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A Diary of Learning Drawing Techniques, Part 4
By  Gayle M. Bird
November 13, 1998
Well, we've finally started color! There's great articles about color
already on FARP, so I won't get into much except to say that blue,
purple and green are cool colors, while red, orange and yellow are
warm. This article concerns transparent color, as opposed to opaque or
waxy color. (watercolor pencils are transparent, prismacolor/crayola
pencils are opaque.) First we began with just
two colors. Pick opposites (or near opposites), such as Purple and
Orange, or Blue and Yellow, or Red and Green (not the best for
skin). We used the dark/cool color to get down the basic
figure/proportions, using tone to push things back and create the
basic forms. We then came in with the light/warm color to model the
skin and the forms, creating detail but avoiding
outlines. Cross-hatching will help give the illusion of 3
dimensions. If modeling an arm, for instance, use curved lines
following the form of the basic cylindrical shape rather than straight
or diagonal lines (which will make it look flat-- and in places, my
example does). Always retain some of your whites when using
transparent color; the best way is to let the white of the paper serve
as a highlight, I've found.  For
shadows, we used the dark color again to *degrade* the light color.
Since they're opposite, they create a neutral when blended together.
Purple and orange seem the most pleasing to me, and you can use them
together to create a very dark dark.
After using two colors for a while, we moved to
4-color: red, orange, yellow and one opposite; I used purple, but it
could have been blue or green. Same idea applies here; opposite color
to do proportions/shading, and the warm colors to model the form. Put
more chroma (color) on areas that are closer to you, it will help the
illusion. Once again, the opposite color will degrade all of those
colors for shadows. Don't put too much of a cool color on skin or it
will look like a corpse.
Some words of wisdom from my art professor:
Keep colors transparent -- don't press too hard.
When blending, use lighter (tonally) colors first.
Degrade (reduce chroma) colors with the opposite (complimentary)
color. This makes objects appear to recede. Remember, art is an
illusion.
Do not use white except as a paint to hide an unwanted color. Do
not use black -- Black is flat and boring. You can achieve very dark
darks with opposite colors, and they have life to them. [See the
Spawn pic above, with its heavy negative. Not a black to be seen!]
All images Copyright © Gayle Bird, 1998
FARP Article Guestbook
| Date | Name | Comment | | | 17 Apr 2002 |  Carrah Nicole 'Sheepy' Langard | Ha! Thanks to this tutorial, I'm going to try to color my next picture! Maybe I don't -need- my Prismacolors yet..... ::wanders away to look for colored pencils:: | |
| 15 Jun 2002 |  Jenna Dixon | I tried my own picture using this technique and I really liked the outcome, thanks for sharing the idea of using the 2 opposite colours. | |
| 12 Mar 2003 | Monika Corbett | purple and orange aren't opposite (complimentary) colours. the complimentary colours are
Blue- Orange
Purple-Yellow
Red-Green
and all the respective tertiary colours... etc... | |
| 30 Jun 2003 |  Stephen G. Tucker | Right, they aren't complimentary
but they are still triadic, and thus harmonious.
Not complimentary though. | |
| 22 Jul 2003 | Sylv | Thank ye, this helps alot..my proffessor explained it and I didn't really know whatr the hell he was talking about. burt thanks to the examples and stuff you put in I understand better now. | |
| 6 Oct 2003 | Trev Lang | EARTHWORM JIM i havnt seen him in awile | |
| 11 Jan 2004 | Thankful Beginner | Hi i am not new to drawing but i am new to art i am only 13 but i think it is better to get all of these ideas in my head so by the time i am in my 20's my art should be good thanks for all of your help in this and the 1-2-3 drawing | |
| 12 May 2004 | Bahram Saghari | At the very beginning of the article above, Gayle mentioned
"...There's great articles about color already on FARP, so I won't get into much except to say ..."
Does anyone know where this "great article" is, please?
Cheers,
Bahram | |
| 7 Sep 2004 | Ewj drawing fan | EWJ rules!!! (earthworm jim) just love that picture of him  | |
| 21 Mar 2006 | Robert | This helped me a lot in coloring(personaly i have never been real good at drawing or coloring) but i was wondering, do you think you can make a tutorial for photoshop? | |
| Page: [1] 2 |
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