.</div><div><br /></div><div>This painting is part of the new backstory development for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606600575/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1606600575&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20">Dover edition of Dinotopia: First Flight</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1606600575" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> coming out next month. </div><div><br /></div><div>The new edition has more than 40 pages of new supplementary material: character sketches, vehicle designs, cinematic story treatments, and backstory notes--all of which is published for the first time. This material fleshes out the tumultuous ancient origins of Dinotopia, which predates its utopian recent history.<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8mgKGfxDKAVeURZ7s96u9kip8-WfM0eGlOCMhlmRGfzlUbRcAc1brUGhfYNhNDa65DtBKHJrkyofIBJ_oAwY6Pg6gQMltyMOq_xc9niI-lsK42vRHM8sdcbL49Lwv0DaPu_gUa4K7ZgoY/s1600/Monochrome1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8mgKGfxDKAVeURZ7s96u9kip8-WfM0eGlOCMhlmRGfzlUbRcAc1brUGhfYNhNDa65DtBKHJrkyofIBJ_oAwY6Pg6gQMltyMOq_xc9niI-lsK42vRHM8sdcbL49Lwv0DaPu_gUa4K7ZgoY/s1600/Monochrome1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I also just wrote a special article about painting in monochrome for the April/May issue of International Artist magazine. The article is illustrated with six of these steampunk mech pieces.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Preorder the book on Amazon: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606600575/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1606600575&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20">Dinotopia: First Flight new Dover Edition / April 2014</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1606600575" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">More about color in my book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740797719/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0740797719&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20">Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0740797719" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div><div><a href="https://www.internationalartist.com/">International Artist Magazine</a></div><div><br /></div><br /></div></div>

Giant insect mech vs. T. rex

Giant insect mech vs. T. rex

In this concept art study, a crab-like mech, surrounded by a cloud of drones, tackles a tyrannosaur, while two archers try to take it down. ...

05:44

Questions about Black, Part 4 of 4

The last question is deceptively simple.<br /><b></b><br /><b></b><b>Is black a color?</b><br />The answer is no and yes, depending on how you mean the question, and what you mean by "color."<br /><br /><i>The "No" answer:</i><br />If you're talking about how the abstract concept of black fits into the infinite range of hues and chromas within the three-dimensional color universe, you might argue that it doesn't really belong with the others at all, because by definition it has no hue and no chroma. Black is not only the absence of color; it's even the absence of light. <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLhO3hO6siMZKUdvO7YAq7uR1F7DSt0_yuI8OXpd9QsE3YhWI13CYPN5oWeFD7BAgxT8CjTrA0l70Hj4RaKlNkIgtVsi3E9azGxqS665gEpXM7WAfIztqW34JoIaMUB6HJsq0EnN7_fHIl/s1600/Munsell-Color-Solid-Plus-base-color-theory-300x239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLhO3hO6siMZKUdvO7YAq7uR1F7DSt0_yuI8OXpd9QsE3YhWI13CYPN5oWeFD7BAgxT8CjTrA0l70Hj4RaKlNkIgtVsi3E9azGxqS665gEpXM7WAfIztqW34JoIaMUB6HJsq0EnN7_fHIl/s1600/Munsell-Color-Solid-Plus-base-color-theory-300x239.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Munsell Color Solid from <a href="http://munsell.com/">Munsell.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table><i>The "Yes" answer:</i><br />Looking at the question another way, the answer is yes. Black does have its place at the base of the 3-D chart of the color universe, where hues are arrayed around the outside, chroma (saturation) decreases toward the vertical center line, and value goes up or down with height.<br /><br />Black has its own color swatch just like all the others. It sits at the zero point of value, the extreme pole beneath all dark colors. It's like the lowest note on the piano, one that you can include in a composition if you want to. In <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-3-of-4.html">yesterday's post, </a>we explored the arguments for and against using pure black in a painting, and just how pure that black pigment can be.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgwWGVXr0Ix46I7Sfh9lG8sDLUJiltzJSkLMcRykHLLPlc7Y9eNpAlBZbK83yXIkjX-Oa_gDXR4psRvrC02LB06aUCo1up2sQfqeY9XGGjwZDj0tw3QtTvoDALszuuDTsiV4UkpRb2meJ/s1600/Yurmby+Wheel.vsm.gray+gamut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgwWGVXr0Ix46I7Sfh9lG8sDLUJiltzJSkLMcRykHLLPlc7Y9eNpAlBZbK83yXIkjX-Oa_gDXR4psRvrC02LB06aUCo1up2sQfqeY9XGGjwZDj0tw3QtTvoDALszuuDTsiV4UkpRb2meJ/s320/Yurmby+Wheel.vsm.gray+gamut.jpg" width="297" /></a>Just as black is a color, white and all the gray tones are colors, too, since each has its own location within the 3D color universe. They are like other keys on the piano, each a legitimate option that an artist may wish to include.<br /><br />The surprising thing is that black, white, and the gray notes can function in a color scheme in such a way that they don't seem neutral at all. If you choose a gamut with two bright colors plus neutral black (and tints of black), the black suddenly becomes a very distinct subjective color. In the case of the color scheme at right, it would appear blue.<br /><br />And this is where the "yes" answer becomes more than academic. Black really is a color that can be a core component of a luminous color scheme.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="253" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qfE4E5goEIc" width="450"></iframe><br />I demonstrate how this principle works in this video, which perhaps a lot of you have already seen. (<a href="http://youtu.be/qfE4E5goEIc">Direct link to video</a>)<br /><div><br /></div>In the end, it's good for beginning painters to be aware of the hazards of black. Many teachers rightly warn against using black carelessly, because it can deaden mixtures or kill the mood or the illusion of light in a painting. It's good to know how and when to mix your own black from other colors. But if you use black consciously, it deserves to be a valued part of any painter's toolkit.<br /><br /><div>"Questions about Black" Series</div><div><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-1-of-3.html">Part 1: Using black to darken a color</a></div><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-2-of-3.html">Part 2: Mixing your own black</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-3-of-4.html">Part 3: Using black in a painting</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-4-of-4.html">Part 4: Is Black a color?</a><br />Get my book <a href="http://jamesgurney.com/site/213/color-and-light-a-guide-for-the-realist-painter">"Color and Light" signed from my website</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740797719/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0740797719&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20">from Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0740797719" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.

Questions about Black, Part 4 of 4

Questions about Black, Part 4 of 4

The last question is deceptively simple. Is black a color? The answer is no and yes, depending on how you mean the question, and what you me...

06:21

Questions about Black, Part 1 of 4

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbUaosyCmpQA8dM7SPMplGHGcwLM45VV0V_Xwwsm2jazWfznB8TnVPCRi3HVQmIqrz-ROBi8YmmzLPH06PyBtpAWLVQCg2Y3C9DECXqamN9uAC5XxFh-ozy7l6Cbyg7PESV5azuNkr6SlC/s1600/Yaroshenko+the+Student.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbUaosyCmpQA8dM7SPMplGHGcwLM45VV0V_Xwwsm2jazWfznB8TnVPCRi3HVQmIqrz-ROBi8YmmzLPH06PyBtpAWLVQCg2Y3C9DECXqamN9uAC5XxFh-ozy7l6Cbyg7PESV5azuNkr6SlC/s400/Yaroshenko+the+Student.jpeg" width="242" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yaroshenko">Nikolai Yaroshenko </a>(1846-1898) <i>The Student</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Blog reader <a href="http://kiriakakis.net/">Kostas Kiriakakis</a> asks:<br />“Is black part of your palette when mixing colors? Many artists state that they never use black but I don't understand if they mean that they don't like using it straight out of the tube on to the canvas or if they banned it even as a mixing component from their palette altogether.”<br /><br />Hi, Kostas,<br /><div>Good question and comment. Let me try answering them, and I'll ask a few more questions. I will do this as a three-part series.</div><div><br /><b>Can you use black to darken a color?</b><br />Black is a very useful color. However many artists will tell you that if it is used to darken all the colors, it can "muddy" a color scheme. They are right. That's because black pigment will reduce chroma too quickly as it darkens or "tones" a color. Rather than looking like a darker version of the color, a color mixed with black will be both darker <i>and </i>a lot grayer, which can give the picture an unpleasant dullness. Another problem with black in mixtures is that it will often shift a hue toward another hue. For example, yellow turns green when mixed with black. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvTRqgMfCQJFbF43ZISIg3DWSTBqtwalluX9_OdCyheWlPnbNmSFL3zPo8PEmU0AEx8f30Qq96HEWsHbmG5xn7ALQSo1JsittFo8FfCTG-uQgvWiRmMeJbT7eThgxcaJtgWuok12stR5i9/s1600/HueValueChroma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvTRqgMfCQJFbF43ZISIg3DWSTBqtwalluX9_OdCyheWlPnbNmSFL3zPo8PEmU0AEx8f30Qq96HEWsHbmG5xn7ALQSo1JsittFo8FfCTG-uQgvWiRmMeJbT7eThgxcaJtgWuok12stR5i9/s400/HueValueChroma.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>David Briggs explains these phenomena on his excellent website <a href="http://www.huevaluechroma.com/063.php#black">HueValueChroma</a>. In this diagram from his page on mixing with black, he compares how a mixture of permanent alizarin and white (A) changes as it is darkened by black, compared to a line of uniform saturation (B). The pigment mixtures are plotted using software from the website <a href="http://couleur.org./">couleur.org.</a></div><div><br /><b>How do you darken a color without using black?</b><br />To avoid that problem, painters use a variety of colors to darken or tone other colors. Usually these toning colors are pigments that appear dark right out of the tube, often because they are transparent. Ultramarine, the phthalo blues and greens, burnt umber, and permanent alizarin crimson can all be useful for toning other colors. By using these colors to darken your mixtures, you can control the chroma and, if you need to, pull it away from dullness, or just give it more interesting variations of chroma as the colors get darker, so that the dark realms of your colors aren't all monochromatic.<br /><br /><b>What are the uses for black?</b><br />Despite its tendency to be a color-mixing crutch for beginners, black has its uses. I love black pigment. I have a tube of black in all the media I paint with: oil, casein, gouache, and watercolor. I use black pigment most often when I'm <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/06/creamer-in-casein.html">painting in grisaille with just black and white</a>, or in a super-limited palette of black, white, and another color. I also use it if I want an accent of the darkest possible value (more about that on Sunday).</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Are all black pigments the same?</b></div><div>No. In watercolor, it's fun to experiment with different kinds of black: <a href="http://www.paintmaking.com/black.htm">bone black, lamp black, Mars black.</a> The pigment called "ivory black" used to be made from elephant ivory. Since that is now unavailable, some paint makers create ivory black by burning and grinding up fragments of <a href="http://trankinastudios.blogspot.com/2011/11/making-oil-paint-ivory-black.html">mammoth ivory from Russia</a>, which is legal to use. Each kind of black has different qualities of texture and chroma. If you get a couple of different blacks, you can play with them and compare them by painting them in a thin glaze, tinting them with white, and mixing them with other colors. </div><div><a href="http://www.paintmaking.com/black.htm">Read more about various blacks at Paintmaking.com.</a></div><div><br /><div>"Questions about Black" Series</div><div><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-1-of-3.html">Part 1: Using black to darken a color</a></div><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-2-of-3.html">Part 2: Mixing your own black</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-3-of-4.html">Part 3: Using black in a painting</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/questions-about-black-part-4-of-4.html">Part 4: Is Black a color?</a><br />Get my book <a href="http://jamesgurney.com/site/213/color-and-light-a-guide-for-the-realist-painter">"Color and Light" signed from my website</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740797719/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0740797719&linkCode=as2&tag=gurnjour-20">from Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0740797719" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.</div>

Questions about Black, Part 1 of 4

Questions about Black, Part 1 of 4

Nikolai Yaroshenko (1846-1898) The Student Blog reader Kostas Kiriakakis asks: “Is black part of your palette when mixing colors? Many art...

06:13

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