The subtle differences in colors can drive you crazy or give you immense pleasure.
The ability to discern color differences is cultivated by paying attention to colors. Some people think of color in terms of basics. “It’s red.” I’m that way about wine: there’s red, white, and the stuff with bubbles. I don’t pay enough attention to get any hints of oak, tobacco, or fruity after-tastes.
The Online color challenge will slow you down and get you to pay attention! You might think that you don’t know what to do, but I promise that if you JUST GET STARTED by moving colors around, you will “get it” even if it doesn’t make intellectual sense to you. It’s fun and you can do it as many times as you like. You don’t need to check your score. It’s an easy assignment. Just click on this link:Online color challenge
The photo on the right shows my “color book”. I’ve used a three-ring binder with slide sheets and have filed (in a loosely organized manner) each plastic slide holder with color samples that I can slip out. It has many uses including:
- In class, I will select a few and hand them around a class with instructions to “match it!” (I’ll cover how to mix to match in a future lesson.)
- When I am considering a change in a painting and not sure of what I want, I will tape various color samples on the painting to evaluate the differences.
Other weekly art lessons on COLOR:
Watch the video and get ideas for mixing greens:
Mixing Ireland’s Forty Shades of Green (On-line art lesson #11)
What you think you see might not be what you really see…
COLOR: Beware of Preconceptions (Online art lesson #35)