Open Studio - Tuesday, Mar 02, 2010

I had lots of questions to ask Gay today. Did this quick watercolor doodle of her while I was waiting for her to work around to me.Gay has a certain "interestingness factor" that compels me to try to draw her. She is not...of Arkansas. I think that's what I find so interesting. Everybody else looks like a relative and it's like looking in a mirror. Boring. Been there, seen that. This is the third attempt and probably won't be the last.

She saw the doodle and I told her I was still trying to figure out what color her hair was. (I meant what paint color was appropriate to represent her hair.) She laughed a big laugh and said, "Oh! I'll have to ask Rebecca what color she uses!"

My burning question of the day dealt with color selection. Often I'll paint two complimentary colors on a sketch, then realize I need a third and have a dilemma. What's the appropriate color?

Gay launched into a discussion of color theory (I think she was thinking out loud, trying to remember the basics which no one had asked her about in eons), most of which I knew but didn't hold the answer I needed.

Rhon ra-rhon ra-rhon (Charlie Brown teacher voice; I had to smile) ra-rhon rhon rhon, split-complimentary.

What what what? Wait wait! Go back to that. What's split-complimentary????

Suck suck suck suck (<--me sucking knowledge from her brain.)

Tell me everything you ever knew, forgot, felt, thought, sensed, learned, or experienced about split-complimentary. Must. Have. More. Information.

Here are the notes from that discussion:



My thought at the time was, "Why haven't I heard about this before????" Have I just ignored it in my quest for knowledge or is this something that is rarely covered in art books and on-line tutorials? Hummm.... Must do more research.

So when I got home I looked up some stuff and decided to do a color wheel using the paints in my palette. My purpose in doing this was to find two or three "go-to" triads I can use when sketching so I won't have to do the brainwork time and time again.



I think the color painted in the Red-violet spot should go in the Violet spot. The paint color in the Blue-violet spot is Winsor Violet which I would think should go in the Violet spot. Now I'm just confused. If I can't get the paints I have situated correctly around the color wheel, I can't apply any color theory to them. I feel like I'm back where I started.

Sigh.