Friday, June 07, 2013

An Art Project

As mentioned, I've been taking a course that I've quite enjoyed.

The course was supposedly Colour Theory, but since it was taught by the Head of Painting at ACAD, there was a little bit of painting theory, art commentary, and art history thrown it for good measure. 

Our final assignment was a fun and unusual self-portrait, which was really more about painting theory than colour theory, although paint mixing (colour duplication) was the crux of the assignment:

The painting was done by trying to duplicate colours from a gridded self-portrait onto a gridded canvas.  To keep the project simple (so it didn't take weeks), we were meant to do it in a quick impressionistic style, mixing "approximate" colours.  

Each triangle on the painting could only have ONE colour, which had to be either the "sum" (blend) of the other colours in the corresponding triangle on the photo, or simply the main colour from that triangle:

Of course, it's way harder and slower than it sounds.  But it's amazing how many colours one can mix from a small palette of paints!
  
It also amazed me that when you look very close, skin tones vary enormously.  In the photo, the light was falling on the left side so the skin tones are yellowish, while in the middle they are pinker and on the right side of the photo grayer with the shade. 

It was quite a fun challenge.

I am pretty good at mixing colours now.  And I also learned the number one lesson of painting - it's just a bunch of shapes of different colours.  I guess that should make it easier to paint my masterpiece now...

Happy Weekend!

17 comments:

  1. oh my I love it, take a closer picture of the painting, I would love to see it piece by piece.
    so interesting artwork to do.
    remember to sign your pieces...
    I would love to take painting lessons too, maybe we could find a class we could take together...
    Have a wonderful weekend x

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  2. Cool portrait! I can certainly imagine how that project stretches the color "color seeing muscles".
    I love mixing colors and learned early that when I get it right I mix a good bit and seal it for later use. I could look at paint colors all day...oh wait, I do.

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  3. Now that does look like fun, and though you may have captured the essence of the color, you didn't quite capture the beauty. You really are a lovely lady and you look happy, which puts a smile on this aud face.

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  4. I'd recognize those big blues anywhere.

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  6. Hi Terri - How great is that to have a self-portrait? I had no idea that it all came down to shapes of different colors. You look lovely in your photo. Keep that one too!

    -Deborah

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  7. Very cool! And such a beautiful photo, too!!! Crushing on you :)
    xxLoi

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  8. Terri, you have not aged a day from your first photo!! You look fabulous! And you are making taking a painting class sound very intriguing!

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  9. What an interesting assignment. I love the resulting abstract portrait.

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  10. Oh Terri, I love it! :) Great work!

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  11. What a fun project. Love the idea of it and you accomplished it well. Lovely photo of you.

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  12. Hi Terri!

    How are you doing?

    I am really sorry about Biscuit no longer being with you :( He was so cute and your dear companion :( It's tough :( He seemed like such a little gentleman, very caring and considerate.

    Sounds like you found a nice course! Learning new things is always fun!

    I really like the color of your lilacs, very pretty!

    I saw the family tree, it looks really gracious and pretty with the painted tree and the photos, what a nice mix!

    I haven't really had much time for my blog lately since I have E at home fulltime and then I study Spanish 50% and work part-time too but every now and then I think about you and Biscuit and hope that you are doing well and that your headaches are getting better.

    Have a great summer!

    Hugs Susanne

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  13. enjoy your posts it is very interesting to read thank you I really liked your article

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  14. terri, your piece is amazing. I am sure it was VERY hard to break down...congratulations on a terrific job.

    been thinking of you lately; how are the headaches?

    donna

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  15. What a great project. I think it would be fun to do for a landscape too.

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  16. I really appreciate your professional approach. These are pieces of very useful information that will be of great use for me in future.

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