Thursday, August 16, 2012


Day 6 

Mandala

 



Day 6 Supplies:

Canvas:
Your Mandala

Oil Paints:
Yellow Ocher
Cadmium Red Light
Ivory Black
Titanium White (Williamsburg preferably)
Your mixed value series

Brushes:
1/8" to 3/4" brights series

Misc:
T-shirt rags
Palette (round or square - whichever you prefer) or
Palette Paper (grey - not white)
Vegetable oil for cleaning brushes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Adding Color:  Yellow


Finally I am ready to apply what I learned in the color workshop to my Mandala.  It's not necessary to take the color workshop to do this, but I found it very helpful when I was mixing my colors.  This value series is more complex than our grayscale with just raw umber and white.  I am mixing cad red light and ivory black to yellow ocher in order to get the darks.  If I just mixed the yellow ocher with the ivory black I would end up with a green as the ivory black has a bluish hue.  So I add cad red light to keep it neutral.  I kept my midtone as pure yellow ocher and added white to it to get my light series.

Just like with the previous steps, I started with my midtone, yellow ocher - laying it down right on top of my grayscale.  Then, since my colors were already mixed, it was easy to just add the lights and darks as I did before.


I also used the yellow ocher in the outer crescent to fill out the circle...



On a different note...



We got two new students in class tonight.  It seems the more people we have the more fun it is in class.  They are just now starting the Mandala.  I am no-longer the newbie.  But I have to pick up my pace or they will catch up with me.

I am also the first person to apply this Zorn palette to the mandala project here.  It's a little intimidating as I have nothing to compare it to.  I have no idea what this is supposed to look like if I do it correctly.   

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

2-Day Color Workshop: Zorn Palette


2-Day Color Workshop

Zorn Palette

 



Color Workshop Supplies:

Canvas:
2 Canvas Boards:  Provided by Kline Academy

Oil Paints:
Yellow Ocher
Cadmium Red Light
Titanium White
Ivory Black

Brushes:
Small and Medium Sable Flats and Filberts

Misc:
Palette Knife (Medium-sized)
Paper Towels
Plastic Trash bag
Small jar with Walnut Oil or Linseed Oil for cleaning brushes (NO TURPS)
Large glass palette or wood palette (Stay-wet container with glass inside, glass should have grey or brown paper underneath, no mixing on white surfaces!)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Color Mixing Workshop:  Zorn Palette


This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the 2-Day Color Mixing Workshop at Kline Academy.  Sixteen students piled into the back studio to learn the nuances of the Zorn Palette...  a limited series of colors suited well for mixing skin tones.  Since the next step of my Mandala would be focussed on the Zorn Palette, I thought it a good idea to learn what this palette was all about.

Anders Zorn


I don't know much about Anders Zorn except that he is the one who popularized using this series of colors to mix rich, beautiful skin tones.  His paintings are lush and lively with radiant light reflecting off the surface of his figures.  I found it hard to believe that he only used 4 colors to mix such a wide range of skin tones and was eager to learn the secret behind his genius.


The Process

Color Wheel Template
We were given two canvas boards painted a neutral pearl grey and with one - a color wheel was traced on the surface and the other - the outlined figure of a man.  The color wheel we were to create first and then that would be used to help us recreate a color study of the man on the other board.

Above you can see the three colors we were working from - Yellow Ocher, Cadmium Red Light and Ivory Black.  The primary colors were painted into the inner wheel then we used white to create the 4 gradient tints radiating outward.  The trick was to create transitions that were as seamless as possible - meaning there were only slight jumps from one tint to the other - not drastic ones.

Next, we filled in the inner wheel between the primary colors...  Those colors were also tinted with white to finish out the wheel.  The strip to the side was made up of all three colors to create a pure neutral greyscale. 

Finished Color Wheel
Below is the male figure we used to implement our color study.  We used a process of "tiling" - meaning that we weren't trying to create a blended reproduction of a photograph, but instead were "tiling" colors from the color wheel where they best matched the larger shapes within the image.  The effect reminds me of camouflage uniforms.


Unfinished Color Study
If you are interested in this process, painting flesh-tones or just want experience in being able to control the colors you mix, you should take this workshop.  Our instructor, Brianna Lee did such an excellent job walking us through the color wheel that I feel unqualified to try to explain it myself any further.  The workshop itself was a blast and I met many new friends.

I am finishing up my color study in my regular Beginning Oil Painting class before I move on to finish my Mandala with the Zorn Palette.  I will post photos of the finished work when I am done.