More colour is better

We continued our exploration of the basic colours and their inherit values.

Here are my demo notes representing the primary and secondary tint/shades chart instruction and their relative layout placement.

I love the colours around this sample swatch.

Gorgeous greens.

Beautiful colour strings in arcs on each disposable palette paper. 

And the rest......as they say.......

is HOMEWORK!!!

Colour Theory class opportunity

I was asked to substitute teach a colour theory class. I imagine walking into a class much like a cold call. I dread it in many ways. It can be nerve racking. I know my stuff so all I can I hope is to liven up the room and make learning enjoyable, but you never know the dynamic of the group.

 This Monday night I got my chance to instruct a Colour Fundamentals course for another teacher who was away.  I had built  a curriculum for a similar course in the hops to teach it last fall, but it didn't run due to low enrollment. Now I got my chance and my fingers are crossed it went well.

 I think I offered a "colourful" FUN-damental class based on the outline and assignments I had to give. I managed to scrape together 3 corresponding slideshows for the monochrmatic, analogous and complementary colour scheme assignments.

I really like all the different set ups an materials they were experimenting with. And the chicken soup can reused and recycled for art. I also appreciated the bright colour true lighting in the colour fundamentals classroom.

Near the end of the class I offered additional notes on Plutchick's (colour) wheel of emotions and showed a video about colour and storytelling in cinema that is a real eye opening approach for any artist to understand the value and use of colour in motion pictures and how it can relate to their artwork. It was a great class and I hope to be able to offer some of the teachings again in the future.

I also wanted to share the beautiful colourful painting I saw created live at the latest Swinton's Demo night featuring artist Donna MacDonald. Its a cheap event to attend on a Friday night that I highly recommend. Her workshop is already full but who knows there may be another listed for the fall so keep your eyes peeled.

Harmony and Connectivity

This Wednesday evening, after work I was fortunate to be asked to join two other awesome artists (Mandy Stobo and IronbrushYYC) in creating pieces for Chatterson Drive Strategic Real Estate Solutions. We were given a subject and we were filmed by their motion department creating original pieces for a project they are pitching. They were a really awesome group and the four or so hours I worked I had a lot of fun.

They gave us an example pitch of what they hoped to achieve with the work and then they gave us each a 2 X 2 canvas to get to work. I decided to find the centre and begin with some sacred geometry. I began with drawing a flower of life using a scrap CD I had laying around. I don't know why I didn't think of this before!

I ran the fine liner I had right into the ground. I then turned to my trusty bottle of ink and dipped the pen nib in and used it like that. I then squirted some clear medium and smudged it over obliterating the surface. I water for it to dry before applying some paint.

I started by doing the touter part and edges of the canvas with some copper. I just let the brush tell me what to do and where to go and then I applied the cat pee (ammonia solution) to the surface allowing it to drip and chemically react with the copper surface.

I painted in the centre circle and allowed the chemical process to take place. Then went in with some fluorescent pink. I kinda wish I had the nerve to call it done at this point. Alas I like layers too much.

I followed suit with bright yellow and a neutral grey. I began picking out shapes and enhancing the circles. I don't know which direction will be up yet, i'll figure it out when it is done. Painting for me is a discovery. It is a challenge of push and pull in order to create harmony. In fact, often it creates itself and I'm just doing the work but am along for the ride.

I went in with some orange as time began to run out and I needed to clean up my make shift studio space.I thought I would be able to finish the piece, but my perfectionism wouldn't let me leave it as is, so I brought it home to put in a few more hours of work on it. More to come when it is done!