Stephen Quiller Workshop day 2

To begin day 2, Steve briefly highlighted day 1 color theory before launching into a discussion of color family [see his books “Color Choices” and “Painter’s Guide to Color” for details].  A limited palette, such as he employed in both of the examples below, helps emphasize a mood.  In both studies, “neighbor” colors were used to create mood, in some cases they were neutralized or grayed down by using their compliment.

It’s amazing to see Steve sketch up these quick studies carefully constructed to showcase the particular point he is driving home.  He keeps up a steady monologue about the colors he’s chosen, why he’s putting what where, composition choices, etc.  He uses humor at the least expected moments to keep everything fun.  Note – there is no “black” pigment on the Quiller palette.  Like many other artists, Steve uses complements to mix lively blacks and neutrals.  The wonderful darks that can be created using phthalo blue and it’s compliment are evident in the dock study. 

Next step – a double analogous study [see Painter’s Guide to Color].  In short, double analogous simply means 3 neighbor colors PLUS their compliments are used and are visible in the painting.  In the examples above the compliment color was used only to move the colors towards neutral but always played an invisible role.  Just for laughs and chuckles I’m including Steve’s effort [done with an annoying audience] below that mine “paint along”… 

  To capture the point of this exercise [which I think I missed at the time] Steve allowed each of the 6 colors to “live” in the study.  If you zoom in to his you can see yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, red-violet, violet, violet blue ALL visible.  However, he was careful to consider dominance in color temperature…  his has a dominance of cool, dull tones and a few notes of pure yellow that sing by comparison.  Beautiful…  by comparison my little study has roughly equal area of cool colors and the yellow is popping out all over.  So, plenty to chew on for me…  and enough for today.  Day 2, part b tomorrow!

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