The Color & Composition Final Project - in Triplicate

Continuing the belated Spring 2013 Fiber Arts Degree posts with the last of the Spring 2013 Color and Composition Class Posts:

Our final project for the Color and Composition class required visiting the same drawing 3 times with different mediums or effects.
For my picture-in-triplicate, I chose to use the shadow outline from my Drawing class.

Part I of the Triplicate Project: More fussy-cutting.
The first step of our Final project - we had to emulate the Color-Aid Adventure and clip un-patterned, colored sections from magazines, cut them to match the pieces in our picture and then glue the cut pieces over our picture.

I pulled out a variety of magazines and looked for pages with larger sections of solid colors.

I pulled pages I could use to generally emulate the color reality of the original photo I took of myself standing in my back yard squinting into the sun.

The fussy cutting ensued and a magazine collage was created. I tried not to get toooooo crazy in selecting a lot of colors because it would have an effect on Part II of the Triplicate Project.
{Again, sanity was retained during fussy-cutting due to the stellar efforts of Heather Ordover of the CraftLit Podcast and the excellent presentation of "Jane Eyre" read by Elizabeth Klett. Thank you, Ladies!!}

Part II of the Triplicate Project: Paint Mix-n-match.
As I understand it, the core colors used in magazine ads are the same as the paints we were instructed to purchase for the class.
The 2nd Part of the Triplicate Project was to mix paints to match the solid colors we'd clipped from the magazines and paint the drawing to match the magazine collage. If we matched 12 or more colors, we would earn an "A" for this part of the project.

{I added notes a la "Paint by Number" to this version of the drawing.}

So, the experience gained in creating the Grey Scales/Color Wheel earlier in the semester was applied to mixing and matching a lot of paint to quite a few magazine clippings. Kindly, our instructor reviewed our paint mixing efforts and would nudge us in the right direction. Her color sense/eye for color was like magic. Or more than one occasion I'd be reallllly close to a match but stumped and she would say "This needs a little yellow" or "Magenta" - where I didn't realize that color would be involved.

{wry grin} Fussy cutting paper suddenly seemed a lot easier than mixing paint to match over a dozen colors. Moreover, I realized the larger paint brushes from the supply list didn't do much to enhance my meager drawing/painting talent but then, the paint-by-numbers kits attempted as a child had never turned out particularly well for me. ;-)

Per my notes/clues from the instructor - there is
yellow and magenta in the "brick mortar" paint!?! 

I was a little off matching the shirt colors but I did earn an "A" on this part of the project. {Whew!}

Part III of the Triplicate Project: Originality/Composition {not so much original}.
The third part of the Triplicate Project was to recreate the drawing as an original composition; applying something we learned in class - transparency, light, texture/ pattern shading...
One of my favorite "revelations" of the Color and Composition class - the explanation of light at various times of the day:

• Dawn - Strong, diffused light. Bright with low contrast.
• Noon - Strong, directional light. High contrast in value, hue (to an extent), & intensity.
• Dusk - Low contrast in value, hue, & intensity. Dark and dull. 
• Moonlight - Dull, light colors (a lot of white in them).

I traced the now too-familiar squinty self-portratit onto an Illustration Board and started mixing paints.
My original intent was to utilize the above light explanation to change the colors/light/time of day in my picture to a Moonlight scene.
That intent devolved down to trying to add shading based on my introduction to shading from the drawing class.
The result - my "Creative" portion of the Triplicate project was a bit stunted and beyond my abilities.

The class review noted that the wall in this painting looks like it's about to topple - on top of me. {grin} I got a B+. {Happy dance!} Probably for the time/effort I put into it. {Certainly not for my painting talent.} {wry grin}
Ah, well. I did learn a lot. Mostly I learned that I have A LOT to learn about Color. And that I'd like to learn more.