INTRODUCTION

About This Course

I am here to get you excited about COLOR. The “Projects” in this course are designed to get you to learn about color theory by doing, by painting. Traditional color classes may have you paint color charts which, although a brilliant way to learn about color, can be tedious and mind-numbing. In this course we will start with the basics of Value, Intensity and Color Temperature and learn about these important properties by exploring their qualities in various “Projects.” Each lesson builds upon the one before as we develop and strengthen our color sense and knowledge. ”Owning Your Colors” means understanding colors and their properties so that you can control them at will. 

Each Project can be created with many different approaches. I encourage you to adapt any Project to your own creative interest according to your skill level. I provide links to my Pinterest boards in each class with examples of paintings using the concepts described. These will also provide inspiration for new ways of approaching your work.

Learning to see color as well as mixing what you see can take time and practice. Be patient with yourself. And paint lots. That is by far the best way to learn. Now join me on the path down the road of color and let's have some fun!  

Important Color Terms

PRIMARY COLORS: Red, Blue, Yellow

SECONDARY COLORS:  Orange, Green, Purple

TERTIARY COLORS: Yellow-Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue-Green, Blue-Violet, Red-Violet, Red-Orange

COMPLEMENTARY COLORS: Colors opposite each other on the color wheel. 

ANALOGOUS COLORS: Colors next to each other on the color wheel. Another way to darken or lighten a color is to add an analogous color.

“TO GREY DOWN A COLOR”: This phrase means to “neutralize” a color or make it less intense. The most common way is to add the color's complement creating a more neutral or “greyed“ version of the original color. There are many additional ways to grey down a color such as adding black or white.

HUE: Basically a color family:  Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Violet, and Orange. Every color is part of one of these color families. Thus, every color has a “hue.”

VALUE: Degree of lightness or darkness of a color. The color (hue) is not important in this definition, just how light or dark it is. (Think of a black and white photo of your painting).

LOCAL COLOR: The true color of an object, as opposed to the way it may appear in certain lighting conditions, at a distance, or in contrast with other colors.

TINT: A color to which white has been added.

SHADE: A color to which black has been added.

CHROMA: The brightness or INTENSITY of a color. Cadmium Red Light (for instance) straight from the tube is an example of high-chroma color.

Nature Morte

An Abbreviated History of Still Life Painting

Please feel free to select any image provided below for any project, and of course, absolutely feel free to use your own subject matter including abstract work. All of these color principles apply to any two dimensional painting created with oils or acrylic. Also, be sure to mix and match the reference photos at will - you do not have to use the same image that I demonstrate for the same Project. All of these Projects can be created more than once and in different combinations. The more you experiment, the more you will learn!

IMAGES FOR YOUR USE

Click on any image it will open for you to view larger or download as a PDF file.

CLASS ONE

Learning To See The Value Of Your Color

VALUE

VALUE is always the most important element of color in two dimensional art. Learning to see and understand value is paramount. Let’s make sure we all understand the term VALUE as it is key to understanding color. Watch this short slide presentation.

Please Note: Each video in this course has its own unique password.

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Value

PROJECT 1A

Paint Directly On A Photo To Study Values

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Project1A

In this Exercise we have some fun with color! Watch as I paint directly on a black and white photo while matching the values with color. This can be done in oil paint or acrylic. The painting may not last forever, but this is just for fun and learning.

• Print out a photo on your ink jet printer in black and white.

• Don’t use gloss paper as the paint won’t stick.

• Any matte photo paper should work just fine.

• Set your printer to print a good quality print so that you get a good range of darks and lights—black to white—in your photo.

I use a “selfie” and self-portraits make a great subject matter for this project, but you can use any subject matter that excites you.  Just be sure to pick a photo that has a wide range of values from 1 to 10...and now you know what that means!

NOTE: In this video I say that light colors recede and dark colors come forward. This concept generally holds true for landscapes (we will get more into this idea further on), however in portraits it is typically the case that lights come forward and darker colors recede.

Examples of contemporary painters who use expressive color while matching the values of what they see.
Clicking on the image will take you to their website. 

PROJECT 1B

Learn To See Values In Your Colors By Working With A Black & White Photo As Your Reference

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Project1B

In this video I demo a colorful still life painting, however the source image is a black and white photo. The intention is to match the values of the photo with the colors that I use.  

Download one or more of the images from the SUBJECT MATTER Gallery* above to work from, or, of course, feel free to choose your own image. Paint the image in expressive colors matching the values of the black and white photo. Feel free to simplify and interpret the paintings in your own way. Any landscape (for instance) will need simplification. 
*The slide show with image options is in the Introduction

I am not looking for exact renderings and photo-realism!!!! I can help you with drawing skills, but the intention of this project is to focus on color and value. If you do choose your own B/W  photo, it's often more fun if you don't know exactly what the image actually looked like in color.

NOTE:  The colors I use on my palette for this demo are the ones shown in the palette below for CLASS THREE. For Sap Green I only like Winsor Newton. Colors can vary greatly by manufacturer and Winsor’s Sap Green is rich and dark and transparent, while other brands often are not.

Recommended for all Online Self Study Course Students