Friday 15 October 2010




Course work: Did some final work on the first sheet of Project Four, and started painted the squares for the second sheet, on which I shall try to match the tones in the inner and outer squares.

Observations made from studying the first sheet, using indirect daylight as my light source:

(1) The mid-grey appears darker on the yellow than on the dark grey; on cadmium red it appears slightly darker than on dark grey.

(2) The yellow appears about equal on dark grey, mid-grey, and cadmium red.

(3) Cadmium red appears lighter on dark grey than on mid-grey, and darker on yellow than on mid-grey.

(4) Blue appears darkest on dark grey, but darker on light grey than on mid-grey.

(5) In the six squares painted by mixing colors to approximate primary colors, then painting the complement in the small square, red appears a bit darker on yellow than on blue, blue a bit darker on yellow than on red, and yellow about equal on red and blue.

(6) In the six squares painted by mixing secondary colors from the mixed primaries, green appears brighter on violet than on red, violet more intense on orange than on green, and orange brighter on violet than on green.

(7) Re advancing and receding colors: in general, lighter colors on dark backgrounds tend to advance, darker colors on light backgrounds appear to recede. Warm colors tend to advance, cool ones to recede.

(8) Repeating the above observations under incandescent light shows a slight change in relationships, primarily some apparent lightening of the yellows, and a shift in the violets toward brown.

Conclusions: A color appears more intense upon (or adjacent to) a color of markedly different tone than upon (or adjacent to) one of similar tone. A color appears more intense on a color distant from it in the color circle than upon one nearer it. Color relationships are affected to some degree by the color of light in which they are viewed.



Reading and theoretical studies:



E. H. Gombrich Art and Illusion (11th Printing)

Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 1969

Pp. 22-62



Sketchbook work: A tomato sandwich.

Time today: Two hours 8 minutes

Thursday 14 October 2010





Course work: Continued repainting work on the Stage Four project. I still have a few new squares to paint as well, but this will require an additional sheet.



Reading and theoretical studies:



(After prolonged search, I was finally able to find and order two more of the recommended texts, both very well used.)

E. H. Gombrich Art and Illusion (11th Printing)

Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 1969

Pp. xxv-xliv, 3-22



Hajo Dütchling Cézanne

Taschen, Köln, 2003

Pp. 171-191



Sketchbook work: Tried another limited-palette triad today, using new gamboge, alizarin crimson, and cerulean blue. The secondary colors are more neutralized than in my most recent previous experiment, but are superior to the two earliest of the series. One could do useful work with this combination. I still have a few more ideas to try in this personal project. Followed this with a little sketch of a bunch of radishes, using left-over paint on the palette.

Time today: Two hours 36 minutes

Wednesday 13 October 2010




Course work: Repainted several more squares, large and small, for the Stage Four project.



Reading and theoretical studies:



Hajo Dütchling Cézanne

Taschen, Köln, 2003

Pp. 123-169



Sketchbook work: A study of drapery upon a stool.

Time today: One hour 50 minutes

Tuesday 12 October 2010




Course work: Repainted more squares for the Stage Four project.



Reading and theoretical studies:



Hajo Dütchling Cézanne

Taschen, Köln, 2003

Pp. 99-121



E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art

Phaidon press Limited, Oxford 1978

Pp. 46-79



Sketchbook work: A little heap of mushrooms being prepared for supper, sketched with a red chalk pencil.

Time today: 1 hour 41 minutes

Monday 11 October 2010




Course work: Work on the Stage Four Project continues; today I remixed the blue and yellow previously used, and mixed about one part of the blue with two of the yellow to produce a mid-green, which was used to paint additional squares. Some repainting of previously-painted squares was again done.





Reading and theoretical studies:



Hajo Dütchling Cézanne

Taschen, Köln, 2003

Pp. 65-96



Sketchbook work: A sketch of an old conch horn; I could have lit it better. Another limited palette experiment, today using arylide yellow, vermillion, and cobalt blue. The resulting secondary colors were usable, made nine tints with white, and made useful neutrals when mixed with their complements. A mixture of the three “primaries” produced a strong, dark neutral that would serve as black. This has been the most successful of my experiments to date, and these three colors plus white could be used for a wide range of subjects. I still have several more limited palette ideas to investigate.

Time today: Two hours 21 minutes

Sunday 10 October 2010





Course work: Continued work on the Stage Four project, repainting a number of previously-painted squares in an effort to obtain improved coverage. Made a mixture of cerulean blue and ultramarine blue (~2:1) and painted two eight cm squares; remade the cadmium red and alizarin crimson mix; mixed approximately equal parts of this and the blue mix to obtain a rather muddy and unsatisfactory violet, with which I painted two additional eight cm squares. (Ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson, or, better, pthalocyanine blue and alizarin crimson, would produce a better violet, but are outside the bounds of the project.)



Reading and theoretical studies:



Marylin Scott The Acrylic Artist’s Bible

Chartwell Books, Inc., Edison, New Jersey, USA, 2005

Pp. 90-187

(This very heavily illustrated book fails to live up to its promise of being “An essential reference for the practicing artist;” it provides a fairly superficial overview of media and methodology, a more-detailed look at special techniques and mixed media, and a scant 35 pages devoted to subject areas.)



Hajo Dütchling Cézanne

Taschen, Köln, 2003

Pp. 7-62



Sketchbook work: Some hasty and quite gestural sketches of a yearling deer that was grazing in the yard this afternoon. A sketch of a fine old oak, unfortunately dying.

Weekly reflections on learning experience: Work on the color theory projects continues without major problems, though I am getting a bit tired of painting squares. Reading and theoretical study have improved this week; sketchbook work is about the same.



Time today: Two hours 39 minutes

Saturday 9 October 2010




Course work: Painted some additional squares on the Stage Four project, this time mixing cadmium yellow with lemon yellow (~1:2), and cadmium red with alizarin crimson (~3:1), to produce an approximation of a “true primary”, then using a mixture of the above combination to produce an orange, in a manner similar to that done in Stage Two. This time I made some mixing notes in my sketchbook, as I should have done previously.



Reading and theoretical studies:



Stephen Quiller Painter’s Guide to Color

Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1999

Pp. 35-70

(This book and its predecessor Color Choices, Watson Guptill Publications, New York, 1989, are both useful books, especially for water-media artists. The author has selected a set of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors from the wide variety of tubed paints available, and while some of his choices may not be quite in the mainstream of color theory, he defends his reasoning clearly, and paints very well with his chosen colors.)



Marylin Scott The Acrylic Artist’s Bible

Chartwell Books, Inc., Edison, New Jersey, USA, 2005

Pp. 6-89



Sketchbook work: Continuing my experimentation with limited palettes, I painted a color circle with yellow ochre, burnt siena, Paynes’s grey, and their intermediate mixtures. As one would anticipate, all the intermediate mixtures are greyed, and the Payne’s grey and burnt siena mixture is a very deep brown. This palette might be useful for painting sandy or stony semi-desert areas, but one would need to add a substantially bluer “blue”for skies.

I then did a little sketch of a piece of crumpled paper.

Time today: Two hours 19 minutes