Color at the Arboretum

The beginning of a new year, and it's about time I updated here!

First, I'll share some work that follows up on my studies of Notan (harmony of light and dark) that I shared here after my Urban Sketchers Singapore workshop...time to work on color!

I did a workshop in November called the Harmony of Color at the Los Angeles Arboretum.  I believe that strong color work really needs a solid understanding of values, and I've noticed that sketchers often struggle with this when working with color.  It's so easy to get caught up in "local color", and miss the rich range of values that you're seeing.  So, I began with monochromatic studies...















I think the best place to start with color is with seeing "color temperature", so I did some studies in complementary warm and cool colors...

I started by painting the cool shadows of the Queen Anne Cottage and surrounding foliage with ultramarine blue watercolor...

Next, I used pyrrol orange (very  brilliant reddish orange!) as the complement to blue.  I wanted the cool blue to predominate, so I tried to be selective with the orange.  Just as in Notan painting, I try to be mindful of the pattern I'm creating as I work...

Then, I thought I'd experiment to see what would happen if I started with the warm color, pyrrol orange, and then added the complement of blue...I frankly found that confusing, and here the warm and cool are battling it out for dominance!  I added yellow to make a sort of triad (3 colors that are equidistant on the color wheel).  So, even if it's not completely successful, it's something to learn from!

My next step was to experiment some more with triads...and made some variations on the primaries.  While I was added I did some other complementary combinations, like violet/yellow.  There are endless possible variations, and I have more experimenting to do!

My next triad study started with painting shadows in cobalt blue...

Then adding layers of hansa yellow light and pyrrol orange--fun to see the range of greens emerge...

Some more color studies at the Arboretum...starting with some quick thumbnails...

And some larger color studies...