break out your pocket watch and your
paintbrushes it's time for episode 7 of
10 minutes to better painting
I am your dubiously credentialed host
Marco Buchi let's dig right in
writer Hunter s Thompson said life has
become immeasurably better since I have
been forced to stop taking it seriously
this episode is about color notes which
falls under the category of taste it can
be difficult to craft a lesson around
taste but bear with me here's some work
by Richard Schmid a painter known for
expressive color look at any of these
paintings up close and you'll find that
the objects are made of not flat colors
but a whole array of color color notes
can help your paintings gain an extra
layer of life as is so often the case
with art's life comes through variety
let's see if you agree here's the
original painting and here's a version
where the color notes have been removed
there's nothing wrong with either of
these but if you ask me the color notes
help elevate a picture to painterly
Heights these colors just have an
attraction to each other like positively
charged ions negatively charged ions I
should have done research on ions forget
the ions the idea is you start with a
flat color and you introduce variations
on it keeping your values close and your
edges soft helps the effect stay
together if I tried it with hard edges
and contrast e-values it doesn't look so
good
also by allowing the original color to
dominate we can still tell what local
color the object is alright let's
investigate some of the actual mechanics
behind these color notes here's a
sampling of the original yellowy
greenish base color and here's a note of
purple now to get from one color to the
other using the hue strip I have to
slide from here all the way up to here
that makes it appear that there's this
huge chasm between the two colors and
you might be timid about making such a
big move but actually the distance
between these two colors is not that
great in Episode five I talked about how
color harmony can be based on grays and
color notes directly applies this theory
our first color was here our second
color was here if we completely decide
traded both of those the resulting color
is identical even though there are two
different hues so allow me to offer you
a different way of looking at the color
space we have our two colors and let's
flip one of these boxes around in this
configuration we can join them and now
through the gray we can link any two
colors we want but before you get all
excited there are still some questions
that need answers for example how can we
keep these color notes organized just
how far can you stretch this whole gray
thing how can you trust your own taste
enough to know what looks right you know
like what matters and what doesn't this
is where I need a good analogy yep
no not ions oh I know I went
wine-tasting in France this year and my
wine educator taught me that the
drinking was step three of a three-step
process the drinking is where you apply
your tastes there's no right or wrong
you just go with your fancy and you like
what you like that applies to color
notes as well but to inform your whims
the first two steps were all about
gathering context for instance the color
and opacity of the wine can give you
clues as to its structure like its
approximate age the type of grape you
know useful information to have if
you're serious about wine in painting
its values that give you your structure
notice that most of those color changes
are just not evident in a value study
don't fall into the trap of thinking
that a variety of color means changing
your values sporadically no it's a
simple value structure that gives you
the leeway to be more playful with color
and as you can see Richard Schmid in
grayscale agrees ok back to our list
here which I have updated for our
purposes the next step was smelling the
wine this is when you start to gather
information about little flavors it
might have I feel like this is similar
to the overall temperature of a light
source here are some common light
sources on the degrees Kelvin scale but
you know forget about degrees Kelvin
what matters is that different light
sources give you different starting
points from which to explore color for
example in the context of sunset light
your starting point might be way over
here but you aren't just stuck in that
one spot you're free to do little hue
shifts to neighboring colors and when
you do these little neighboring moves I
find you
often keep a similar saturation you
could also venture toward the gray
pickup a few color notes as you do and
pop out into the blues these grays by
themselves are a little coolish for
sunset but because they're linked to
those initial warms they can really work
as accent notes however if you were to
forsake that connection and venture too
far your painting will look less like
color notes and more like a color
cacophony a more neutral light source
will have a more neutral starting point
perhaps allowing this kind of
exploration so armed with context we can
finally indulge in the wine any
volunteers to do the drinking look
everyone the interns back hey no hard
feelings from that last episode we're
cool right okay well drink up buddy
while the intern is drinking delicious
wine let's look at the delicious notes
in this Zhou Ming Wu sunset painting the
sunset colors are rooted in saturated
reds and equally saturated neighboring
colors a little further back he moves
toward the gray exploring notes in this
range and in the very back he continues
that trajectory finding gray notes that
work in context with the warms up front
the shadows received their illumination
from the environments ambient light and
the color notes here follow a similar
path only in a totally different area of
the color wheel color notes can come in
endless combinations so it's up to you
to explore and find what suits your
taste and just remember if you ever get
stuck you can always go back to steps 1
& 2
check your context make sure you haven't
gone overboard oh my god the interns
wasted this is not good just get off the
screen wait a second
hang on there intern
okay stumble around again stumbling is
another way to find color notes so long
as your context is well understood
you're stumbling will be contained and
all kinds of color relationships can
happen this way who would have known
that being impaired could possibly help
art I should have seen that coming
well switch to water everyone because
we're headed to part two let's do a
little color study of part of that
richard Schmid painting my intention
here is not to do an exact copy rather
put my focus on building similar color
notes I'm starting of course with a
basic value pattern not thinking about
color just yet the structure needs to be
there before I can build on it
so here I'm just tinting the canvas to
give me something to work out of the
main light source in this painting is a
cool overcast so tinting the canvas
slightly warm will help some of those
neutral cools punch out just a bit more
but it's not just cool colors I'm
playing with you can see some neutral
oranges neutral pinks even some neutral
Reds there now this is kind of a
rapid-fire stage I'm just throwing
colors on there and exploring not taking
any choice too seriously yet I need to
audition the colors before I can make
any decisions the value is what ensures
that the form stays solid then when it
comes to the color notes I have to just
use my taste
do I like a certain passage or do I not
now contextually because the light is
coolish i and richard Schmid are
favoring cooler notes in the light you
can see as I get into some shadow areas
now I'll switch to favoring warmer notes
in fact one of the things I love about
the Schmid painting is that some of the
neutral warm color notes in the light
for instance some of those neutral
oranges those same hues are brought into
the shadow only they get a little warmer
more saturation it's an interesting way
of carrying a color note from light to
shadow in this case and as a results you
gain an extra layer of structure a
subliminal sense that there's a method
to the madness which in my opinion is
always nice there's also these tasty
saturated notes of blue in the light and
equally saturated notes of red in the
shadow they're used sparingly enough
that it doesn't look like the wall is
blue or red to me they read as accent
notes and really are abstract color
choices meaning they're not related to
the fact that
is a house the physical subject ceases
to matter past a certain point those
saturated blue and red color notes are
related more to the overall color design
of this painting
there's just something pleasing about
how they magnify the more neutral
versions of themselves now I just like
to say that there are other factors that
can contribute to color notes things I
didn't cover in this video like the
physical texture of something
atmospheric perspective color is such a
deep subject and this lesson is
certainly not meant to be the end of it
but I have found that for me it's the
quality of the light more than any other
physical phenomena that drives most of
your color decisions so anyway I'm at a
stage now where everything is in and I'm
consolidating my color choices colors I
don't think fit I will just paint right
over them or maybe an area has too many
color notes so I'll smooth it out a bit
this process can take hours as every
little area is connected to every other
area so I'll stop right here you know I
used to look at good painters palettes
and think man what a mess but now I know
what we're really looking at here is a
map a map that charts the color notes in
the painting but these maps don't look
technical or intimidating to me they
look fun I often look to the painter's
palette as evidence of the sheer joy
that can come with mixing color you know
you can explore all these different
color notes before committing to them
now digital painting removes the
necessity for having a physical palette
like this so if you're a digital painter
who's never tried mixing traditional
pigment I say give it a shot
you might be pleasantly surprised at how
it can nurture a love for color well
that's it for today and I'm she's how
much wine did you drink I'll call you a
cab just give me your address okay is
there someone who can come and pick you
up this is not where I saw this lesson
going
[Music]