Diary Entry-06/02/2018/Colour Wheel

Art class was excellent this evening. We have a new tutor who is extremely proficient and knowledgeable about her subject. I have been studying art for over a year now and learnt quite a lot. Our tutor is demonstrating some really great stuff and techniques to use at home.

What was so interesting about the class this week was the explanation about the colour wheel. I have included my very messy diagram (I’m not a particularly neat person with anything) which shows the three primary colours, painted in the middle band; then the mixing of each one which created the secondary colours, orange, purple and green. These new colours were mixed once again with the adjacent colours to create the tertiary colours, for example, the red and the purple. The outside circle colours were then mixed with white to make the tint colours and then the inside circle of colours were mixed with a tiny bit of black to make the shades. So, ultimately, this technique enables a painter to use just 3 colours to make all the shades he/she needs. I am now going to focus on using only these 3 to make all the colours I intend to use for my paintings, thereby, making my artwork more harmonious. Well, that’s the plan anyway!

Can you see on my messy colour wheel how lovely the greens became, and that was achieved by just mixing a warm yellow and blue together.  These can give you a multitude of greens for trees and foliage.

Our final task was to use this system to paint a piece of fruit. I’m usually quite reckless with my choices and would have gone for a pineapple or some other textured arduous drupe! I was a good girl though and chose an orange, spherical admittedly, but just, well, orange! 

I think it worked out quite well. I laid a wash of yellow then let it dry. I then mixed red into it for a light orange, let it dry once again, and using this combination to gradually make the washes darker to add form whilst lifting out the light for the upper surface. I did make a mess of the shadow underneath but I’m still learning. So all in all, it was a very productive evening and using the colour wheel has become a dependable resource for me. X