Creative Color - Chapter 23: Highlights And Shadows

Highlights and shadows - example:
























The 7 basic colors in the above image are the ones I noticed more than any others on a recent trip to Paris. The weather in February was dismal, cold, and grey, but in retrospect the following colors set the mood:

Sky: Greyish-mauve
Stone: Tan
Wet Stone: Brown
Mossy Stone: Drab dark green
Gravel: Pinkish ochre
Bronze patina: Light green
Rooftops: Dark slate blue

That's the end of the Birren exercises.

These exercises were fun, but in most of them I used a tiny sable brush, and after a while it was like painting model airplanes. Not really a very satisfying method for me, and besides that I nearly went blind doing it.

Stay tuned for actual paintings on canvas.