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.

Chapter 5- Paint and Pigments

Burnt and Raw Sienna get their names from Siena Italy?!?? My mind is blown! J There were a lot of things I hadn’t thought of before in this chapter. I usually don’t think about how to make my paintings last as long as possible- considering which colors or pigments are most lightfast, or storing them in dark, cool places. I also never considered making pre-painted sky panels for going out and painting landscapes…. That would be super helpful! Also, keeping my paints from drying out by storing them in a glass jar is a great idea! I didn’t realized that you could also  create grays by painting complements on each other in a transparent way that allows light to pass through both. I also like the idea of trying to put all my cool colors consistently on one side of my palette, and the warm colors on the other, to help me differentiate when I’m mixing colors.

Chapter 4- Elements of Color

I began reading this chapter, thinking that I knew what was going on when I saw all the color wheels. But no! There’s a lot more to color wheels than I realized. I  didn’t know there were so many different ways to represent the color spectrum… It makes me wonder which is best? It sounds like Munsell’s color wheel is the preferred color wheel for artists, but I’m not sure. Also, I think it’s interesting that each color reaches peak chroma at different values.  I saw a three-dimensional Munsell color chart in one of my classes this last week, and thought I would love to buy one someday!! But now the more I learn, the more I wonder if it would be better to paint my own so I can understand it all better. I also love what Gurney shared about grays- more paintings fail from not having enough neutrals than too many! “Better gray than garish.” –Ingres I also learned a lot about how to handle greens well- I’ve always had trouble with them as well, so I’m glad he addressed using different shades, smuggling reds, and other methods to use greens effectively.

Chapter 3- Light and Form

Something I'm learning and trying to apply from this chapter is the concept of how light affects what we see of the form. For example, high detail and texture are most easily seen in the light and half tone areas of the form, while little texture is seen in the shadow area. I think it's natural for us to want to paint or draw the form having the same texture (because we know it's there, and maybe can see it a little) all through the form, while it would be much more striking and read more clearly if we kept high detail in the light, and left shadow areas flat. This in fact makes the form even more dimensional.

I realized as I read this chapter, that I don't pay much attention to the light source, shadow source, or other things that really do play major roles in the way light is cast on a form. Now that I've read about and seen the difference it can make, I'm excited to think more deeply about the light and shadow  sources that will affect my piece before I even jump into creating it.

Color is cool! :)

I just made a huge break-through discovery in my head painting class- you can paint a blonde woman without using yellow! ....What?! Crazy, I know. I was pretty blown away myself. :) Our teacher told us to use limited palette with only ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and white. When our blonde model sat down in front of us, I just thought to myself- blonde. That's not going to happen today, sorry. But I went to work, making my background a cool blue in hopes that it would bring warmth to her face and hair. I experimented with the colors I had available, and although they didn't look blonde on my palette, they did in the painting!

Why? Because of color relativity. I don't know everything about it, in fact, I feel like I'm just discovering it, but it's a real thing that can make burnt sienna, white, and blue look almost yellow when they're surrounded with the right colors. Now I feel like my eyes are open to the true colors I'm seeing, as well as understanding why they look the way they do based on the warmth or coolness of the colors they are surrounded by. As an artist, I can better manipulate warms and cools in my work by focusing on the relativity of color within my piece.