Otis College of Art and Design presents ...
with me, Maura Bendett.
In this video, I will show you how to easily mix and apply gouache
in order to paint swatches for a triad color harmony.
A triad color harmony is created
by using 3 hues that are evenly spaced on the color wheel.
I can rotate an equilateral triangle
to any position on the color wheel and it will automatically
point to 3 hues that make up a triad color harmony.
I have decided to work with these three hues: rose terrine,
lyndon green, and sky blue.
Here you can see how each hue
aligns on the color wheel.
I will paint a variety of swatches using different combinations
of rose terrine, lyndon green, and sky blue.
I will also combine jet black and permanent white
with the gouache colors which will allow me to create an even wider variety
of hues, chroma and values.
I will paint my swatches
on Bristol vellum paper. I like 400 weight
because it's a fairly thick paper and doesn't curl
a lot as the swatches dry.
To paint the swatches, I will use a flat edge water color brushes with soft silky bristles,
which will lay the paint and smoothly and evenly.
To mix the gouache, I will also use a palette knife
and a disposable piece of palette paper. I will also need a large container of water
to clean my brushes when I switch colors.
And I will need some paper towels. If there's a clear liquid
in the paint hue, don't worry it is simply gum arabic,
which is part of the paint. Add a few drops of water
into the gouache and mix it thoroughly with your palette knife
until the gouache is the consistency of shampoo.
Now moisten your brush and blot
with a paper towel,
then dip it in the gouache at the top of your page
paint a swatch of each of your 3 pure hues evenly.
I'm using a separate brush
for each color in order to keep the swatch colors pure.
I like to use two types of brush strokes:
first from side to side then
from bottom to top lightly floating the brush
across the surface of the paper. This will minimize
any ridges potentially created by the bristles.
The main rule when painting
a triad color harmony is that there must always be
two of three colors in each swatch.
<<< classical music playing in the background >>>
Even if there's a lot of one color and only a tiny amount
of the other color - for example here I am mixing together sky blue and rose terrine...
I can also mix all three colors together at once
varying the amounts to create different tints,
tones, and shades. This will create
a vast array of colors all within one
triad family.
I will create three groups of
swatches for this triad color harmony. Group 1
is a high-value or light swatches.
I need to add permanent white in order to do this.
Group 2 is a group of low-value
or dark swatches. I need to add jet black
in order to do this.
And lastly, I will create group 3, which will be comprised
of medium value swatches. I need to use two different processes
to create the medium value swatches which will include both bright
saturated swatches and dull desaturated swatches.
Now I'll begin. I'll start with Group 1,
the high-value or light swatches.
I'll squeeze out some permanent white and add a few drops of water.
Now I'll mix them together.
Using my palette knife,
I will at an extremely tiny amount
of rose terrine and an extremely tiny amount
of lyndon green, and this together.
I must be sure to keep my swatches extremely light
almost white so I'll have to continue to add
more white gouache to this mixture as I go
to keep it from getting too dark. Then I will
thoroughly clean one of my brushes and use it to paint
a swatch in the high-value or light color
that I have created.
These swatches may look like the same color when wet,
but when dry, they will be slightly different tints
from each other.
Remember to always have at least two of the three colors
in your mixture.
Now I will paint Group 2, the low value
or dark swatches. I will squeeze out some jet black
and use my palette knife to add colors. Notice
I also cleaned my three brushes. Be sure to
always have to or three colors
in each mixture. I can also have all three colors
and the mixture at the same time.
When painting the series,
I will work back and forth between using my palette knife
and all three brushes. I will use up
the remaining three pools of the original triad colors:
rose terrine, lyndon green, and sky blue.
Now I will paint Group 3, the medium value swatches.
But first, I will have to recreate the three original colors of
my triad again because I just used them up painting the low- value
or dark swatches. For the first process
of Group 3, I will intermix only the pure colors themselves
without adding jet black, permanent white, or gray.
The resulting colors will be very bright or saturated.
Remember to always have at least two of the three colors
in your mixture.
For the second process of Group 3,
I will add medium gray
to the paint mixtures.
First to create gray, squeeze out some white
gouache and a small amount of the black.
Thoroughly mix these together with your palette knife to create a medium gray.
Now, start intermixing the gray
with the rose terrine, lyndon green,
and sky blue. Remember to always have
at least two of the three colors in the mixture. I can also have all
three colors in the mixture at the same time.
I will work back and forth between using my palette knife
and all three of my brushes.
When painting gouache swatches I want to create
an opaque, smooth and matte surface
without any brushstrokes.
Gouache is used in art and design classes because when dry
it is matte and therefore absorbs a lot of light.
This makes it easy to see the color
accurately.
If I use too much water, the swatches will be transparent
and too much paper will show through. While there is nothing inherently wrong
gouache applied this way, it doesn't work for our purpose
of creating swatches that can accurately be used
to study color and/or about hue relationships.
And if I don't use enough water,
the swatch will be too thick and then dry
will be lumpy and have ridges. This is a waste
of gouache. It will also crack when dry
like mud and chunks will fall off.
At last here are my completed sheets
of triad color harmony swatches.
This triad color harmony exercise will expose you
to the vast array of tints, tones and shades
that can be created by limiting your palate
to a predetermined group of colors. Designers and artists
will use a color harmony because the colors within it are related to each other
thereby creating a balanced visual experience.