THEORY FOR THE ARTBOOK
QUICK REFERENCE SHEET
Color as a basic element of art
Color theory
Let’s recap what those terms mean.
Hue – refers to the color of the paint (red, yellow, blue, green).
Value – refers to the lightness or darkness of a hue. We can tint a hue by adding white, and thus making it lighter. Or we can shade a hue by adding black to make it darker.
Intensity – also known as chroma, is the level of intensity of the hue. A color is at full Intensity when it’s a pure color, straight from the tube. A color’s intensity can be changed by adding gray to it
Task 1 Value scale worksheet
Supplies: Gouache/acrylic paper, magenta cyan and yellow acrylic/gouache colors, black marker,brush, egg shelf (mix the colors), plastic glass (water)
Step by step:
1.Creating the Scale
The first thing you need to do is draw out your grid for your value scale. You have to use a ruler .
The overall size is about XXX long and about an XXXX wide. You can make yours bigger or smaller if you’d like. The size of your grid isn’t important.
Your grid must have 6 boxes in it. Again, you could have more . The number of boxes in your value scale will determine how many different values you will need to mix up and paint.
Getting Set Up to Paint
Before you begin painting, you’ll want to get yourself all set up. Get a fresh container of water. You’ll need a clean paintbrush. And of course, your acrylic paint. Don’t forget to have a paper towel or something to wipe your brush on as well
Mixing Color Values
We will begin by painting a magenta color value scale using acrylic paint. If you made six boxes, fill the fourth box with pure red.
Try to fill your box in as evenly as possible. You want your paint to be smooth, and uniform. This exercise is also a good way to get familiar with your paint and how painting with it feels.
Next we are going to work on tinting the red. Start by mixing a little bit of white in with your magenta paint.
Since there are two boxes to the right of your pure magenta hue, you will need to make two different tints for your magenta.
Mix your first tint with a little bit of white. And for your second tint, add a little more white.
Mixing Shades of Red
After you have filled up the boxes to the right of your pure red hue, begin working working on your shades of magenta.
Be sure to clean out your brush really well. We don’t want white mixing in with the black. If the white does mix in with the black it will change the intensity of your color. We will be saving that exercise for the next painting.
Remember earlier we said black is added to a hue to create the shades for that color. Start by filling in the box to the far left of your color with pure black.
Next, mix a small amount of black in with your red and fill in the box directly to the left of your pure red.
For the final box, add a little more black to your red and fill it in.
You should have a color value scale that gradually goes from pure black to a light red.
You probably don’t want to hear this, but you should do the same exercise for both yellow and blue. This color value scale exercise not only gives you a visual to see what the colors values will look like, but it also gives you some initial practice working with the paint.
Task 2: Silhouette on colorful gradation
Supplies: A4 Gouache/acrylic paper, magenta cyan and yellow acrylic/gouache colors, black marker,brush, egg shelf (mix the colors), plastic glass (water)
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STEP 2:
STEP 3:
