Thursday, July 28, 2011

Color Study- Complementary Colors

While not part of the original color study exercise I did, I got inspired to do some other studies that would be helpful references to have on hand. This one has the basic 9 step value chart in black and white, and then 4 combinations of complements to get neutrals.


 The pairs I chose for this study were:

 Ultramarine (UB) and Transparent Oxide Red (TOR)
Permanent Mauve and Yellow Ochre
 Viridian and Permanenet Rose
 and Thalo Green and Alizarin

 I started with one of the pair right out of the tube at one end of the top row and the complementary color at the other end, then got a middle mixture ( middle column) and then skewed one version warmer and one cooler . Once I had the top line, I added white in rows below to get a couple of other values of each of the neutrals.

For example- the "T" on the upper left is
 Row 1 the 5 boxes are:   Pure Ultramarine, UB & TOR( skewed cooler) , the middle mixture of UB and TOR, a warmer mixture of the 2 and the pure Transparent  Oxide Red. Then I took the 3 mixtures and added white to each one to lighten in row 2 and then in the 3rd row added even more white for another lighter value of the same mixture. To get a range of temperatures and values of a neutral from each pair of complements.

 I repeated that same approach for the other 3 pairs of complements.


On the bottom of the page I tried 2 different combinations of red/ green. I learned that the Viridian was so weak in tinting power vs Permanent Rose it was hard to keep it greener( the pinker tones dominate). The Thalo Green/Alizarin combo on the right was easier to get colors that read more like true grays.


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2 comments:

  1. Linda NicklesJuly 29, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    Pat, you list "Permanent Mauve", but don't mention it in your results. This is a new color to me, is it Winsor Newton? Also, I've used Viridian/Alizarin combination for a nice gray, but hadn't tried Thao Green/Alizarin. Oh, so many options, right?

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  2. Pat FiorelloJuly 29, 2011 at 1:51 PM

    Permanent Mauve is a color I used as a complement to the Yellow Ochre, but is not one I did a full chart on. I had limited # of columns so used Magenta instead for my other charts. The Mauve is a little cooler, more towards purple. It can be seen on it's own in the "T" in the upper right side- the first box on the left is Perm. Mauve and the extreme right is Yellow Ochre and then in between are the mixes. Thalo /Aliz can get you a very dark, near black, transparent. Thalo Green has more tinting power than Viridian, so it is pretty potent. Give it a try.

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