Learning about Colour from Linda Kemp: Value

In my never-ending quest to improve my skills, I started following colour-theory lessons by Linda Kemp, a renowned and well established artist.  I know, I know, "Colour theory...ewww how boring!".  I can't agree more!  I also find the topic incredibly terrifying!  There seems to be no end to the rules and arrangements of how and when to use colour.  However, the title of Ms Kemp's video "Simplifying Color" does give me a sense of hope that I may be able to finally grasp this usually very dull topic :)

She's approached this subject very systematically, which I appreciate.  The video starts out by outlining the 3 properties of colour: Intensity, Value, and Hue.

You can see in this strip that Intensity contrast is when you contrast a pure colour with a neutral colour, thereby making the pure colour stand out.  Value contrast is when you paint from the lightest light to the darkest dark (here the orange is lighter than the black).  And Hue contrast is when you paint contrasting colours (i.e. orange and blue) to make either or both stand out.

In this post I will be focusing on my work following her Value contrast lesson. 

First, it was important that I understand the relationship between light and dark values.  Similar to a black/white value finder, I followed along to create a gradation of values using only water to change the colour.  I'm not sure I succeeded too well here, as I seem to have a lot of gradations that are very similar in the lighter values, but hey, I tried!

Next I was to learn the difference between "low key" and "high key" paintings.  Low key paintings use values ranging from mid to high (very light/white), while High key paintings use values ranging from mid to dark (black).  I think I did okay representing the high key values, but the low key values gave me some trouble.  I'm not sure if they were supposed to have more blue in them to increase their value levels or if I was supposed to keep the colours pure and specifically choose ones that would have a high value level.

Now onto the fun part :). 

To illustrate her point, Ms. Kemp chose to demonstrate how to paint a value contrast painting (following is my attempts to follow along).  The really fun aspect to this demonstration is that Ms. Kemp LOVES to work in the negative.  This generally means that instead of painting the shape directly (i.e. a circle), you paint everything else in the space EXCEPT the shape and voila, your shape appears!  You'll get a better idea of what I mean if you follow along :)

First I drew some flower shapes on a piece of watercolour paper.  Then, selecting a colour that could easily go from lightest light to darkest dark, I painted around each flower shape in the lightest value of the colour.

Next, when the paper was completely dry, I drew in some stems for each flower and mixed a slightly darker value of the colour.  Then I carefully painted around ALL the drawn shapes.

After the paint had dried completely, I drew in some leaves and a few more stems.  I mixed an even darker value of the colour and repeated my painting around the shapes.  At this stage, smaller "captured negative" spaces have been created that must be painted properly or it all falls apart.  You see the tiny dark green spaces between the flower stems in the upper-middle?  Those are captured negatives.

This was by far the coolest step for me.  I have always been told that in watercolour you MUST NOT ever use white or black, and I gotta say that this has been darned inconvenient at times!  But Linda has generously given permission to use these values to mix with colours to aid in creating the values necessary.  In this case, I mixed some black in with my green paint to create the darkest value.  I drew in a few more leaves and painted around everything accordingly.

It's really important when painting like this that I take a step back periodically to see all the shapes and how they join, and where their spaces are.  I came very close a few times to completely messing up the exercise by painting the wrong thing!

While I can't say the painting itself is incredible, you definitely get the idea of what a value contrast painting should look like.  Now, there's nothing saying that you have to do this process in the order presented here.  Depending on your preferred methods, you could probably mask out the white flowers, leaves and stems and start dark, lifting mask and painting lighter as you progress.  This would be an example of painting in the positive.

I plan to continue the video and present my efforts in my next post.  Wish me luck!

I'm Back!

Wow!  I go away for a week or two and everything goes to pot!  I have absolutely no idea what's going on with my header here, but I'm working on fixing it (please bare with me).

Okay, so where did I leave off last time...so much has been going on and I have a lot to talk about today.  Right, I was working on a botanical illustration of my mallow plant.  Hmm.  How do I put this...it didn't go well.  And it wasn't the drawing part that I had a problem with, strangely.  My brain just did NOT like the level of analytical pressure that I was applying to the project.  Which is really weird because I am a VERY analytical type person.  But when I walked away from my sketch (which I hated), I had an extremely hard time getting back to it.  I actually avoided my studio for a couple of days before I figured out what was going on!

So, I took matters into my own hands and completely erased the image.  Of course by then my flowers had turned towards the window and some had wilted and basically my setup was gone.  Now I'm sure you are thinking to yourself "Why didn't she just do another one from a different angle then?", and that is a very good point.  I'm not sure why, but there was added pressure there too.  I felt I would've had to rush to get the drawing and painting done before it all changed again and I didn't like that.  Fortunately I took a picture of the plant prior to drawing so I do have an image to work from (yay) and I've not completely given up on this project!

Now you may have been asking yourself "If she hasn't been drawing or painting, what's she been doing with her time lately?  Was she on a vacation or something?".  Well, I wasn't on a vacation.  For a long time now I have wanted to start my own website.  Not just a blog site, but a proper website with a real domain name and everything.  It would have all my drawings, paintings, and illustrations and merchandise for people to buy and enjoy my works.  My sister sent me a link to a blog/site called www.collegeinfogeek.com.  This guy is amazing.  He straight up shows how to easily and quickly set up your own personal website (without knowing HTML).  From hosting, to registering a domain, to working with wordpress and what add-ons you might want.  So basically I've been doing that.  My site's not completely done yet - I'm giving myself a few months to set it up properly, but if you'd like to have a look you can click the link below:

www.amandawiklund.com

When it's ready, I'll put a button on this blogsite to connect you to my website :)

As well as the How to Make your own Website page, he's also got a How to Make your own Blog page.  Another godsend, as I've been searching for a way to make my blog more interesting and useful, not just to others, but to myself as well.  His information and advice on this have given me a LOT to think about!  I want to start a blog that has information for other beginning/intermediate artists who are interested in learning more about what it's like to take the next steps, to level up their work, and decide if that's what they want to do or not.  I want to learn it too!  I think there should be a place where we can learn what those steps are, without spending a fortune going to college/university.  Especially for those of us that are narrowing down how they want to spend their time!  That's my goal anyway.

I haven't decided whether I will keep this blog going when I start the new one.  They will be so completely different from each other.  This one is more of a journal of my experiences and efforts, while the other will be more about research and learning the practical side of being an artist (I need a name for the blog too - you wouldn't think that would be hard, but it IS).  I won't likely start the second blog for a few months anyway as I have a few things I really need to finish first, but I have a LOT of thoughts about my first and second posts!!

I'm curious to know what you think about this?  Would that kind of blog appeal to you?  Any suggestions for a name?  Should I keep writing here as well?  What do you think of my new website so far?

A few days after I had done all this reading, and I had gotten so frustrated with my mallow painting, I was looking at pinterest and admiring all the artists with their loose, paint-runny, soft-edged, negative-style paintings (you know the ones) and had one of those "middle of the night thoughts".  You know, the ones that sound brilliant until you try it?  Ya, well...I thought to myself "I obviously was over-thinking the mallow painting.  Let's go the opposite direction and just, sort of, let the painting flow.  No real planning or design, just paint it.  How hard could it be?"  Famous last words...they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so let's let the picture tell you everything:

I don't do well with zero planning (as you can plainly see).  This is true in my life as well.  I'm taking this painting as a reminder that structure is necessary in all things.  It acts as bones to the body, giving it form and substance.  Allowing things to move in a more desirable manner and direction.  Too much structure builds a cage that you can't get out of, too little and you're spinning like a top with no real direction or focus.  So, I will begin again.  This time with a bit more planning, a touch more structure, and focus.  And I will show you some progress in my next post :)