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In my workshop “A Simple Approach to Dynamic Color” students learn to identify color and use that information to mix any color they desire.  I have them test out this method by giving them an assortment of objects that they match by mixing their pastels or paints.  Students discover they can easily match leaves, fabric, and other materials but this weekend I added a piece of aluminum foil and the class was stumped. The question they asked was, “How do we mix this when it constantly changes in color?”

That was the point exactly.

We run into the same trouble with color that we do with drawing, in that we resort to what we think a color should be rather than really looking and using visual language to create paintings.  We have difficulty with drawing when we use symbols to describe an object.  We have this same problem when we describe parts of our paintings using only the local color. 

The art of seeing color is learning to read the nuances and what affects them.

Learning to read color is similar to blind contour drawing.  A common exercise used to teach blind contour is drawing your hand while not looking at the paper.  To do this you record the direction that your eyes move.  Rather than drawing “hand”, “finger nail” or any other noun you simply say, “Start, move up to the left, high point , turn slightly to the right, down.”   This directional conversation allows the hand with the pencil to follow the eye like a seismograph follows the movement of an earthquake.  If you trust this process a surprisingly good drawing will appear. This is what I refer to as “reading” the shape.

We can also read color.

The photo below shows examples of lemons painted two different ways.  The top one was painted by coloring in the shapes with the local color such as, “yellow lemon,” and “red tablecloth.” These are nouns that have color symbols attached to them. The bottom lemon was painted by identifying the pattern of light and shadow on the forms then assigning colors to those values.  The feeling of dimension and light are enhanced by reading all the subtle color changes.  When an artist is describing the process of reading the colors the conversation sounds like this:

Lightest light- highlight – violet with a bias towards blue with yellow orange of same value along the right edge.

Light - yellow with a bias towards red- as form rounds away from the light, it becomes ½ step darker with stronger red influence.  Red becomes violet at transition into shadow value.

Shadow- 2 steps darker value greenish with a bias towards blue at the core then becoming ½ step lighter with green with a bias towards yellow.

The conversation continues until the subject is completely described with all the nuances and how they relate to the color values surrounding them.

In conclusion, learning to read color is the heart of the painting process.  Try painting a piece of aluminum foil to test this out.