Stage 3 Recording colours accurately

I really enjoyed the following exercises and chose to use acrylic gouache and watercolour paints.

Exercise 1

First of all, I completed a colour circle in acrylic gouache creating a border around a piece of A3 paper. I used the three primary colours only and from these mixed the secondary and then tertiary colours. It was quite difficult to do and as I continued round, found it tricky recreating the same colours.

I then went on to experiment adding white and then black to some of the colours left on my palette.

Eager to continue on to the next exercise, I plan to go back during the course of the project to practice mixing other types of paint.

Exercise 2

I used a beautiful piece of kimono silk for this exercise, as I really love the colours and was keen to practice making these colours myself. I used acrylic gouache and was very happy with the result.

Exercise 3

For this exercise, I chose a postcard of a watercolour painting of a museum I recently visited in Kamakura. I love the muted shades of green, blue and brown and enjoyed mixing watercolur paints to match those used in the painting. I concentrated on painting blocks of colours, rather than trying to copy the image and feel that I managed to record the colours fairly accurately.

I enjoyed these exercises very much and plan to do a lot more, using other media.

Exercise 4

I created a simple still life, using an apple, orange and lemon on a red piece of sugar paper. I happened to have these items handy and felt that very familiar objects were the best to illustrate how our colour perception is influenced by our expectations and pre-conceived ideas about colour. I tried very hard not to see the fruit as fruit but simply as blocks of colour. I don’t think this exercise was as successful as the other three as I failed to show the very dark colours where the pieces of fruit are in shadow. Again, more practice needed!