Saturation Contrast Painting

Post date: Nov 29, 2013 10:16:08 PM

A project I've done two years in a row, and it has always been successful with a few students. Most don't have he patience to follow through or the creative willpower to make all of the potential mixtures they could create. Given there's six tube colors plus black and white they could make at least twelve plus tertiary colors (each siding towards a primary or secondary, even with the six normal tertiary colors, that's still a lot of color) not to mention cross combining complimentary colors. On top of that there is an over abundant number of possible combinations of pure saturated color with greys of varying intensities, there can be varying amounts of each color in each desaturated color as well. They often don't stray from the main six, and a single set of six desaturated colors out of some kind of aesthetic compulsion or just, I don't know... lack of imagination. I don't require them to try all of the combinations but they are, and probably need more, encouragement to try all of the possible combinations. even if they don't stray far from a small set of twelve, they have to mix colors again, and that can be a learning experience, many of them complain about not having the same color. To which I am gleefully delighted to say, "you're on your own, you made it once mix it again," or, "you'll be fine, make it yourself, that's part of the learning process." The sheer variety of designs is also pretty interesting, students who normally don't invest much in their work, once given the freedom to choose whatever they want often find something they're rather attached to. I did have one girl express utter disgust at the simplicity of the exercise, I gave her a very challenging assignment that'll probably take her the rest of the semester. It's along the lines of Chuck Close's watercolor grid portraits. i'll post the results if she's able to finish later.