Exercise 1.3: Revisiting the Color Circle
Exercise 1.3: Revisiting the Color Circle: The purpose of this exercise is to revisit color blending by creating a color chart with your prismacolor pencils OR using your watercolors, whichever you prefer. Why? It's a good color review for any student and a way to warm up and prepare.
Begin by drawing a large circle, like the one to the left, with boxes on your paper either from your sketchbook or a loose sheet. Color in your primary colors - Red, Blue and Yellow.
Try out all your different pencils or paints and blend your primary colors to create each mixture in its own box. Notice the wide variation you can create with your materials!
If you choose to create your charts in watercolor, you may find pages 43 - 47, and 76 - 77 of Botanical Illustration Course with the Eden Project to be a good color inspiration.
I want to encourage you to explore all the different variations of green. As the color in the middle of the color spectrum, we see an incredible diversity of greens in our plant world, and they lean from brownish green, to yellow-green, and those that seem nearly blue. Figuring out the right 'green' can be challenging , so please take time to develop your color sense in this range. Try repeating the colors to see if you can get the same mix for consistency.
Please take your time with this exercise. It is important to review all the different color variations you can achieve. Please do not leap ahead to the next exercise, since the time spent becoming familiar with your colored pencils is essential, not to be rushed. If you finish quickly, create more color charts. Create larger and smaller blocks of color, to see how that feels. Try to repeat earlier color mixes that you were satisfied with. Below are two charts showing the variation of colors from prismacolor pencils and markers. Please read pages 40-47. This reading focuses on the detail and importance of color.
