Six Painting Series for Color Theory: Part 5

Mid-Twentieth Century American Playground 5
Matthew D. Hughes
Gouache on Bristol
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
2011

One of the wonderful things about the medium of gouache is its versatility. In this painting, I used gouache much like one would use watercolors. By laying down multiple layers of translucent washes, I was able to achieve some areas of nuanced color. Take the underside of the slide, for example. Here, I used cooler colors to show that this area is in shadow. By layering blue and red-violet washes, you can see both colors working together to imply the coolness of the shade while also conveying differences in the planes of the surface.

For this painting, the assignment was to use Itten's principle of the contrast of saturation. In this color contrast, the point is to create areas of emphasis through using differing degrees of saturation. A color in its pure hue can be desaturated through mixing it with its compliment or by tinting (adding white), shading (adding black), or toning (adding black and white). By juxtaposing areas of saturated color (pure hue) with areas of desaturated color, contrasts are created. Sometimes, art work that is considered a contrast of saturation may have minimal areas of fully saturated color. These works often appear much more muted and nuanced.

Six Painting Series from Color Theory: Part 3

Mid-Twentieth Century American Playground 3
Matthew D. Hughes
Gouache on Bristol
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
2011

Of the six paintings in the series, this is the one that took the longest. The reason for the it taking the longest should be self evident: pointillism. 

Yes, the required style for this assignment was pointillism. Although I personally like the optical effects that are achieved through the use of pointillism, this style is so tedious, monotonous, and time consuming that I have to question if the outcome is worth the  cost. The only reason I can see that would drive me to visit pointillism again in my artistic journey is if I were to come up with some completely original fantastic twist on the style that warranted re-exploration. Until that time comes, pointillism will continue to gather dust on my shelf of stylistic tools.

Ok, enough about pointillism. Let's talk color. For this composition, complementary color contrast was required. Johannes Itten's complementary contrast is probably the easiest to employ. This ease of use comes from the ability to choose any hue and then merely pair it with the hue that is directly opposite it on the color wheel. Therefore, Yellow-Green is paired with Red-Violet, Yellow with Violet, and Orange with Blue. As is the case in this painting, complementary contrast is not limited to the use of only two  complementary hues; there can be multiple complements in action.

Six Painting Series from Color Theory: Part 2

Mid-Twentieth Century American Playground 2
Matthew D. Hughes
Gouache on Bristol
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
2011

The second entry into my Playground series is an abstraction of a spring found on a teeter totter. The cubist abstraction was a stylistic requirement of the assignment. Prior to this painting, I have never worked with cubism before; my style of choice is normally realism. Designing a composition incorporating cubist elements was actually quite enjoying. Working in a different style that is more about abstraction can actually be quite liberating. Instead of being so preoccupied with correct proportion, I was able to work more intuitively.

Johannes Itten's theory of color contrast employed in this painting is Light/Dark Contrast. Through tinting, shading, and toning, contrast in color is achieved. Although I have created a light/dark contrast in a monochromatic (only one color used) painting, light/dark contrast can also be achieved in a polychromatic (multiple colors) painting.

Six Painting Series from Color Theory: Part 1

Mid-Twentieth Century American Playground 1
Matthew D. Hughes
Gouache on Bristol
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
2011

* Accepted into the Oklahoma Art Guild's Oklahoma Friendly art show.

Color is one of those subjects that one can learn all about in a short amount of time, yet it can take a lifetime to master its application.

In addition to creating the standard color wheels in class, we also had to paint a six-piece series to demonstrate our knowledge of Johannes Itten's color contrasts. The subject of these paintings was to be either a series of self-portraits or a series based on an object. Since I sometimes like to be different and push the boundaries of what my faculty will allow, I decided to view the term "object" in a  different light. I substituted the word "noun" for "object". Changing that term was liberating. Instead of being constrained to portray a singular object in different views and abstractions, I decided to use a singular object that is made up of other singular objects: a playground. This playground is close to my home and my son's favorite place to go play.

The assignment for this painting was to use Johannes Itten's Color Contrast of Hue. Contrast of Hue is when most of the colors in the composition are at spectral intensity (no desaturation through shading, tinting, toning, or mixing a color with its complement) which creates contrast. In addition to this required use of color, the style of the painting was required to be flat-match contrast. Therefore, volume had to be conveyed through areas of flat color instead of modeling.