As each chapter presents its own specific color theory & application, let's break down the assignments on a per-chapter basis.

Note: Find artwork from this class in the attached files. These may be used as reference for your assignments as well.

Chapter 1 Assignment:
Pick a complementary palette, using any 2 colors opposite each other on the color wheel. Feel free to use the color wheel provided with this class as reference. Then grab the 'Temple Line Art.png' file provided and apply the same lighting as I did in the demo. Try to hit the light areas with mostly your warm color, and the shadows with mostly your cool color. Start with each color being relatively neutral (i.e. in the range of grays), and build out toward saturation - away from gray - as you work. This will give you a sense for how color 'moves' through the color wheel. It's limited to just two colors here, of course, but we will add to this in later assignments.

Chapter 2 Assignments:

1) Swatch Study
Find a photograph with clear lighting (you may use the 'LightShadow_Photoref.jpg' file provided) and sample the colors both in light and in shadow, placing little swatches of them into an organized table, as seen in the first half of Chapter 2. This is your visual guide to the color relationships that are happening in that particular lighting situation. Get a sense for how the same material (eg. the white stone of the bridge) appears when it's lit by the 'bully' sunlight vs. when it's lit by softer ambient light in the shadows. Using the sample tool, quickly sample back and forth between the light and shadow families, taking note of how the hue wheel is moving, as well as how the grays are affected inside of those movements.

2) Photo Studies
Using the palette studies as a base, now try to do a quick, small study of the photo. Try not to sample from either the photo or your palette study; simply use it as a visual aid as you now pick and mix your own colors. Test your knowlege and visual memory by seeing if you can remember the hue/saturation relationships you just analyzed in Chapter 2's first assignment! Try both a warm-light scenario (eg. sunlight) and a cool-light scenario (eg. overcast sky.)

Chapter 3 Assignments:

1) Create your own color-movement chart
The first section of Chapter 3 involves 4 rows representing a possible color movement from warm->cool. It is helpful to recreate this chart yourself as a way to get a feel for the movement of color temperature. You can then use it as reminder/reference in your future paintings!

2) Advanced Swatch Study
Now load up a painting you like and see if you can determine which type of color movement (or combination of movements!) the artwork employs. Usually it will combine charts. For example, chart #4 shows both a hue shift and saturation shift as it moves from warm->cool. Start by plotting the extremes of saturated color on your chart, then see if you can sample colors and fill in the middle.
Tip: I like to do this in a section of blank canvas underneath the actual painting.

3) Applied Color Temperature
Pick a simple subject, and contrive a lighting scenario that features that subject hit by both sunlight and the resulting shadow. I recommend picking an overall local color for the character (eg. my green monster) so that you can practice moving just a singular hue through the spectrum.
Tip: Remember that bounced light in the shadows will create all kinds of subtle temperature changes, but still an overall temperature change from sunlight to shadow should be evident!

Chapter 4 Assignments:

1) Sample materials' colors
Load up a photograph of various materials: grass, wood, metal, rust, etc. Sample its various colors and make a strip of color swatches that reveal the sheer variety that inevitably exists in any 'single color' in nature. The goal here is to get a sense for how much you can move color around while still maintaining the overall appearance of a singular 'local' color!

2) Photo Study
Find a photograph whose subject has some strong local colors in it, as well as a variety of physical materials. Do a study from that photo using some of the models of color vibration shown in the lesson.
Tip: If painting a saturated material, try starting desaturated, and building up as you go. This is often a great way of making a highly-saturated color feel 'connected' to the rest of the palette!

Chapter 5 Assignments:

1) Palette Identification
Choose some artwork you like, and see if you can determine whether or not the artist used a limited selection of hues to achieve its color. Many paintings use limited palettes, and being able to identify some of their varieties just by eye is a big skill in and of itself. Feel free to sample from the paintings to see where its actual colors lie. Try locating a complementary palette, a split-complementary palette, an analagous palette, a triadic palette, and more.
Tip: Not all paintings use a limited palette, and not all paintings adhere cleanly to one single palette, so be sure to allow room for deviation!

2) Master Study
Pick a painting you like that uses a limited palette and do a "color key" study of it. Color keys are very small versions of the painting, often painting without detail. This allows you to focus on the color use itself. Remember that within any given hue, you are able to access all its levels of gray/saturation. As well as the full value range.
Tip: I like to keep my color-key canvases around 600 pixels in its longest dimension.

3) Applying a limited palette to your own piece

Pick a limited palette that appeals to you, and try applying it to your own art! One great way to do this is pick a painting you've already done, and now re-paint it with this new palette. It will provide many insights as to how the mood is affected by color. Another great idea is to take that color key and re-key it using the same palette, but different hierarchies pertaining to which colors get most vs least saturated.
Tip: Try filling the canvas with your most saturated color first, as this can often affect how every other color is perceived in context.

Chapter 6 Assignment:

Chapter 6 is actually its own presentation of assignments. Please feel free to replicate each exercise as shown in this chapter!

Eric Lee

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