Chapter 9- Atmospheric Effects

I feel smarter knowing I can now tell people why the sky is blue. :) Or at least put a name to it- Rayleigh scattering. I haven't painted too many landscapes, but I plan to start experimenting, so knowing what Gurney said about the gradation of the sky horizontally as well as vertically in value is very helpful! And even though he said that reverse atmospheric perspective is rare in nature, I think it's so amazingly beautiful and really want to implement it in some of my paintings.
Also- I didn't even know shadowbeams existed!! It makes me wonder if I've seen them, but just not realized it? Dappled light and cloud shadows have always really impressed me in paintings where the painter does a good job of making them believable- they can add a lot to a scene.

Chapter 8- Surfaces and Effects

Learning about subsurface scattering was really interesting-I see it all the time, but it's neat to understand how it occurs better, and also to know what conditions need to be met in order for it to occur. Learning about the color zones of the face was also very helpful- I definitely use that in my head painting class! I know it's important to paint what you see, but also to combine that with your knowledge of what is traditionally accepted. I'm also grateful to learn the secret to painting hair. I'll make sure to use large brushes and keep the forms simple. I also pay a lot more attention to reflections, highlights, and color corona that I see around me.
Oh! And I am SO excited to try out some plein air studies- I agree that they result in a lot more expressive paintings.

Chapter 7- Visual Perception

Moonlight is not blue?!? What madness... I'm glad someone finally told me though. :) It's interesting how our eyes adapt and function in different light, and how that changes our perceptions. I also enjoyed learning about perception of space and how important it is to soften backgrounds to allow the foreground to be a center of focus. I think it's not only important as well to have color harmony, but also color contrast- as they talk about in this chapter, colors have a great affect on mood. It's not only important to set that mood, but to also provide some color contrast to give emotional balance to the viewer. I feel like I have a lot of painting to do before I can predict the way one color will influence another. That relativity is something I am so amazed by. I think it's pretty incredible how color can influence our mood so much as well.

Chapter 6- Color Relationships

I think it's interesting and helpful to know that when two light sources hit an object, the cast shadows from each light source will be the color of the other light source. Also, after reading about how helpful it is to premix color strings, I will never begin a painting again without doing my premixing! I also didn't realize that with gamut mapping, the neutral in a given triad scheme is the color in the middle of all the colors- not just some generic gray.

Reading about color schemes and how best to use them has helped me to be more aware of the intentional use of color schemes in other artists' work, and how that enhances their art.