[Archived Class 1] Week Three - Theories of Colour

[chaosrocks]

hehehe
so What's next?
crx

[Form]

hey guys, a few things came up last night that took me away from the computer. I have just finished writing up lesson 4 and am starting to review this week's work. Because i was a bit overloaded and didnt get to everyone's work throughout the week, I have a bit of writing to do. So you can all chill for another few hours. Im also taking mum out to dinner, so she might arrive before i finish up here.... anyway, im on it
A

[Form]

jodali | post #85

this is some great further thinking on the piece the comments on turner are great. He definitely was a romantic painter and one of the most recognisable. You have pinpointed their emphasis on the natural world and the infantisation of the built environment therein. This is a great example of this week's focus topic - using colour for a specific purpose. The super saturated colours aren't used without reason, but rather as a specific tool to enhance the vision the artist has.

and 86

it was great seeing this start - your piece really evolved to the final iteration. You started off with a nice pallette and it ended up benefiting the final piece too.

[Form]

agustin | post #90

I'll be trying to work on the structure of the class for 2nd intake. The problem is that most people, once they reach a point where they are (somewhat) qualified to teach, they are probably full time employed. I will always do my best to be around as much as possible, but some weeks are busier than others of course furthermore, an important part of working in production is the ability to work independantly and under direction together - which includes critiquing yourself and others of the same level.

[Form]

rvdtor | post #100:

I'm taking this to be your final production piece? There is something cool about the concept, it has a kind of retro Klayman kind of feel to it which I dig

As far as critique, i think you should have pushed your colour knowledge further this week, you lack variation from depth effects - same thing we were touching on last week. For instance the colour of the water is all the same and doesnt change as it recedes further into the background. Also, the way you constructed the image with the hill filling the screen makes it look staged as you have no real background to establish depth.

The trees seem a bit odd and are far too smooth-edged to be convincing as trees. Also, dont forget that when an object is lit, the lit area doesnt (necessarily) become the exact colour of the light source. With a big diffuse outdoor source like this, i would expect the yellow light to lighten and warm the lit side of the tree, but not turn it the exact colour. That makes it comes across as a specular and makes the trees look like they are made out of plastic.

Finally, watch your shadows -
1. Shadow EDGES become diffuse the further they get from the casting object. The bottom edge of the main object's shadow is too sharp relative to the rest of the shadow. Also, the shape of the shadow doesnt seem to match the start and endpoints of the object, and there is no curve to go with the curve of the hill.
2. There are no shadows from the trees on the water?

I like the little figure you included. Is that you?

[Form]

rvdtor | post #117

oops, i didnt see this one when i was reviewing the thread earlier. The shadow works better now, but most of the critique still applies. I think the way you set about changing the shape of the object may be the wrong way to tackle the problem. DOnt forget to change the canvas size, flip and move elements around as well. Ryan church is really good at doing that. Getting used to 'restitching' afterwards eventually leads to developing a much more organic and freeing painting style.

[Form]

Chaosrocks | post #121

Hello James (a cookie if you can tell me on msn what im alluding to! HARDY HARDY HAR HAR!)

Yeah, I struggle in painter too - don't ask me for tips there

So, first thing im asking, is what is this place? I know its a dream environment, but i guess it lacks a sense of design... the scale of things is confusing (and it doesnt work in a 'weird' way like escher's stuff). In relation to the cushions, the archways are way too small... so is the doorway... or the cushions are too big?

You need to define your source of light. The shadows on all objects are different. Also, defining the temperature, and establishing some sort of light/shadow warm/cool relationship is important. Im not sure the shadows of the cushions work being so extremely saturated? think about temperature, as well as the reflect light from the environment, how would it affect things?

And yeah, your own obsrvations that your scenes look like stage sets is correct. I want you to work towards breaking away from this and making more organic scenes. Even if this means drawing a top down map of the area first and making sure it isnt stage-like, then paint that up...

Finally, you would benefit from more practise with your painting style, keeping your brushes big and confident and working in big shapes of light and colour. Then make sure to refine your edges as you wrap up the piece to avoid confusion in the viewers eye. a lot of your shadows are 'noisy' and there are strange strokes throughout the piece that dont seem to be justified (like the patch of dark colour in front of the steps?)

glad to have you with us

[Form]

gundersen | post #123:

Alright! Now we're cooking with gas man... and gas man is pleased! I think you have been very succesful in applying knowledge you have picked up over previous weeks to each new piece - for which you deserve credit!

First thing that stands out is a design issue - your shapes are somewhat confusing. Things like the crystal shards (the hanging ones) looking like coccoons, the lack of ropes holding some up but others not... the strange construction of the wooden platforms that dont really make sense from a physics point of view.... things like that. Also the shape of the crystal is kind of strange? looks more like crumpled paper due to the overlapping flat shapes - it needs to be given some form and dimension perhaps. Its a bit 'shape' right now.

As for the crane people were talking about, i think the problem isnt that it overlaps, but more that it doesnt do so enough. The overlap works well in establishing depth in the image - our eye needs to know what is behind what, and the most efficient way to do that by far is overlap. But the way it only comes in a tiny bit and is sort of thin and spindly makes its edges run into the brushstrokes of the crystal, and the forms blend together instead of contrasting and creating depth.

Finally, the battle you have between the warm and cool lightsource needs some development. Most importantly, you have to consider the strength of your lightsources. You have a massive area being lit up by an apparently very bright primary source (assuming its sunlight from outside). Then you have wee tiny little lamps as your warm contrast. This is great, but there is now ay they would light the area up like that - its not believable. Also, it creates a 50/50 split, which (mostly) isnt a good thing. Balance actually doesnt mean exactly balancing 50/50. Your warm should act as a counterpoint to the dominant blue, just a touch of it to stop the blue getting out of hand. This can also be a focus-drawing device. At the moment, your two lightsources are warring, and that is drawing our attention more to that conflict than to the subject and the painting itself - and when that happens, the illusion is broken.

Great development from you man! And the atmospheric perspective is kickin. Keep sharpening those foreground edges

A

[Form]

agustin poratti | post #125

This is great! probably not the most you could have done as far as depth and proper forms etc, but what i do like is the colour, and that was our objective after all!

What I like most is the clarity and simplicity that you set out to achieve. You decided on a warm/cool relationship and stuck to it. More importantly, you let one dominate and the other recede. The dyptic highlights this perfectly between the two pieces - one cool dominant and the other warm. I think the way you have handled the touches of light is really confident...

I wish I could offer more critique, but the ambiguous nature of the pieces makes that hard. All i can tell you is the colour works and achieves the objectives you set out for yourself. Good work

By the way, this reminds me a lot of my own dreams. I have a lot of dreams about blinding light and ambiguous figures

[Form]

D. Labruyere | Post #126:

Ok - first things first, i dont see warm vs cool... or a serious colour relationship happening here. The image is flat due to the lack of colour variation throughout.

The lack of atmospheric perspective or a proper background make it feel staged, and the way you habe used pure white as a light source makes it feel washed out and undersaturated. You really need some touches of strong colour in the foreground to help set off against the desaturated background. The shape of the light coming down is also really static and makes it look like a cut and paste job - did you think about the angle of it? Composition? overlap? etc? Why is the archway so flat - how come you chose not to construct it using perspective? I feel you could have worked a bit harder on this one - sorry i wasnt about to critique you earlier though man, that was my bad. Also, there is no rationale behind your colour choices which was part of the task this week.

[Form]

jodali | #128:

This is great!! Most of all, I'm really impressed by how much your final product lines up with your intentions. I call that 'succesful'. I think that thought of 'impending doom' is exactly what i get from this, and its very dreamlike.

I think the composition is a bit crazy - the horizon is VERY tilted (dangerous, but can work in the right situations)... there isnt much overlap, and the bottom left corner has a bit of 'falloff' partially worsened by the sloping horizon... i think the monster could have more overlap with the tornados, so it looks like its coming out of them... at the moment its hard to tell whether it is in front of or behind them. I like your warm/cool relationship. I like the brushwork (works well when you scale it down) and i like the action - the small figure hiding from the evil sky wyrm. It tells a good story!

Only other thing to ask is what that saturated streak on the ground under the monster is - a reflection? The material of the ground doesnt seem like it would reflect? Im a bit confused about that. Great job

[Form]

robmorfin | post #133:

main thing I'm asking about are the contradictions between your post and your painting. You say the colours further from the light source are desaturating... but that isn't the case. Some of your most saturated colours are the ones furthest from your light source. Also, you say you have a lightsource that is red, but none of the objects in the scene are responding to that - it actually looks like it is just emmitting white light with no colour. You dont have a warm/cool relationship, or any relationship apparent in the piece - all the colours feel very abstractly chosen. There is no real sense of depth or form and when i squint the value range is very narrow....
I also dont see the second blue light source you mention in your post?

[Form]

daldbaatar | post #134:

great final! not really sure what is going on (subject wise) in the top left, but the colour work is looking good. The temperature relationship isnt super strong but it is there to a degree, and the light has a nice 'sunrise' feeling to it. What i really like are the reflected lights you have thrown around as reflections from the shapes (dont forget them on the ground too). The warm fire in the canyon also sets up a nice warm-cool-warm contrasting on different planes.

Watch your edges - a lot of soft edges here are getting lost and making the forms look muddy (for instance the wires look too thick and wobbly). Good attempt at the texture but maybe a *bit* too strong? ALso the light (top right) in the sky seems to stop a bit abruptly?

[Form]

earendil | post #142:

well we can see that all those sets of revisions that went into this paid off! What we have here is a narrative that works - and thats important. The action is clear and we are drawn in by the story.

You havnt got a written justification for your colours, but i like the relationship of cool to warm - the (relative) warmth of the light on the right balances the composition and the reflection really works. What helps the balance is that the large, slightly warm bit is balanced by the smaller but more saturated warmth of the character - that is working towards the kind of balance we want to see. I like the suggestion of texture and the atmosphere of the forest feels very fairy tale .

As with the others, watch out for small brush syndrome (it IS the size that counts) and keep your shapes big and readable - some of the subtleties in the shadow area are a bit confusing and contrast too much, drawing the eye.

[daldbaatar]

daldbaatar | post #134:

great final! not really sure what is going on (subject wise) in the top left, but the colour work is looking good. The temperature relationship isnt super strong but it is there to a degree, and the light has a nice 'sunrise' feeling to it. What i really like are the reflected lights you have thrown around as reflections from the shapes (dont forget them on the ground too). The warm fire in the canyon also sets up a nice warm-cool-warm contrasting on different planes.

Watch your edges - a lot of soft edges here are getting lost and making the forms look muddy (for instance the wires look too thick and wobbly). Good attempt at the texture but maybe a *bit* too strong? ALso the light (top right) in the sky seems to stop a bit abruptly?

Yeah man. The thing is that i think i concentrated too much on colors there. And for the cloud was supposed to be really dark. The boxes had to have a rusty effect. But i couldnt really know how to do it. Thanks man.

[Form]

let me know if there are any mistakes im a bit tired.

[Form]

daldbaatar - for a rust effect, get a texture brush, with a medium value/sat orange colour, set brush mode to colour burn and flow to something low around 10% and softly brush in (tweak for individual painting needs).

[Form]

Congrats on the HP's this round!!

I was tossing up giving one person a Pro for their prod piece but i feel they can push it further next week... OOH, OOH THE TENSION, WHO IS IT!?!?!

Really awesome to see how much involvement there was this week - so much discussion, sharing of work in progress... its really great to see! I hope you guys form a tight group and can keep working together long after the class is over. See you in 4th week

GJ
A

[Agustin Poratti]

hmmmm.. i believe that person to be earendil.

[Earendil]

Glad I redrew.

Crap, I forgot to post the why's, didn't I? One sec...

[robmorfin]

Congrats on th HPs guys, Earendil, great job!

Thanks Form, I am going to look closer and see what I did wrong.

[Gundersen]

Thank you Form. Ill work my ass off for at least one Pro before the end

[robmorfin]

Thanks a lot to Barionteri for giving me permission to use his image "Beach" in this post: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...4&postcount=30

I really apreciate it, here is a link for his website, check it out, he is a great artist: http://www.barontieri.com/

Thanks.

[robmorfin]

Also, thanks a lot to Feng Zhu for giving me permission to use his image.

I really apreciate it, here is a link for his website, check it out, he is also one of the best: www.fengzhudesign.com/

Thanks.