Color Design

My class was given the task of creating an acrylic painting using 84 hues (primary, secondary, tertiary, three tints and shades of each). We first had to create value scales using one primary color and one secondary color. I chose red and green. The subject for my painting above is a landscape scene with a river, fields, and mountains. There are also some flowers and clouds in the sky. I used canvas paper, acrylic paint, paintbrushes, a palette knife and a palette. I also used palette paper.

Obviously the element that I had to focus on the most was color. However I really don't think I used it well. I was too focused on getting all the colors on the canvas so I really didn't use color for emphasis, unity, etc. But I do think since I had to use so many colors, I had a wider range of value. Especially on the lower half of the painting, and I think I was able to use it successfully enough to give form and shape to the mountains and grass. However I do wish that I used some darker hues in the sky, it almost looks like a different piece altogether. The composition of the painting is pretty basic, it's mostly stuff in the background. I put a piece of land in the foreground, along with some more rendered flowers to give the piece a little depth. The river is kind of placed awkwardly, I think it would've looked better if I "curved" it a little more. Not make the width too dramatic. I actually changed the composition a little while painting. I initially had no fields on the left side, just water. I thought it looked too one sided so I added some more land.

There really isn't a story behind this painting, I just thought of a cool landscape. It doesn't really relate to my life at all, but I was thinking a little bit of the Icelandic country side as I've always wanted to see it (I went to Iceland for a layover and I was only there for about three hours). I am most proud of the fact that I got through painting this. I've never painted anything this big and I'm happy that I had enough stamina to carry me through. I also thought that my painting technique had improved from my earlier acrylic paintings. That being said I really did struggle with getting this done. I worked on it for a long time and changed it up a bit. I think that if I were to revise this piece, then I would fix the parts where the land meets the river. Some of it looks like the land is on top of the water, especially on the right side. I'm positive it's due to the weird curving of the land. All in all I'm glad that this painting is (mostly) finished though.