Color Strategies (Online Course) Summer 2024 w/ Catherine Bobkoski
June 3 to July 22 (Mondays), 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM, Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite.
DEMO: https://youtu.be/XIc6OSj2CAI
Course Description
Color is the most sensual and emotionally appealing aspect of painting – and it is also one of the most deceptively tricky factors the painter has to contend with. How do you achieve beautiful color harmony? How do you create a sense of mood? How do you capture a believable depiction of light?
In this class, we will explore all of these questions and more. Beginning with an overview of basic color theory, students will learn how to use color as an aspect of visual language – a tool to communicate ideas and emotional content.
Each week will explore different aspects of color (value, hue, saturation, and temperature) and different ways of designing a limited palette around core color wheel relationships (complementary colors, primary colors, and secondary colors.)
By developing many color and value studies using different strategies throughout the class, students will learn to carefully select colors to create effective and interesting limited palettes. Students will expand their knowledge by exploring different subjects as well as color choices. Learn to use color expressively and harmoniously, free yourself from the need to copy and match colors exactly! This is a great class for painters of all experience levels.
Course Outline
Week 1:
Introduction: overview of the class, schedule, and materials.
Discussion: Understanding and using value as an aspect of color.
Demonstration and exercise: painting in monochrome and controlling contrast.
Week 2:
Critique and review of concepts from last week.
Discussion: Understanding temperature and complementary colors (part 1).
Demonstration and exercise: translating monochrome studies to color using a two-color palette.
Week 3:
Critique.
Discussion: Understanding temperature and complementary colors (part 2).
Demonstration and exercise: translating monochrome studies to color using a complementary color palette.
Week 4:
Critique.
Discussion: understanding primary colors and triadic palettes.
Demonstration and exercise: painting with triadic palettes (part 1).
Week 5:
Critique.
Discussion: understanding primary colors and triadic palettes (part 2).
Demonstration and exercise: painting with triadic palettes (part 2).
Week 6:
Critique.
Discussion: the split primary palettes, or warm/cool primary palette.
Demonstration and exercise: painting with a warm/cool primary palette.
Week 7:
Critique.
Discussion: the secondary palette.
Demonstration and exercise: painting with a secondary color palette.
Week 8:
Critique.
Discussion: Choosing a limited color palette based on observation.
Demonstration and exercise: observational color studies with a limited palette.
Course Materials List
Oil paints:
Titanium white (Rembrandt, Winsor & Newton, etc. - required)
Permanent Red Medium (Rembrandt - required)
Pyrrole Red Transparent (Holbein)
Permanent Rose (Winsor & Newton - required)
Yellow Ochre Pale (Winsor & Newton - required)
Cadmium Yellow Light (Winsor & Newton - required)
Cadmium Yellow Deep (Rembrandt - required)
Indian Yellow (Gamblin)
Cadmium orange (Rembrandt, Winsor & Newton, etc. - required)
Ultramarine Blue (Rembrandt - required)
Cerulean Blue (M. Graham - required)
Dioxazine purple (M. Graham, Gamblin - required)
Ivory Black (Rembrandt - required)
Burnt Umber (Winsor & Newton, M. Graham - required)
Raw Umber (Winsor & Newton, M. Graham - required)
Burnt Sienna (Winsor & Newton, M. Graham - required)
Transparent Red Oxide (Holbein, Rembrandt)
Viridian Green (Rembrandt - required)
Paint brushes:
Flats or long flats (Da Vinci, Rosemary, Princeton - required)
Filberts (Da Vinci, Rosemary, Princeton - required)
Solvents and mediums:
Safflower oil (for cleaning) (Gamblin, Rublev - option 1)
Gamsol (for cleaning) (Gamblin - option 2)
Cold pressed linseed oil (Chelsea Classical Studio)
Stand Oil (Gamblin, Rublev)
Lavender spike oil (Chelsea Classical Studio)
Gel medium (Gamblin, Rublev)
Palette:
Glass, wood, or paper (New Wave, Masterson - required)
Painting tools:
Palette knife (Holbein - required)
Paper towels (Viva - required)
Supports:
Oil Painting Paper (Rembrandt, Arches, Legion - required)