Exploring colour
One of the best things I remember at art school was being given a task to develop a range of colours for a litho print, 2 days later I had an amazing array of colours in little foil packets ready to select some for the print. Thing is I could not tell you what the print turned out like but I remember the process of mixing small amounts of sticky ink and wrapping it up for later use!
Using colour in art is important and over time I have seen various exercises that explore primary and secondary colours but going to pastel and tertiary colours is another thing, here are a few things simple projects you can do on your own or at school to explore colour more.
Colour explorer
Create a series of squares on A4 card (about 6 is good) and divide the squares in half, now put colours in each side and add contrasting colours to the other side of the square, create multiple versions of these practicing better paint application, and colour combinations. I am sure it can be done on a computer with a simple paint program, and it would save a lot of time, but if you want to be a painter the brush technique development and mixing paints is invaluable.
Other approaches - Divide the squares into three sections – Make larger squares – Make a series of five stripes of varying widths and explore the colour combinations – Use strips of coloured paper in varying widths to make a collage of coloured strips – Use overlapping coloured paper shapes to explore colour and design ideas.
Even though these seem simple the variations are endless and can help you to develop an understanding of colours that work well together and those that clash. In a sense it’s like creating your own colour swatches, the type you see in paint stores.
Want to take it further, cut up coloured strips of paper and create stylised (simplified) landscapes using the strips pastes in various combinations, try it and see what happens.
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