Love and Hate Relationships

I love strong reds playing against strong purples.  I do not love strong reds playing against strong greens.

Cross Complements with a bit of adjustment

Playing The Color Scheme Game forces me out of my comfort zone.  I groan every time I throw the die and it indicates any sort of Red and Green combination.  This morning I threw a Cross Complements Color Scheme with red as one of my colors.  That gave me Red, Green, Orange-Yellow and Blue-Violet.  I took the liberty of neutralizing my green, turning it into more of an olive green.  My original attempt was more of a yellow-green.  It was so brilliant and strong that it detracted from the strength of the red against purple relationship.  The olive works much better.  The yellow-green was also too light a value for the shapes and forms.

Sketchbook drawings: Garlic Bulb and Empty Anchovies Tin, drawn first with fountain pen filled with Noodler’s Whaleman’s Sepia ( I like this ink a lot ), followed by watercolor washes.

Color Scheme: Cross Complements (Limited Palette of Red, Green, Yellow-Orange and Blue-Violet)

 

Trumpet Parts No. 94, Cross Complementary Color Scheme

Trumpet Parts No. 94.  Cross Complementary Color Scheme.

Trumpet Parts No. 94

The cross complements are Violet, Yellow, Blue / Green and Red / Orange.  Drawn first with fountain pen filled with brown ink (Chocolate) followed by watercolor.  I returned to drawing in one of my unfinished, larger sketchbooks with thin paper.  I’ve been spoiled working in the sketchbooks with watercolor paper that doesn’t wrinkle when paint is applied.  Playing The Color Scheme game has liberated my mind when it comes to shadow colors!

I couldn’t resist including the young hollyhocks outside my window.

To view previous Trumpet Parts Series of 100 paintings and drawings visit my Chris Carter Artist Facebook Page.

 

Cross Complementary Color Scheme, Trumpet Parts No. 67

Trumpet Parts No. 67 – Cross Complementary Color Scheme (Purple and Yellow, Red/Orange and Blue/Green)

Trumpet Parts No. 67, Ink and Watercolor

A little too heavy-handed with the red/orange.  The cross complementary color scheme is not my favorite, but it presents the opportunity for colors to really dance together in a push and pull manner.  I’ve said before that I should stop doing these studies on thin paper.  Maybe, just maybe, I listen to myself this time and save this lousy sketchbook for only ink and pencil sketches.

Sketchbook painting: drawn first, loosely, with fountain pen filled with Sailor Jentle Epinard (dark green) ink, followed by watercolor.

 

Mix and Match, Trumpet Parts No.53

When values and or colors aren’t working, adjustments need to be made.  Sometimes the adjustments make matters worse and provide the opportunity to experiment further.

Multiple variations of color in center holes

At one point, the center holes were vivid red and I loved them.  Unfortunately nothing else was working.  I thought that the problem lay in the holes so I kept altering them until they were dark and lifeless (top left).  I resorted to painting swatches of yellow, yellow/green, and two variations of red on a piece of paper, cutting them out and trying out variations of combinations. The one that works the best for me is the top right.

Sketch: Drawn first with fountain pen filled with black ink, followed by too many layers of watercolor, followed by paper cut-outs taped to the sketch in different combinations.

Color Scheme Game throw of the twelve-sided die:  First Throw: 4 = Cross Complements Color Scheme.  Second Throw: 3 = Dominant Color Green (additional colors are Red, Yellow/Orange and Blue/Violet)