Bill Perkins Color Boot Camp - Day 3

Push the Color. Paintings are about light. Take what’s infront of yyou. Look at dynamic relationships and find out what’s going on Look what the range is.
The minor key is the range of contrast wit in your component. There are 7 individual components in a painting. Break things down into a logical way so you can understand it.
In painting you put something down and then you check yourself.

Arthur Dow defines design principles as Opposition, Transition, Subordination, Repetition, Symmetry. This is the California Craftsman approach.

Maitland Graves in “The Art of Color and Design” talks of Line, Value, Shape and Proportion.

In the “Visual Story” Bruce Block talks of Line, Tone, Shape, Color, Space, Rhythm and Movement

Mentions A. Donlis “A primer to Visual Literacy” and Line, Mass and Form is how we stylize things visually.

There are seven basic contrasts.
Contrast of Hue
Contrast of Light/Dark
Contrast of Warm/Cool
Contrast of Complementary
Contrast of Saturation
Contrast of Extension (Proportion and Placement of Color)
Simultaneous Contrast
http://www.worqx.com/color/itten.htm

When you paint ask yourself
- What is my matrix? Light vs. Shadow or Light vs. Dark. Then think of your range from Lightest to Darkest and Brightest.

Bill Perkins Color Boot Camp - Day 2

We painted today with a palette of Black, White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Napthol Red, Raw sienna and Quinox.

Burnt Sienna is a black orange
Cadmium Yellow Light + White gives a cool
Raw Sienna is used by Bill on his palette as a dark yellow. He prefers it to yellow ochre because it is warmer.
Keying a painting – Major Key and Minor Key
(He mentioned Zorn Palette but I don’t have clear notes about it)
Value, Hue and Saturation will define where any color lies on the wheel. Hue is measured around circumference. Value sets up mood of the painting. Color Wheel is a theory.

Mixing paint is subtractive. The more you mix the color the more neutral the color becomes.

Bill mentions George Bellows and the Ashcan group and something about Mirada and premixing palette on composition (but I am not clear on my notes). Bill doesn’t like Cadmium Red Medium that much because he says it grays too fast.

Bill Perkins Color Boot Camp - Day 1

The Goal of the Color Boot camp is 25 to 30 paintings in 5 days. Not interested in rendered images. Must paint what is important first. The idea is assessing relationships. What are you looking at? Eliminate naming generic items. Look for Basic spots of color.

The skeleton of a painting can be considered it’s MATRIX. When you start to paint assess clearly. Determine what the pattern in. Then put it down boldly. Once you put it down stick to it.
There is an idea of NOTAN vs. CHIAROSCHURO. Every object has a local value. If the painting is a 3D it’s going to have form but a painting is not always about form.
There are 3 Elements of Design: 1)Notan 2)Chiaroscuro 3)Line/Texture.

When you are putting be critical about what you are seeing and what you are putting down.
A painting can be about Light &. Dark or Light & Shadow. The values set the mood of your piece. Sargeant mainly paints in Notan but then we switches to form around the face.

When you go to a museum the paintings will have a strong bias to chiaroscuro or notan.
Smaller surfaces are darker because the reflect less light. Larger masses reflect more light. We need to have a clear distinction about what’s in light and what’s in shadow. When you have string contrast you can really get the feel of light. If you have light and shadow sgapes can have more reflected light. When you paint hit the light and shadow patterns first.

A painting can range from High Key (overall light) to Low Key (overall dark). There is also the major key (overall proportions) and a minor key (contrast range with your painting). It is important to fine tune your comparing and expand the way you compare.