All Thumbs!

All Thumbs!
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Graphite on Paper, 9" x 11"
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When I was in school I used to doodle in my books. A lot of the time it was "thumbnail sketches," quick scribbles I made of my thumb. I liked the visual pun, I liked the escape of drawing in class, and I liked that I could erase the pencil sketch quickly before I was caught.

No longer - now I fill the pages of my sketchbooks with studies of hands, feet and anything else I am interested in observing.
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Linoblock Print: Pincherries 1

Linoblock Print: Pincherries - 1 - Planning

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Digital drawing, 800px x 532px
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Relief printing from a linoleum block is a technique that can be as simple or as complex as you choose to make it. I have a drawing of pincherry blossoms that I want to print in three colors - yellow, green and blue. I can print this from a series of three linoblocks, one for each color, or I can print it as a reduction print, cutting the same block down each time I change colors. The multi-block technique gives me additional colors, while the reduction print on one block is easier to register each time it goes to the press. I'm still trying to decide.

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Color Layers

Color Layers

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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Colors put on separate layers in a digital drawing can be "mixed" differently, depending on the order in which the layers are stacked. When the colors are completely opaque, the one on top masks the one beneath, and so on to the bottom of the stack. When the opacity of the colors is adjusted, an artist can control the blending of the colors.

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Split Complementary Color Scheme - Tertiaries

Split Complementary Color Scheme - Tertiary Colors

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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In nature, colors tend toward less intense and less saturated and away from stark primary and secondary colors. Nevertheless, when you find a natural scene that attracts your eye, you are likely to spot color harmonies within the dull and near-neutral colors.
In this image reddish-brown colors contrast with yellow-greens and dull middle and dark greens, demonstrating a split-complementary relationship.

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Split Complementary Color Scheme - Yellow

Split Complementary Color Scheme - Yellow

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Digital drawing 800 px x 600 px
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The colors in this image aren't fully saturated, which gives a gentle and peaceful sensation to the design.
The base color of this triad is yellow and it shows full contrast with the blue-violet and red-violet split complementaries. However, since the overall effect is high key or very light in tone, the line drawing is necessary to separate the flower from its background.
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Split-Complementary Color Scheme - Blue

Split-Complementary Color Scheme - Based on Blue

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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In this design, the base color is blue, and the split-complementary colors are red-orange and yellow-orange. There is good contrast because these colors are fully saturated, and the effect is bold but more pleasing visually than a blue-orange contrast would be.
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Split-Complementary Color Scheme

Split-Complementary Color Scheme

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Complementary colors sit opposite to each other on the color wheel. To reduce visual tension while maintaining a good contrast in the design, artists can use the two colors adjacent to the complement of the base color. This is called the split-complement. In this design, the primary color red is the base color, and the split-complementary colors are yellow-green and blue-green.
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Green

Monochrome Color Scheme - Green

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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The human eye can detect more tints and shades of green than any other color. I guess this is because we evolved in the trees needing to identify food plants and plants for other uses.

In this drawing, I used dark and middle dark shades of green, a saturated green and a pale green, plus a black line drawing to pull the design together.
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600 px
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This is the final version of the monochrome image, with the four layers for pale pink, rose, saturated red and brown opened on top of each other. The black layer that you saw earlier is hidden.

All these colors are based on a hue (color) of red, with variations on their saturation (intensity) and their value (lightness or darkness.)
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 2 - The Brown Layer]

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 2 - The Brown Layer]
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Digital Drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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I am working through the various color levels in this image, and placing each color on a separate layer. This makes it easier for me to see the effect of each color on the entire drawing, and yet make corrections, if I find it necessary.

This layer shows the brown tone in this design. Of its hue, saturation and value, the hue is red, the saturation is full, and the intensity is about half that of a brilliant red. That is the only difference between the colors brown and red, they're the same, but brown is darker.

Still more to come!

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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 1 - The Black Layer]

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 1 - The Black Layer]

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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My working method for these digital drawings is to use layers to separate the colors I am using. I am finding that each layer has its own charm and individual beauty beyond its contribution to the finished drawing.

Although the basic hue in this monochrome image is Red, my starting point is usually a drawing in black to establish fundamentals of value and contrast, and to place the various shapes and areas of tone. So, from my work-in-progress, here is the black component.

There's more to come!
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Yellow

Monochrome Color Scheme - Yellow
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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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Monochrome means one color, and this monochrome color scheme is based on the single hue of yellow.
Other characteristics of color are saturation and value. There is only one saturated yellow in this design, all the other yellow tints and yellow shades are based on this one hue.

The background is a neutral gray, to provide contrast against the yellows.
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Analogous Colors: Violets

Analogous Colors: Violets

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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Violet is a mixture of red and blue. Analogous relationships based on violet hues include red-violet, violet, blue-violet and blue. Combinations of tones of violets give a cool quiet sensation in a design.

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Analogous Colors: Oranges

Analogous Colors: Oranges
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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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The relationship between these analogous colors is with the hue orange, a secondary color made up of the primary colors red and yellow. These are all warm colors as well, and the red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, and yellow shine against a flat black background.
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Analogous Colors: Blues

Analogous Colors: Blues
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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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Analogous colors are related, they share a common hue, and they can be found next to each other on the color wheel. This abstract landscape drawing is made up of yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, and blue-violet. All these colors contain a proportion of blue, and because of this relationship, they remain harmonious when they are used together.
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Color Triads: Red-Orange, Red-Green, Yellow-Green

Color Triads: Red-Orange, Red-Green, Yellow-Green

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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A tertiary triad is made up of three colors which are each mixed from a primary color and a secondary color. The use of tertiary colors in a design gives a subtle effect and provides backgrounds that contrast strongly with saturated primary and secondary colors.
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Color Triads - Orange, Green, Violet

Color Triads - Orange, Green, Violet

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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The color scheme of a secondary triad is made up of the three secondary colors, orange, green and violet. This combination gives an energetic feeling to a composition, but the impact of the colors is not as intense as from a display of the primary colors.

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Color Triads - Red, Yellow, Blue

Color Triads - Red, Yellow, Blue
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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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Most of the emotional impact of a design comes from the artist's choice of colors, sometimes called the color scheme. Many color schemes are based on three colors, called triads. The triad of red, yellow and blue is called the primary triad, because it is composed only of primary colors and it gives the sensation of being bold and lively.
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Cool Colors

Cool Colors

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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For the month of June, I am concentrating on drawing using a digital tablet and stylus. There is some eye-hand co-ordination involved in this, and developing different methods, but in the end, drawing is still drawing and making-images is still making-images. I know there will be a lot of experimentation here, so we're in for some interesting sailing.

This image demonstrates a cool color scheme, using green, blue-green, blue, and blue-violet against a greyscale background.

Speaking of sailing, this drawing is of the Norma and Gladys, one of the last wooden fishing vessels from Newfoundland, built in 1945, used in the Labrador fishery until 1951, turned into a floating museum in 1973 and lost at sea in 1984.
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Warm Colors

Warm Colors

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Colored pencil on paper, 6.5" x 10"
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The colors we know can be divided into two groups - warm colors and co0l colors. We can place a dividing line on the color wheel between yellow and violet to identify these two groups.

We generally associate red, orange and yellow hues with the sun or fire, and call them warm colors. We also associate blue, blue-green, green, and violet hues with water, sky and atmospheric conditions, and call them cool colors. However, the perceived qualities of warmth or coolness in a color can be influenced by other colors near it.

In this drawing, I used twelve separate pencil colors, six highly-saturated colors from the color wheel, two browns and four paler tones of yellows and pinks.
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