Class taught by Annette Warkentin on 10/26/07

Link to gallery:
http://orientalstampart.com/v-web/gallery/ColorClass

Expected outcomes: Participants will learn color terminology and be able to differentiate between shades and tints; use colors with black and white to create gradations of shades and tints; understand color families and their relationships and have fun doing it.

Terminology: These terms are broad and by no means finite.

Color and hue basically mean the same thing. Red is a color; red is a hue.

A shade is black added to a color.

A tint is color added to white.

Gradation of a color refers to the progression from light to dark or from dark to light.

Primary colors:
Red, Yellow, Blue

Secondary colors:
Green (made by mixing yellow and blue)
Orange (made by mixing yellow and red)
Purple (made by mixing blue and red)

Analogous:
A color scheme that uses 2-3 related colors that lie next to each other on the color wheel.

Monochromatic:
A color scheme that uses several different shades or tints of one color.

Complementary:
A color scheme that uses colors directly opposite or nearly opposite on the color wheel.

Materials List:

Optional: Home Depot/Wal*Mart/Lowe’s~~~6-8 different free cardboard color swatches/samples from your paint store or paint department or home improvement stores. Choose samples in a variety of colors that have 4-8 shades and tints. Shades are darker than tints while pastels are an excellent sample of tints.
Pick up samples that appeal to you.

1) Waterbased paints: black, white and at least one color. Acrylics, Lumieres, poster paint, tempera or anything you have on hand. House paint will work as long as it is water based. Try to avoid Plaid brand if you can. Their performance is inferior compared to other acrylics.

1) Newspapers to cover your work surface, masking tape to tape the newspaper in place

2) A shallow bowl of water so it won’t tip over

3) A sable paintbrush or facsimile or a watercolor brush

4) 20 or more pieces of old black and white Newspaper cut into approximately 5” x 8” pieces. You can use cardstock bits, but we’ll practice on free newspaper first.

5) Newspapers spread out like a week’s wet wash so you can set aside your practice pieces to dry while you paint more papers.

6) 2 or more paper or plastic plates as your palette. Cut a thumb opening if you wish so your thumb fits through the opening to the front and your 4 fingers are on the back of the plate.

7) Pencil or pen, felt marker or any writing implement

Before you begin:
Choose a color swatch to copy or use your imagination. My example uses a Christmas red with black and white. You may choose any color, but be sure to use black and white, too.

Step 1
Squeeze out 1 dollop each of white and 1 color of paint.
Place the white paint in the center of the plate and the color near the edge. 2.5 cm or 1” dollops of white paint and a smaller circle of color are good sizes to start. You can always add more paint later.

Step 2
Mix your color with white to make different tints. Always begin with white when making tints or you will have gallons of tint when you are finished.

Add a bit of color at a time to create several tints. Paint swatches large enough so you can punch them out later or stamp on them.

Continue adding more and more color to each tint you create until you have 5-6 tints from light to dark. You may have to add more white paint to your paper plate, but continue playing with the color until you have 5-6 tints.

Christmas Cranberry is the color I added to white to create these tints. As you can see, the tints become darker moving left to right as more and more color is added to the white.

Set these aside to dry.

Step 3
Use a new paper plate and place a dollop, a small dollop, of black paint at the top of the plate.

Add a 1” (2.5 cm) dollop of color paint in the center of the plate.

Mix a small amount of black paint into the color you chose. Paint a swatch. Add more black to the dollop; paint a swatch. Continue until you have 5-6 swatches of shades.

Christmas Cranberry is the top left. The scans doesn’t show the darkening shades very well, but with more and more black added to the red, the shades become darker.

When creating shades, always begin with the color and add black. Never start with black or it will take gallons of paint to soften the black.

Set aside your shades to dry.

Step 4
Once your tints and shades are dry, stamp them with your favorite images, punch shapes from them, arrange the swatches on a piece of cardstock or let your imagination take over. Then scan and load to the album in our gallery.

Step 5
Here are some challenges if you would like to do more with this lesson. Use the vocabulary list at the top of the lesson as a reference.

I have also loaded some scans of color schemes in OSACLASSES’ Photos. The album is labeled “COLORS”.

Challenge 1: make a monochromatic color scheme
Challenge 2: make an analogous color scheme
Challenge 3: make a complementary color scheme
Challenge 4: create 3-5 colors and tints and use them on a card.
Challenge 5: You name it.

Thank you for coming to class.

Annette “:O)