The Study Of Color-What Every Artist Needs To Know

Image Source Wikimedia Commons

Public Domain & GNU Free Documentation License GFDL

Although we spent a great deal of time in Art School studying color in first year, I must admit I have forgotten probably half of what I learned, and now that I am back engaged in painting I find myself in "study" mode once again, in order to improve the quality of my paintings.

So here is a quick post on some resources that I have been introduced to lately that I think will help artists in general to build upon their knowledge of the subject and hopefully provide some useful resources that you can come back to and rely on now and in the future.

This first link is to a website called The Dimensions Of Colour by David Briggs that is probably the ultimate resource in understanding the technical nature of the principles of color in a comprehensive fact filled manner with outstanding color illustrations.

Index Of The Dimensions Of Colour with links

Part 1: Introduction Starting with Colours in Space.
Part 2: Basics of Light and Shade
Part 3: Some Basics of Colour Vision
Part 4: Additive Colour Mixing
Part 5: Subtractive Colour Mixing
Part 6: Colour Mixing with Paint
Part 7: Hue
Part 8: Lightness and Chroma
Part 9: Brightness and Saturation
Part10: Principles of Colour for Painters

The above information is very detailed and will take you some time to get through, if you want to start off with something a bit less detailed, visit the
Free Color Painting Lessons by Richard Robinson.

Below are some book titles on color theory you might be interested in.

Colour: A Handbook of the Theory of Colour by George Henry Hurst
Goethe's Theory of Colours by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Colour Dynamics Workbook Step by Step Guide to Water Colour Painting by Angela Lord
Theory of Colours by the MIT Press

If you find any other useful information on color theory, please comment and I will update this post, take a look at the link, and post it into this resource.

Terry Krysak is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Japanese Watercolor Woodcut Print-Free Ebook

Hirosige Utagawa 1797-1858

100 views of Edo, #35

Image Source Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

I wanted to write again about Japanese Watercolor Woodcut prints because it is one of my favorite forms of art, and it was a complicated process which involved a great deal of craftsmanship as well as artistic talent.

Japanese Prints are a wonderful artform that depicted life in Japan and made art more affordable to the average person. 

While reading about an American woodcut artist, I came across an ebook that was written by F. Morley Fletcher that describes in  great detail the whole process of how to create the watercolor woodcut print from start to finish. There are a number of examples of prints in the book as well as hand drawn illustrations of the many tools and methods that are used.

Although the book was created in 1916, it is well written and very concise with regards to the materials, and the processes the artist must go through in order to complete a series of satisfactory prints. 

You can read the contents of the entire ebook below or you can download the entire book for free from the Gutenberg Project location.

More of my posts about the Watercolor Woodcut
Ukiyo-e The Art of Japanese Woodcut Printmaking
W.J. Phillips Master Of The Watercolor Woodcut

Terry Krysak is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Wood Block Printing

Is YouTube An Artform?

Well guess what, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City thinks that it is, and you have until July 31, 2010 to submit your video for consideration for the museum's showcase of the most exceptional and creative video in the entire world.

It sounds very much like YouTube Play will consider any type of video either new, or created within the last two years and there does not appear to be any type of restriction on what the content of the video is, it is left up to the creative talents of film makers, animators, and pretty much anyone who has access to a video camera. Only one submission per person will be considered.

In YouTube's words, they are looking for something different, Not what's now, but what's next.
We all know how YouTube videos often go viral around the world, and here is your chance to let your creative juices flow, and perhaps make the cut for the top 25 videos that are chosen.

Walt Drohan-Artistic Genius And Brilliant Teacher

Sunderland AB-A DD862 Oil Painting

by Walt Drohan 1933-2007

Image Courtesy of Castle Archdale

This is another post in my series of My Favorite Artists, and the influence this artist had on my life.

At the start of my second year at the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) we moved into a brand new building which was an enormous improvement over our first year of taking classes in various locations and rooms on the SAIT campus including some that were held in very old quonset huts.

The high point of second year was that the head of the Ceramics department, Walt Drohan, was supervising the construction of a large kiln that he designed, and we were able to view the entire process from the ground up which was an experience that one would not normally have when taking a ceramics course.

Walt was a brilliant instructor who shared all of his knowledge, holding nothing back, and we always had full attendance in class when it was known that he would be teaching us at various times throughout the year. One of my fondest memories was when he gave us our first watercolor lesson. My original intent of going to art school was to be a watercolor artist, and I managed to convince him that watercolor and brush work to me was very important with respect to applying designs on pottery, and lucky for me he agreed.

Walt was born in Calgary in 1933 and became passionate about art at a young age, attending the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, and after completing this program he continued graduate studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Flint Michigan, returning to Canada in 1957.

His artistic career attracted numerous awards, including the Senior Canada Council Grant, many private commissions, and he exhibited his Ceramics and Paintings in a number of galleries across Canada. As a teacher he was very kind and thoughtful, and was able to impart knowledge in a way that was inspiring on one hand, and also acted as a catalyst to creative development on the other hand. Near the end of his teaching career he became the Dean of ACAD and left a strong, vibrant, creative college for future generations to come.

I just love the oil painting of the Sunderland shown above, and truly was not aware of his painting genius until hearing of his passing in 2007. My searching of the net for information on him informed me that he was an avid aviation buff, and that he also created numerous landscape paintings of the Alberta prairie environment.

Here is a list of some links that I have found that I hope will help you to appreciate his legacy and share with others the impact that he had on the history of Canadian artists.

Triangle Gallery-Walt Drohan Images.

Walt Drohan On Artnet

Walt Drohan On Hodgins Auctions

Contemporary Aboriginal Art

Salish Box

Artist Unknown

About a month ago I was visiting a friend in Birken, and he was given this gift from a mutual friend in Mount Currie. Our mutual friend Ken purchased the box as a gift from a native carver from the Mount Currie Band.

However he did not remember the name of the carver, which is a shame as it would be nice to give credit where credit is due.

The box appears to be made of pine, and I just love the intricate designs on the box and the masterful manner in which the designs are painted on the box.

The cover depicts a Thunderbird design and for me is the best part of the box which is a modern day representation of Salish Art.

Salish Art