Monday 18 October 2010





Course work: Worked on Project Five, Stage One, Optical Mixing. Some preliminary experimentation showed that small, fairly uniform dots could best be produced by stamping with a small, sharp piece of wood. A circle with ~1mm dots of cadmium yellow light and cerulean blue, straight from the tube, and a second with larger dots of the same colors, these made with a brush, were evaluated: I could not convince myself that I could see them as green at any distance, as the blue dots seemed to overpower the yellow ones. I then lightened the blue considerably with white, and repeated the two small circles, with slightly more convincing results. I then did a roughly square set of ~2mm dots, with an overall size of ~5cm; with this I could imagine that I could see a little green: the effect seemed stronger in indirect daylight than in incandescent light.





I then carried out a similar series using cadmium yellow light and cadmium red light: I was able to convince myself that I could see orange in each of the five areas. To assess whether the white background could make a significant difference, I painted a small solid yellow square and applied dots of cadmium red light to it: the effect was somewhat more convincing, but is outside the range of the project.



I was not fully satisfied with the results of the project so far, and set out to find a way to make small uniform easily-controllable dots. Colored markers proved effective: four small circles done with yellow and blue, yellow and red, red and blue, and red and green, yielded when viewed from a distance the impressions of green, orange, purple, and a reddish-grey neutral.



With this knowledge in hand, I returned to acrylics, and, making smaller and more closely-set dots, managed to produce a fair violet, a weak orange, a rather weak green, and by using red, yellow, and blue, a somewhat yellowish neutral.

My conclusions: (1) To provide effective optical mixing, dots must be small, uniform, and fairly evenly spaced (uneven spacing results in a tint shift). (2)Viewing distance is important: smaller dots mix optically at a shorter distance than do larger dots. (3) Selecting the proper amount of each color to use to achieve a desired effect is difficult. (4) I am unlikely to become a pointillist.





Reading and theoretical studies:



Johannes Itten The Elements of Color

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1961

Pp. 24-48



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

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

Pp. 63-90



Sketchbook work: A sketch of a closed hand.

Time today: Two hours 14 minutes (85h50m)

Sunday 17 October 2010




Course work: Continued work on Project Four, today working in matching tones of dis-similar colors. This is a slow process, as it is difficult to accurately estimate the amount of darkening that will occur with drying. Repeated slight corrections are required, and one must squint until it is painful. In a row of grey squares, one light, one medium, and one dark, I used a cadmium yellow very slightly neutralized with a speck of a mixture of ultramarine blue and cadmium red, a cadmium red with a little white, and an ultramarine blue with a somewhat greater amount of white. The second row consists of a cadmium red square, a cerulean blue square, and a cadmium lemon square. For the first, I prepared a complement of a slightly bluish green with cerulean blue and cadmium lemon yellow; I had to add some white to this to approximately match the tone with the red background. For the cerulean blue square, I mixed an orange with cadmium red and cadmium yellow; in order to match tones with the blue, the orange had to be neutralized to brown with ultramarine blue. To match tones with the lemon yellow background, I prepared a violet with alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue; this required addition of a great deal of white before a tonal match was obtained. Every small square was repainted at least four times before a tonal match was obtained, making this quite an onerous exercise. I think that I have now met the objectives of Project Four.

Reading and theoretical studies:



Hajo Dütchling Cézanne

Taschen, Köln, 2003

Pp. 193-216

(A generally well-written and balanced account of the artist’s life and work, with only occasional digressions into the author’s personal opinions concerning the artist’s thought processes, and fewer flights of descriptive fancy than one often sees in such books. Most, but not all, of the works discussed are illustrated. Well worth adding to a basic collection.)



Johannes Itten The Elements of Color

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1961

Pp. 4-24



Sketchbook work: A not-entirely-successful attempt at a brush sketch of some cirrus clouds. In trying to avoid the error of making the sky too blue, I failed to make it blue enough; it could also have been more smoothly painted.

Weekly reflections on learning experience: After ten days of painting squares, I am ready to go on to something else. The entire series of color-theory projects has shown me that my knowledge of color-mixing and tone is less complete than I had thought, and that there is still a great deal of room for further work on my part. My reading has gone well this week; my sketchbook work has been about average.



Time today: Two hours 56 minutes

Saturday 16 October 2010




Reading and theoretical studies:



E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art

Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford 1978

Pp. 80-93



Peggy Hadden The Artist’s Quest for Inspiration

Allworth Press, New York, 1999

Pp. xv-xvi, 3-38



Time today: 39 minutes

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