Whether you paint with watercolor, acrylic, gouache or any other pigment type for that matter, how to mix colors is a fundamental skill. Mixing pure saturated colors (those containing only two primary colors) requires a palette of two sets of primary colors.
A warm and a cool red
A warm and a cool Yellow
A warm and a cool blue.
We can then use the primary colors that lean towards the secondary we are mixing, thus keeping traces of the third unwanted primary out of the mixture.
How to Make a Watercolor Chart
Tools you'll need:
Watercolors, tubes or pans
Watercolor paper
Paintbrush (round, size 2 or 3 is what I use)
Jars for Clean Water & Dirty Water
Ruler
Pencil
Calculator (or a scratch pad if you like math)
Step 1: Gather your watercolors & count them.
Step 2: Measure how wide you want your chart to be.
Step 3: Calculate how big your squares need to be.
Step 4: Plot out your squares.
Step 5: Label each row horizontally & vertically with the names of your watercolor colors.
Tip: Keep your watercolors in order. Whatever order you go vertically, you will need to follow the same order horizontally. (Like your X and Y axes in math class.
Step 6: The fun part! Paint in your colors.
Begin with your first tube of watercolor. Find where you have labeled that same watercolor on the horizontal and vertical lines of your chart. Where they intersect is where you will plot your color... like in the games, Bingo or Battleship (I loved Battleship!)
Dip your brush in clean water, load your brush with that one color and paint in the little square. Clean your brush and repeat for each tube of watercolor.
Then, start mixing. Mix each watercolor with one other watercolor. Plot that mixture on your chart. Rinse your brush. Repeat with one other color.
Screen printing, also known as serigraphy, is a method of creating an image on paper, fabric or some other object by pressing ink through a screen with areas blocked off by a stencil. The technique is used both for making fine art prints and for commercial applications, such as printing a company's logo on coffee mugs or t-shirts.
This form of printing is said to be based on the Japanese art of katazome, a form of stenciling with waterproof papers that was used in ancient Japan to copy an image. Some say, however, that the art originated in the Fiji Islands where banana leaves were used as stencils. The art as it is known today was patented in England in the early 1900s. The first commercial use of it in the United States occurred in 1914 when John Pilsworth developed a process to produce multiple multi-color prints from a single fabric screen, which was used to make multicolored signs and posters.
During World War I, serigraphy became the preferred method for printing flags and other patriotic banners because of its ability to create relatively identical and multi-layered images. More recently, it has been used by artists and manufacturers alike. In fact, most people probably own a serigraphed t-shirt and many have seen Andy Warhol's use of this technique in conjunction with photographic headshots of famous people, such as Marilyn Monroe.
Serigraphy is a relatively straightforward process. A piece of porous fabric is used as the screen. Originally, that porous fabric was silk, leading to the name silkscreen, but today, the more inexpensive alternatives of polyester or nylon are more commonly used. That porous fabric is tautly stretched across a wood or metal frame. Then, the negative areas of the image to be produced are blocked off on the screen with a non-porous material that can be paper, fabric, or plastic. This creates the stencil.
The screen, with the stencil in place, is then placed over the final product, such as paper or fabric. Ink, whether water- or oil-based, is spread evenly over the screen. A rubber squeegee is then used to press the ink through the porous areas and onto the paper or fabric below. If the design calls for multiple layers or colors, the ink from the first press is given time to dry, and the process is repeated with a different stencil or different ink color.
diumenge, 13 de setembre del 2015
Hello everybody!! The hollidays are over and another course begins. In this blog you will find all that you need to follow the course and other items that you may find interesting. If you need some help do not hesitate to ask me. Are you ready?
1.COLOUR THEORY
Basic Color Theory
Color theory encompasses a multitude of definitions, concepts and design applications - enough to fill several encyclopedias. However, there are three basic categories of color theory that are logical and useful : The color wheel, color harmony, and the context of how colors are used.
Color theories create a logical structure for color. For example, if we have an assortment of fruits and vegetables, we can organize them by color and place them on a circle that shows the colors in relation to each other.
The Color Wheel
A color circle, based on magenta, yellow and cian, is traditional in the field of art. Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in 1666. Since then, scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous variations of this concept. Differences of opinion about the validity of one format over another continue to provoke debate. In reality, any color circle or color wheel which presents a logically arranged sequence of pure hues has merit.
So, the color circle is one way of organizing colors.
An artist, Johanes Itten (Bauhaus member), did some diferent works about how to organize colors from the color circle:
So, now you know there are two diferent system to organize colours:
Color Systems
1.Subtractive Color.
When we mix colors using paint, or through the printing process, we are using the subtractive color method. Subtractive color mixing means that one begins with white and ends with black; as one adds color, the result gets darker and tends to black. In substractive color mixing the primary colors arecyan, magentaandyellow.
2.Additive Color.
If we are working on a computer, the colors we see on the screen are created with light using the additive color method. Additive color mixing begins with black and ends with white; as more color is added, the result is lighter and tends to white.
In additive color mixing the primary colors are red, yellow and blue.
So, the definition of primary color, really depends on what type of medium of color we are using.The primary colors for the subtractive color system (paint/pigment) are "cyan, magenta and yellow." Notice that "red, yellow and blue" should never be used as the combination for color primaries!The colors light in a substractive system are "red, green, and blue-violet" which are the primary colors for the additive color system (light).
A primary color is a color that cannot be made from a combination of any other colors.
Have a look, please, the next video, and answer the question : This song is about three primary colors, but subtractive or additive primaries?
Secondary color is a color created from a combination of two primary colors, green, orange and purple.
Tertiary colorThese are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's why the hue is a two word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange. is a combination of three colors (primary or secondary).
Color Context
How color behaves in relation to other colors and shapes is a complex area of color theory. Compare the contrast effects of different color backgrounds for the same red squar
Red appears more brilliant against a black background and somewhat duller against the white background. In contrast with orange, the red appears lifeless; in contrast with blue-green, it exhibits brilliance. Notice that the red square appears larger on black than on other background colors.
Different readings of the same color:
If your computer has sufficient color stability and gamma correction you will see that the small purple rectangle on the left appears to have a red-purple tinge when compared to the small purple rectangle on the right. They are both the same color as seen in the illustration below. This demonstrates how three colors can be perceived as four colors.
Observing the effects colors have on each other is the starting point for understanding the relativity of color. The relationship of values, saturations and the warmth or coolness of respective hues can cause noticeable differences in our perception of colour
The variability of the color
Hue is somewhat synonymous to what we usually refer to as "colors". Red, green, blue, yellow, and orange are a few examples of different hues. The different hues have different wavelenghts in the spectrum.
Saturation can also be called a color's intensity. It is a measurement of how different from pure grey the color is. Saturation is not really a matter of light and dark, but rather how pale or strong the colour is. The saturation of a color is not constant, but it varies depending on the surroundings and what light the color is seen in.
Complementary colours
Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as red and green and red-purple and yellow-green. In the illustration above, there are several variations of yellow-green in the leaves and several variations of red-purple in the orchid. These opposing colors create maximum contrast and maximum stability.
The color temperature
Generally, reds, oranges and yellows are considered "warm" colors, and blues, green purples are said to be "cool" colors.
Here you can see some pictures where color is the most important element:
Rothko
J. Albers
Matisse
Mondrian
Guinovart
ACTIVITIES
The variability of the color.
1.Divide an A3 sheet transversaly in three equal parts and insert in each of the parts an square.
Then, paint with the same grey value the squares inside and with different grey saturation the parts outside. Make mixes of colors from primary colors.
2-Draw 3 rectangles lines like these below:
Make the mixes taking two primary colors each time. Make the gradation correctly, so the secondary is in the centre and the primary, of course, in both endsof the row.
3.Draw two rectangles lines like the last exercice.
Choose a primary color and paint with maximum saturation one end of the row. Make mixes with black or white in order to progresively loose saturation.
Well, you have learnt and practised the Colour Theory, now it's time for a little game....
This is a very interesting video about drawing. Please take your time and have a look at it!! Enjoy it!
1.Texture as a basic element of the composition
Texture is one of the features that personalize the plane, as do the colour, shape and size. Texture is the tactile quality of the objects. For example, the feel and the texture of the skin of a tomato is very different from that of a rough wall.
If we look at a photograph of the surface of a tomato and another of the rough surface of a wall, we can visually perceive different textures . Therefore, the tactile quality of the object, its texture, can also be represented by graphic means. Graphic textures can be achieved manually and by technical means.
Using plots of points and lines can also provide tactile qualities to the paper. An easy way to texturing a paper sheet manually is to put it on a surface and rub it with a pencil (frottage).
There are artists such as Antoni Tàpies who give great importance to the tactile qualities of the materials used in their pieces. A stroke in one of his work is not only a shape, it is a material form, which has touch, texture. Tàpies uses a great variety of materials: matte and gloss paints, varnishes, sand, fabric, wood, paper, etc.
There is, however, the work of the artists who developed the Cubist style, whose work is based on the working of the textures when reinterpreting the shape of objects that they represent. We will see examples of Cubist works by Picasso, Juan Gris, Duchamp,Hannah Höch etc.
A typical Cubist painting depicts real people, places or objects, but not from a fixed viewpoint. Instead it will show you many parts of the subject at one time, viewed from different angles, and reconstructed into a composition of planes, forms and colours. The whole idea of space is reconfigured: the front, back and sides of the subject become interchangeable elements in the design of the work.
What is Collage?
is a technique of an art production, primarily used in the visual arts, where the artwork is made from an assemblages of different forms, thus creating a new whole.
A collage may sometimes include magazine and newspaper clipping, ribbons, paint , bits of colored or handmade papers, portions of other artwork or texts, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty.
Below you can see some examples from Picasso. All of them are guitars and violins:
ACTIVITIES
1-Now you will build your guitar or violin in Picasso's style (collage in cubism style).
You will need diferent materials like, sponges, baizes, aluminium foil, carton, newspapers, strings,
cardboard etc. Make a composition on a DinA3 sheet and when you are sure, paste it.
Is very important to use an homogeneous background.
2- Making a Picasso style face portrait.
First of all, look the images below:
Take four or five photographs of your face from diferent angles (the profile,the frontside...) . Thenprintthemin black and white(no needto bequality images) and compose a new face with cuttings from the photographs in a Din A3 sheet. Paste it.
