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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Painting in Progress plus Palette

First layer of color, and I already love it!
This is my palette, but I never use all this color at one time.  I select specific colors for each painting based on a complimentary color scheme (even though this painting is actually a close-compliment scheme of yellow and blue.)  First I decide my "star" color.  The star for this painting is yellow, so I'll want to pick out a variety of yellows and its compliment purple.  My main yellow will be Cad Yellow Medium, and main purple, Garnet Lake.  
I've mixed this on a piece of glass to see the color easier.  I rarely use tube earth tones since I can mix them using compliments.  In this case, making a yellow ocher, which I can easily make lighter and darker, or warmer and cooler.  If I use a cooler and bluer purple, the colors will end up a bit on the green side, and I'm seeing a lot of greenish-ocher color in the shadow side of the "flower." 
These are the rest of the colors I will use for this painting, plus white.  I love having lots of choices, so I usually add warms and cools for each compliment.  For my yellow side, I add a warm of Cad Orange, then four cooler yellows.  I'm not going to add a warmer purple, because I can warm up the one I have with the Cad Orange, but I am going to add several blues.  

That's my color scheme theory in a nut shell.   

6 comments:

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

hi karen, i've been following your blog for a while now. i was so excited to see you come back with this new direction. it's brilliant! i love that instead of going a totally different direction (subject wise) you opted to go out the box. looking forward to see where you take these.

Karen Appleton said...

Thank you Christine! I really appreciate your comment about direction. What is the saying..?? ... happiness can be found in looking no further than your own backyard. :) Thank you!

FCP said...

Thanks for sharing your color theory, Karen. And I agree with Christine -your "new direction" is unique to you and what you love, and it is refreshing to see the joy in an artist's work who has tapped into that.
Faye

Karen Appleton said...

Thank you so much Faye! Your blog has been an inspiration in sharing. I'm a little nervous about "new direction" but I'm excited. I love your post about curiosity, and keeping an open mind. Just attempting this crazy flower has given me tons of new ideas to think about. Curiosity is key!
Thanks Faye

Helen Read said...

Karen, thanks for showing us your palette and the thoughts behind your color. I've always loved what you do with color!

Karen Appleton said...

Thank you Helen!