Now just a Splash of Color!

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 Color. Even when I grabbed that chalk I was scared of it. Grayscale has been my comfort zone, & specialty throughout my artistic experiences. My high school role model was M.C. Escher and his black & white illusions. Even now in the last several months from when I first grabbed that chalk, finding storyboards being mostly grayscale with just 3-4 values. I looked at it as an opportunity to stay within my little realm of knowledge. This was the holidays and got me thinking about how artists survive income-wise thinking how they get the most of their commissions because my amateur skills can’t come [pete with a hyper-realistic 8+ hour pencil drawing for only $15. Searching through gigs and coming up with options it dawned on me. Color is where that money is, and rightfully so I found out during this time of studies, as it requires another set of skills I have yet to embark on.


    So back to the masters and wouldn't know it, my main mentor was to the rescue with an introduction to watercolors. Feels like grade school when it was first forced on us, and I can't stand fingerpaint so why not start with this fundamental way of mixing and understanding color? Aaron Blaise taught me that after all those fundamentals I have learned there is a whole other set of skills and knowledge for each medium you want to branch off from and explore. This was the next step into illustration after all. The things I should have paid attention to most in the art classes I was thrown into college-level courses and found myself learning about different washes, brushes, and how materials matter when it comes to quality.


    Thinking back to those character design courses, they were the first time any of the mentors I have chosen even began talking about color. Marc Brunet deserves a shoutout for having a few great videos covering color theory, fundamentals, finding value to shade, and highlighting color. HE has very interesting color harmonies that have served him and his students very well.


    Back to watercolors, and I must say I feel it is the most forgiving of the fine art mediums as most of the time using water control through brushes and paper towns can undo or push you into a happy accident. For sure it makes you see and think of big shapes. It also makes you view the abstract of a scene and break it down into values and shadow shapes.


    If anything, knowing watercolor is one of the quicker mediums, teaches patience. Waiting to dry before applying the next value shapes was a great experience in finally showing myself down for months. I insist on doing everything as fast as I can if there is no time to waste and all out of good intentions of maximizing the effectiveness of learning. Not taking things slow just as in life makes you miss details, inner lessons, and even the bigger picture. I was able to work on stroke confidence without the ghost tracing, and forced commitment as the color was gonna go where the water wants it to go.


    The key takeaways I had during this lesson were

-contrast through complementary colors

-Use color harmonies to keep illustrations easily readable, attractive, and uniform.

-Before even starting, get the colors and values already mixed up in the wells ready to go.


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