Drawing many tones with a couple of colours 24th November

 Many tones with a couple of colours 24th November

Today's study was a look at colour and how to use it correctly with tone. We were given a large scale still life set up to paint, focusing on the tonal difference between the separate objects. Having set up the board, we were given an A2 piece of paper and four colours of acrylic paint. With only four colours, we had to adapt to match the tones, using the two warm colours (yellow and red) as the lighter tones on the still life, and the two cool colours (blue and the green) as the shadows. This is because cool colours tend to recede.

I started with the lightest part of the objects, using the yellow to cover the brightest areas, slightly going beyond so it would be easier to blend the dark paint with the light to get a gradual tonal change. Ignoring the fact that the four colours we were using looked nothing like any on the object, we had to see beyond the idea of realistic colour. Instead we were to think of the colours as light and shadow, warm and cool, and use them to create different tones.

What I found difficult was that I wanted to use the acrylics like watercolour paints, blending the paint together to get a gradual smooth transition from one colour to the next. This is hard to do with acrylics, especially in a short time frame, so instead I layered the paint thicker and tried to make the colours work with each other, ignoring my need to blend. I still worked the colours into each other, but not with a smooth finish. It made it look very abstract.

I enjoyed this lesson. It was interesting to see and learn different ways of using and applying colour to a painting. It shows that the colours don't have to be realistic for a painting to look good. I think I'll have to try this style of painting out a bit more and also experiment with some other techniques of painting.