Session 9 Colour Accuracy Study

I found this exercise especially valuable. Colour is something I lack confidence in, I was unfortunate never to experience the basic colour tuition, not at school or during my art foundation course; it was over twenty years ago, but still one would expect to be given this basic understanding. So for me, this is a very simple solution to a very trying problem, which colours will I use for any illustration I have created. Even if I do not end up using them, it is a useful starting point. We often see colours and combinations of colours that we find particularly appealing, why not use them in our own practice? Why not indeed!

That said, I found this bag, belonging to a classmate, especially visually exciting. A kitsch, vintage, bright, lively juxtaposition of colour balanced with just enough tapering black outline and subtle use of white space, I think it a successful design. The practice of actually accurately matching the colours was surprisingly difficult at first, but it really made me study and consider how the colours were to be achieved.  Then as I continued I found it easier as I knew what I was looking at and for. 

The next thing was to apply this selection of colours to an actual drawing. It was suggested that we draw the studio at college, considering and including a sense of perspective. However I missed this session and so drew my studio space at home. It was a challenging drawing due to the angles of the rafters and bricks and the sweeping lines of the vintage and antique furniture. I am pleased with the end result, though a little inaccurate, it still succeeds in its sense of depth and distance. I didn't wan to dwell too long on correcting these issues, as the application of colour was the main objective.

I decided to colour it digitally using Photoshop. For a few reasons, I need the practice with Photoshop and to match the colours from my initial study exactly. I also thought it would be interesting to enhance the kitsch style using flat colour as in the design of the bag. I am decidedly satisfied with the outcome. Something I considered was the placing of colours next to one and other, for this I looked at how they had been placed together in the bag's design. I will certainly be using this method for colour decisions in my future projects. I feel happy to have discovered this relatively straightforward technique. I have placed a second copy of the colour study below to view beside the final illustration.