Netherworld

Trihue Watercolor, Week 8

The eighth sessions of the Trihue Watercolor class for Winter 2018 were held on Wednesday, March 7 and Sunday, March 25. The surface and volume color homework was critiqued, and a review covered the whole course. All of the visual phenomena and principles covered in the course are tools you, as an artist, can choose to use, or not, depending on your goals. All have the potential to integrate and contribute to visual harmony, because they behave as nature does. Understanding them will allow you to create visual magic, whether working from nature or your own imagination.

Artist Kit Gentry joined the group by Skype for a question-and-answer session and discussion of artistic concerns.

A ninth, “Do-over” session was held on Wednesday, March 28, for people from both groups to bring reworked studies for critique. Much of the time was spent on the surface reflection exercise, and we have video of Dick illustrating and explaining how to plot reflections and shadows.

Trihue Watercolor, Week 7

The seventh sessions of the Trihue Watercolor class for Winter 2018 were held on Wednesday, February 28 and Sunday, March 18. The colored light studies were critiqued. The new topic, surface, was introduced. Surface has to do with light being reflected or absorbed. Similar to the value scale of white to black, you can imagine a surface scale from very reflective to not at all reflective: mirror to black velvet. Still water at a distance will reflect the sky or other surroundings, acting like a mirror, while looking down into it at a steep angle, or where an object is between us and the light source, you can see through it like a window. The new painting assignment provides a chance to tackle this intriguing phenomenon.

White spotlight

Trihue Watercolor, Week 5

The fifth sessions of the Trihue Watercolor class for Winter 2018 were held on Wednesday, February 14 and Sunday, March 4. The film and veil homework was critiqued. The new topic is white light and shadow. You need shade to create the illusion of light. In white light, a cast shadow is a gray (transparent black) film. To paint shadows in watercolor, paint the local colors first, then apply the shadow wash over them. Or, since watercolors are transparent, lay down the shadows first and paint the local colors over.

Trihue Watercolor, Week 4

The fourth sessions of the Trihue Watercolor class for Winter 2018 were held on Wednesday, February 7 and Sunday, February 25. We critiqued the edges and gradations homework assignments. Transparency illusions, in the form of films and veils, were the new topic for the week. Dick showed transparency illusions from Albers’ Interaction of Color, pointing out ones that succeed, and some that fail because they are inconsistent with the actual phenomenon. Painting film illusions in watercolor is easy; painting veil illusions requires a painting strategy.

Color Relationships 2, Fall 2016 week 6

The sixth session of the Color Relationships 2 class for Fall 2016 was held on Wednesday, October 5. We critiqued the homework (Colored light and shadow) and viewed more examples of how a colored light will modify other hues. Dick introduced a new assignment for this course, Translucency, using a demo and slide show presentation to discuss this challenging and beautiful visual effect. View the full post for photos, class materials, and videos.

Color Relationships 2, Fall 2016 week 2

The second session of the Color Relationships 2 class for Fall 2016 was held on Wednesday, September 7. We critiqued the homework (Create the illusion of a colored film over two or more colors), and discussed the next visual phenomena: veils. What are their characteristics, where do you see them in nature, and why would an artist choose to use them in their work? See the full post for class photos, videos, and more.

Color Relationships 2, Fall 2016 week 1

The first session of the Color Relationships 2 class for Fall 2016 was held on Wednesday, August 31. A group of 10 students met to continue their ongoing study of color, its appearance in the visual world, and how to re-create these phenomena through an understanding of color relationships. In this first session, the class went through a review of Color 1 lessons, a study of films and how they modify other colors, and discussed their first assignment. Please see the full post for class materials, including videos and slide presentations.

Color Relationships 2, 2015 week 3

The third session of the Color Relationships class for Winter 2015 was held on Friday, January 23. We critiqued the veil illusion homework studies. Volume color and aerial, or atmospheric, perspective were introduced. Class members shared some observations and experiments with color. Composer Robert Pollock visited and gave a presentation on musical analogies to color concepts. The new homework assignment is to create two spatial illusions of volume color, one of forms immersed in a colored liquid, the other in a white atmosphere.