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 6

The sixth sessions of the Trihue Watercolor class for Winter 2018 were held on Wednesday, February 21 and Sunday, March 11. The white light homework was critiqued. The new topic for this week is colored light. Dick gave a demo of colored light shining on white paper and on an arrangement of different colors and values. Colored light and shadow work to unify a scene, because all colors are affected equally. Shadow colors are the complement of the light color, plus black (because all light contains a lot of white light) and any ambient light (outside, the blue of the sky). Sunset provides an opportunity to observe this phenomenon, with amber light and rich blue-green shadows. For more detail, be sure to read the post linked to in the “Other resources” section.

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.

Trihue Watercolor, Week 3

The third sessions of the Trihue Watercolor class for Winter 2018 were held on Wednesday, January 31, and Sunday, February 18. The stripes homework was critiqued, with an emphasis on recognizing halation and vanishing boundaries, and knowing how to create them at will in a watercolor by understanding the necessary relationships. Cropping was used to focus on areas which exhibited harmonious relationships. Dick demonstrated halation with several arrays of Color-Aid paper. The new assignment has to do with discovering watercolor techniques, including various types of edges and gradations. This week, we have over an hour of demos captured on video.

Color Relationships 2, Fall 2016 week 5

The fifth session of the Color Relationships 2 class for Fall 2016 was held on Wednesday, September 28. We critiqued the homework (White light and shadow), which is always a trickier assignment than it initially seems. The class was introduced to the bizarre phenomenon of colored light and shadows, which often defies what your mind tells you to be true! Seeing it happen in real time is key to this lesson, and Dick provided a great demonstration to prove the effects. Please see the full post for photos, class materials, and this week’s new homework assignment, Colored light and shadow.

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.

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.