Virtual Art Academy® Color Painting Lessons


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What is included in the Color Building Block?

Color is what is excites me about painting, and color harmony is for me what makes a painting beautiful. This Building Block contains everything I have learned so far (I say that because I am still learning!). The information comes from a wide variety of sources. Some of the information comes from standard texts on color. Other information come from my years of study with the painter Ovanes Berberian who is a master of color harmony.
Some of the other information comes from my own research in this fascinating area (course unit 5) and various obscure books on color theory. You also need to study the course unit on color in the Observation Building Block in order to fully master this topic.
The Color Building Block consists of six course units (in pdf format) and a total of 162 pages:
Course Unit 1 - Key Concepts Course Unit 2 - Palettes & Basic Pigments Course Unit 3 - Grays Course Unit 4 - Color Harmonies Course Unit 5 - Poly-Isochromes & Spectrum Palettes Course Unit 6 - Advanced Color Strategies

Color Unit 1 - Key Concepts

Before you can understand color wheels, color theory and color harmonies, you need to understand basic concepts such as the three key characteristics of color: value, saturation, and hue. Hue is what most people think of when using the term ‘color’ such as: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. Value is the relative lightness or darkness of a color, as in a black and white photograph. Saturation is its degree of richness, intensity, purity, that is, whether it is a vivid hue or a more muted grey version of the hue.
In this course unit, you will learn:
the three key characteristics of color that are critical to understanding color harmony: hue, value, and saturation the concept of a color wheel the five major types of color wheel and when they are used what are complements and why they are critically important for creating interest in a painting the difference between the Triadic and Munsell color wheels and the advantages of using the Munsell color wheel the difference between the major tube colors in terms of hue, value and saturation how different pigments behave in terms of saturation changes when tinted and shaded three techniques for checking that two values are the same – an important skill for advanced color work how to use software to convert images to black and white and how to posterize images – useful techniques for helping you learn values

Color Unit 2 - Palettes & Basic Pigments

Beginners and more experienced artists alike do not always know how to arrange a palette. Indeed with so many choices of tube colors out there it can be very daunting. There are two key things you should do. First, organize your pigments systematically around the painting palette. A good system is to arrange the hues in a spectral order, such as from yellow around the color wheel to green.
Second, organize your mixing areas logically. Reserve areas on your painting palette for dark colors, light colors, and grays, then drag your colors into the mixing area. This organization helps you with your color harmony.
In this course unit, you will learn:
the differences between dark transparent stains, non-staining dark pigments, opaque pigments such as the Cadmiums and Cobalts, earth pigments, and neutral pigments, and when to use them transparent pigments that are good for modifying your paintings with glazes how to make warm and cool grays for a monochrome painting six palettes that will help you learn color theory more quickly the minimum number of colors you need for accurate color mixing two simple three-color palettes for traveling light and simplifying color mixing the limited painting palette used by old masters such as John Singer Sargent three complementary painting palettes to help you learn how to use complements to improve your color harmonies how to use a knowledge of pigment biases to mix vivid color best strategies for organizing your palette and mixing colors to get them to look more harmonious

Color Unit 3 - Grays

Many paintings you see in galleries will have vivid colors all over the canvas. However, to make a vivid, saturated color stand out you must place it against a background of low saturation, grayed colors. These low saturation colors will give life and excitement to the main color interest in your painting. This is one of the most important principles in color theory. In the painting of the boat, notice how the orange buoy stands out against the surrounding blue grays.
In this course unit, you will learn:
how to use a low saturation field to make your color interest more vibrant Godlove’s principle: which combinations of tints and shades look best together which value range is best for colorful grays four strategies for mixing grays four approaches for mixing browns how to mix dull versions of your primary colors why you should never throw away your leftover paint, and what to do with it how to use complementary contrast to further focus your color interest

Color Unit 4 - Color Harmonies

Look at any Old Master painting and you will see they have not used every color under the sun to create the painting. They made good use of color harmonies. A harmony is basically an orderly relationship of colors, just as a musical harmony is an orderly relationship of notes.
In this course you will learn all about the different types of color harmonies. Each harmony is described using a series of color charts together with an example of its use. I have described the five major types of color harmony, and a total of eighteen variations on these color harmonies for completeness. However, let me caution you not to rely on these charts to get color harmony in your work.
It's good to know about them when you are looking for problems. However there is no substitute for the approaches I describe for you in the course unit on how to observe color in the Observation Building Block - that is the only real way you will learn color harmony.
In this course unit, you will learn:
Balanced Color Harmonies Primary Harmony Adulterated Primary Harmony Secondary Harmony Tertiary Harmony Tetrad Harmony Complementary Color Harmonies Basic Complementary Harmony Split Complementary Harmony Double Split Complementary Harmony Analogous Color Harmonies Analogous (Narrow Range) Harmony Analogous (Wide Range) Harmony Shared Primary Harmony Hybrid Analogous and Complementary Color Harmonies Analogous with Complementary Accent (Narrow Range) Harmony Analogous with Complementary Accent (Wide Range) Harmony Shared Primary with Complementary Accent Harmony

Color Unit 5 - Poly-Isochromes & Spectrum Palettes

The previous course unit covers all the general theory on color that you can find in many books on color. However, color wheels tell only a part of the story of color harmonies. They only talk about hues, and not about saturation and value. To fully understand color harmony you need to understand how saturation and value as well as hue helps you create beautiful color harmonies. Much of the information in this unit is on the cutting edge of color theory and I don't claim to have all the answers (yet! - I'm working on it). However in my research I've come across some very interesting things that I'd like to share with you.
In this course unit, I will also introduce you to the color palette I mostly use: the full spectrum palette. This course unit is for advanced artists but beginners will also find the ideas interesting.
In this course unit, you will learn:
how to use Birren’s color triangle to understand how saturation and value are linked to color harmony the Ostwald and Munsell tone scales. Two methods for creating color charts that scale from pure hues to gray how to create a constant value scale – possibly the most beautiful scale of all three full spectrum palettes that you can use to create these color harmonies

Color Unit 6 - Advanced Color Strategies

In this course unit you will learn some advanced color strategies to make the color in your painting interesting. I also describe how to create certain special effects that are extremely useful in certain lighting situations and that can result in the most beautiful paintings. The painting below uses the technique of iridescence, a technique used a great by William Ritschel, a California Impressionist painter who lived in the early 20th century and painted the effects of light on the sea.
The source of the material in this course unit comes from some rather difficult to understand material by Faber Birren (1900-1988), which I have simplified, some interesting writings on color by the watercolor painter Jean Dobie, and from my own first hand study of William Ritschel's paintings.
I was fortunate enough to be able to study Ritschel's paintings first hand during the time I used to live near Carmel in California. At the time I was hanging my paintings in a gallery that sold the work of the California Impressionists and in this gallery you could occasionally buy one of his masterpieces when they came on the market. That is if you had a few hundred thousand dollars to spare!
In this course unit, you will learn:
beautiful effects of luster and iridescence and how to create them how to create color threads to maintain your viewer’s interest in your painting how to use complementary half tones to make your whites glow what to do when you need to reduce the emphasis on a part of your painting without a major re-design how to use color bridges to soften harsh transitions between shapes a technique you can use to create visual interest in otherwise smooth, flat backgrounds information on what colors people prefer and why how to create luminosity in paintings using transitional halftones to make your whites glow

What does it cost?

This course is equivalent to a two week specialist course of study with a professional artist that would cost around $3,000 including travel and lodging.

Many of my students have told me that this is the most thorough information they have found anywhere on the internet (read the emails that students have sent me over the past few years) so I will happily give you a 30-day Money Back Guarantee<.

Complete Set of Color Course Units
USD$90.00

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