More Color Studies

Here are more detailed instructions for your next two color studies. Please work on a heavy paper or board of your choice.

For the first, you must choose two disparate colors—colors that are radically different in two of the following: hue, value, and saturation. For example: a bright scarlet red and a dull gray-green, or a muted lavender purple and a rich grass green. Another way to think about these colors is that they don’t look good together. Try to mix fourteen (14) distinct tones that bridge the gap between these two colors. Paint them in an unpainterly way that emphasizes this gradation. See the examples above.

For the second, you must choose two near complements. These need not be prismatic colors, but instead can vary in their saturation or intensity (ie. a rich earthy gold and a soft violet, or a deep sky blue and pumpkin bisque. Mix a slightly larger amount of both. Then mix a chromatic gray midtone between the two, adding white to lighten it, and paint the background. Freely paint a composition of your own design from combinations of just these two colors and white. You should be able to mix colors that are both lighter and darker than the background. Examples above and below are from David Hornung’s Color: A Workshop Approach.