creating luminosity – Dick Nelson Color

Color Relationships 1, Spring 2016 week 4

The fourth session of the Color Relationships class for Spring 2016 was held on Wednesday, April 27. We critiqued the color transposition assignment, discussed the two ways to create luminosity in artwork, and enjoyed a watercolor demonstration that showed the effects of equal values, vanishing boundaries and halation. See the full post for class materials, photos, and videos to supplement our class time.

Homework assignment

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Class recap – some key ideas

Critiquing the homework – Transpose colors of equal value

Much of class time was spent sharing the results of this last assignment, and even in a week Dick could tell how much student’s value perception had sharpened. Value is very hard to discern when competing hues are seen together; however this particular format provides a way to compare many colors and values all at once, for which Dick still praises Albers’ ingenuity for designing color exercises.

There are also quite a few students trying these assignments in alternate media (Color-Aid paper, pastel, and watercolors), which presents different challenges than the ones encountered in Illustrator. Some of the difficulties arise simply from the nature of the medium itself, and there was a brief discussion on the importance of working with the materials in a way that keeps the focus on the color. Dick mentioned that the only material Albers let his students use was the Color-Aid paper, as it was one way to minimize the distractions inherent in art making. Albers wanted to concentrate on color, not shapes or design or mediums: “Albers had students coming from all different backgrounds – oil painting, pastels, printmaking – so he didn’t want us to get caught up in craftsmanship or subject matter. He wanted [the focus to be on] the direct relationship of color, and that’s why he had his students work with the Color-Aid papers. He didn’t want us to get cute with the design or show how clever we could be [with shapes]: the focus was on color.”

View the students’ color transposition studies.

Two ways to create luminosity in artwork: vanishing boundaries and halation

After the critique, we discussed why recognizing value is such an important skill for visual artists to learn: to create luminosity in their art. There are two ways to create luminosity: vanishing boundaries and halation, and when an artist employs both of these effects, the result can be breathtaking. As Dick said: “If there aren’t relationships, things fall apart. And that’s what is so beautiful about nature: everything relates.”

Which is another reason why Dick is confounded by the lack of these effects in his previous students’ artwork; he has taught thousands of students over his lifetime, and yet only a handful of them use these techniques in their work: “I’ve been wrestling with this for years. Why can people understand vanishing boundaries and halation in class, and then they leave class and they don’t use it in their work? How do I prepare you to use this as your own so that you can take this knowledge and find a way to plug it in? How long does it take before it becomes a part of what you’re doing? How many of you will learn to use it as Kit did, and plug it into your own work?”

One student said, “So you’re saying this is a way of making it glow.” She recognized that she’d created this effect in one area of a past painting, but didn’t know how to recreate it. She was eager to get back to the studio and try out some new ideas!

For the last assignment, the challenge is to make these lessons your own, and find ways to combine a halation and vanishing boundaries to create luminosity. Students can make a simple composition of their own, which could be as basic as a single repeating shape; or a ‘Challenge to the Professional’ which would involve re-doing a previous art piece to employ these effects. As we approach the last class, Dick’s ultimate goal is to foster independence: “I want you to make a transition from being in class and having student assignments, to making this knowledge your own. I want to see that you can take these principles and apply them in your own way.”

Dick has this hint for working with your vanishing boundaries assignment:
If you are using arrays or matrixes, you need all anchor colors (parents or corners) to be of the same value, or very close.

He made this matrix as an example, and says “Note the color luminosity in this sample matrix which combines both halation and vanishing boundaries.”

(And remember that for true vanishing boundaries, the hues also need to be close!)

SaltSpring — Dick showed one of his own works as an example of using halation and vanishing boundaries to create luminosity. The effect is best seen in both the clouds and the water reflections.

Watercolor demonstration

To finish the class, Dick led a watercolor demonstration which illustrated the amazing effect of vanishing boundaries and halation. Karen described it well in her post from the 2014 Color Relationships 1 class:

“Dick demonstrated how to achieve equal value, vanishing boundaries, and halation in watercolor. He started with strips of solid and mottled yellow, then laid in stripes of magenta and cyan over it. Because the yellow is so light – so close in value to the white of the paper – neighboring values of cyan and green, and magenta and red, are also nearly identical, creating a luminous, sparkling effect, much more engaging because of the optical mixing than areas of solid color would be. No matter how many further layers are added, this relationship remains.”

Class photos

Students gathered in small groups to share their homework.

One student’s attempt to do the assignment in watercolor.

Two small groups downstairs turned into one larger group to share their discoveries.

Some students have been doing the homework in different mediums other than Adobe Illustrator.

Everyone gathered in the living room for the full class critique.

There are different kinds of challenges experienced when students use different media.

Demo for how one can use Illustrator to practice value matching.

Dick used watercolors to demonstrate the powerful visual effects of luminosity.

Watercolor will continue to darken as you add more layers, so starting with yellow can help you plan your highlights (you can always darken a watercolor, but lightening it is very difficult).

By using just the three primaries, you can achieve a range of colors.

By layering watercolors (a transparent medium), an artist can achieve beautiful color harmonies.

Combining all three primaries leads to spectacular results.

Notice how the thin green line to the left “pops” out of its’ surroundings. This is due to the relationship between neighboring values, hues, and the relative size of the stripes.

Vibrating boundaries begin to occur where colors have different hues yet similar values.

Halation also creates the effect of luminosity (seen here in the middle stripes of red-orange going towards a bluish-purple).

Class materials

[gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/VBHandout16.pdf”]

[gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ColoristDefined3.pdf”]

Videos

Matrix Tutorial

A step-by-step tutorial on building a color matrix in Adobe Illustrator.

The Color Matrix

Following the ARRAY concept of color relationships, I have expanded Josef Albers’ two-parent relationship to a broader spectrum of color possibilities. The results are startling and a new tool for those who seek color harmony.

Color Luminosity

Here are two ways color luminosity can be achieved. This should dispel the notion that the French Impressionists achieved color luminosity by way of full chroma color application. See the truth with your own eyes.

Same post, different year

Read the corresponding class posts from 2014 and 2015.

Color Relationships 1, 2014 week 5

The fifth session of the Color Relationships class for Fall 2014 was held on Friday, November 7. We tried to find Color-Aid swatches of equal value; discussed real-world observations of luminosity through equal value in an autumn forest scene with Kit Gentry; critiqued the warm-cool color transposition exercises and free color studies; and had a demonstration of creating luminosity in watercolors. This was the final session of the course so there was no new homework assignment. A six-week follow-on class will be offered beginning in January, covering the visual phenomena of films, veils, volume color, white light, and colored light.

Class recap – some key ideas

In-class exercise: Find two color chips of equal value

Judging the value of different colors is very difficult. When the hues are different, we have trouble telling which is lighter or darker. Working with swatches of Color-Aid paper, Dick gave the class a couple tries, to start to build skill at value discrimination. After each person had selected a pair of swatches that they thought were equal value, the whole class compared them all, weeding out those that obviously weren’t equal value and discussing close calls, until finally three sets were left that were close.

Kit Gentry: Equal value and vanishing boundaries

Kit Gentry joined us by Skype. He is an artist who used to live on Maui, and now lives near Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee, where he finds dramatic and inspiring scenery. He took Dick’s color class a few years ago, and recognized that incorporating vanishing boundaries into his oils and pastels would enhance their luminosity. Discussing the photo below, of Kit photographing trees in an autumn forest, he talked about how the brightly colored leaves were all close in value, and nearly the same value as the gray tree trunks. He described working on a painting of such a scene and feeling that the colors were overplayed. In Photoshop, he sampled colors from his reference photo and put them on a white background, where every one seemed almost gray, but when interacting with each other, they seemed vibrant and much more saturated. “Nature is essentially gray,” he said.

Kit Gentry in an autumn forest in Tennessee. More photos from this location are available on his website.

Kit’s website has detailed descriptions and close-up photos of many of his paintings, and some are for sale through Village Gallery in Lahaina and Viewpoints Gallery in Makawao. Kit frequently adds new photos to his Facebook page.

Critique

Transposing warm and cool colors of equal value

Everyone reported that this was a hard exercise. On most of the homework samples, the cool inside squares were too dark. Dick advised not to choose a pale yellow for an outer warm color; it’s too hard to find a cool color to match it, because they tend to be darker. One person noticed that sticking with one hue each for outer and inner (as in 11, 13, and 14 below) made matching easier than having four different hues for each (as in 12).

Free color studies

The main critique of the free color studies was that they were more about subject matter than color. Free color studies should be about color, and only incidentally about shape. Dick advised staying away from recognizable subject matter, so the critique could focus on color and not be distracted with meaning and interpretation.

Watercolor demonstration: Equal value, vanishing boundaries, and halation

Dick demonstrated how to achieve equal value, vanishing boundaries, and halation in watercolor. He started with strips of solid and mottled yellow, then laid in stripes of magenta and cyan over it. Because the yellow is so light – so close in value to the white of the paper – neighboring values of cyan and green, and magenta and red, are also nearly identical, creating a luminous, sparkling effect, much more engaging because of the optical mixing than areas of solid color would be. No matter how many further layers are added, this relationship remains.

A six-week follow-on class will be offered beginning in January, covering the visual phenomena of films, veils, volume color, white light, and colored light.

Collage of color class students — Collage by Elen of images from Dick’s video of the equal-value exercise, “To win just once”

Color Relationships 2013 week 9

Homework

Transposing colors of equal value
Think of 1-3 ideas for a final project
Optional: vanishing boundaries
Rework or refine any previous assignments.
Look for positive and negative examples to share.

[gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/TransposeColor.pdf”]

[gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Synthesis-project.pdf”]

Class recap

Chris Scharein has taken many of Dick’s classes, beginning in 1999. She brought in some examples of her current projects, boxes made from tri-hue watercolors.

Critique – reworked assignments 1-7

Original: wimpy and inconsistent shading

Reworking an assignment strengthens your understanding of the concepts and provides a lasting reminder for future reference.

Consistency is key to believability for illusions of light and shadow. Cheryl suggested a simple method for self-checking. Assign number values between 1 and 10 to the different areas of the study. You want the difference between one color’s light and dark value to be the same as a second color’s.

Review

Each person gave some feedback on the course so far. Many are finding they see the world, and artwork (including their own) much differently. They notice things they didn’t before. Some would like to see a follow-on class focused on application, or stay together to critique each other’s work. Chris recalled an advanced group that she was in, where a different person would set the assignment each week for everyone to bring in the next week.

Critique – Assignment 8, Colored light

Same subject and lighting conditions, different background color

Colored light study: planning sketch, swatches, and finished study

A common problem with the homework studies was not recognizing that light affects everything in the scene. That’s what makes it so powerful as a unifying factor. Everything in the study needs to be under the influence of either the light or its shadow. There can be no white or other foreign background color. There were also some problems with perspective and gestalt. A casual arrangement of shapes is more believable – has better gestalt – than one in which edges are parallel with or coincide with other shapes. Noticing and correcting those issues can make a more convincing illusion.

Here’s a short video on drawing a cube in two-point perspective. (Thanks, Valerie!)

This week’s new concepts: Equal value and vanishing boundaries

The luminosity achieved in many Impressionist paintings, notably those of Claude Monet, comes from the optical mixing that we perceive of individual brush strokes of colors which are very close in hue and value. Applying this principle, anyone should be able to create luminosity in their work, if they want to. In his “Breakthrough” web page, Kit Gentry shows close-ups of sections of his painting and explains what he was trying to do and how he did it. He writes, “Each brushstroke is allowed to sit next to its neighbors with a minimum of cross-blending … You’ll find that many of the strokes of pink, purple, orange and green seem to merge together seamlessly due to their similarity in value, while their differing hues retain their own unique identity. This introduces a high degree of color vibrancy to the work.” (Excerpts from Kit Gentry’s website used with permission.)

To achieve luminosity from vanishing boundaries, you have to develop your capacity to accurately perceive value, something that is difficult for us to do. We can easily distinguish different hues, but comparing the values of different hues is hard. Albers estimated that students’ initial judgments were wrong over half the time! Repeated attempts and careful comparisons will help develop your eye. This week’s color transposition assignment is designed to provide that practice and improve value discrimination.

Dick showed how he is able to create luminosity in his watercolors. He starts by applying yellow in small, irregular shapes. Its value is very close to the white of the paper, so when magenta and cyan are glazed over, the resulting colors maintain the relationship of equal value and similar hues.

Class materials

[gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Equal-ValuePDF.pdf”]

[gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/VanishBound.pdf”]

Albers’ Homage to the Square: An Explanation

A descriptive analysis of the work of Josef Albers by a former student, Dick Nelson. This is followed with Dick’s animated collection of his own color studies which incorporate Albers’ format and his principles of color interaction.