Studio Time

Yesterday, I put in some more shadows and darks with Winsor Newton’s cobalt violet and Sennelier’s ultramarine rose and cobalt blue. Transparent and semi-transparent colors like these add a bit of color to the darks so that you’re not stuck with something drab and boring. You can play them against compliments and create a subtle interplay between the lights and darks… It’s not immediately apparent but it does perk things up considerably.

(There are a lot of good books on color theory. It’s a subject that can get insanely complex and touches on everything from psychology to electronics. There are many different color models… some of them have very specific uses. Basically, in the subtractive model that we use in painting… compliments are directly across from each other on the color wheel… red/green, yellow/violet, blue/orange, etc. Combining them will typically give you some sort of neutral color… a brown or grey of some sort.)

I started brightening things up with Winsor Newton’s scarlet vermilion. Rembrandt’s cadmium orange got blended into that followed by Sennelier’s cadmium yellow light.

I’m thinking I’ve let things get a little too orange. It makes for a nice base color to play with though. I’ll try to get a little creative with the colors today and start cleaning things up and winding them down. I’m seeing a stopping point within the next few days.

I am serious about the “series” idea I mentioned yesterday. I’ll build a panel for the next piece next week. I like the car idea. I’m thinking a night scene might be cool as well. It would give me an opportunity to play with lighting.