Colour Relationships

I continued to use the same reference sources for this Project as I did for the first part, "Understanding Colour".

Itten (1973) discusses seven colour contrasts: hue, light-dark, cold-warm, complementary, simultaneous, saturation and extension. From my own experiments, I was able to recognise greater contrast between the yellow and dark blue-green than where the yellow was surrounded by a yellow-orange or yellow-green. Here the colours close to each other on the spectrum were appearing to cancel each other out. The complementary contrast examples I used, of yellow surrounded by violet and violet surrounded by yellow created an effect where the smaller square of colour appeared to sing out from its complementary. Using a neutral grey it was possible to set up simultaneous contrast effects with the grey appearing tinged with the complementary of the surrounding hue. Then using a large red circle I produced a successive contrast effect. Itten (1973) provides examples where varies artists have exploited the effects of contrast. I was able to observe how David Hockney has used these contrast effects with great skill and experience at the recent "A Bigger Picture" exhibition at the RA. In so doing Hockney has created spectacular landscape images that sing out and are able to express the changing seasons and changing light throughout the day in the Yorkshire countryside.

For the "Still Life with Complementary Colours" exercise I decided to continue to study the man made objects from the previous "Still Life" project. I have a tendency to work with blue and orange/yellow complementary colours so I chose to work with yellow and the complementary purple for this exercise, using white and mixtures of the hues to create tone and colour contrasts. I worked in my sketchbook for speed. I discovered I was tending to create a grey hue as I attempted to darken the tones and needed to add more yellow to keep some warmth in the hue. I was pleased with the tonal quality of this study and note that my choice of hues has created a cool image.

Whilst working on this exercise I had the opportunity to try my hand at lino cut printing. Using the the same still life theme I cut the image then experimented with colour mixing using the "Chine Colle" technique.

The lino cut process encouraged me to work more loosely and naively. The mark making was bolder than I would normally create in paint which I enjoyed. I believe I could probably produce a similar effect with paint using a sick rather than paint brush.

Wanting to explore the emotional response to my work, I chose the exercise  "Still Life with Colour used to evoke mood". I also wanted to explore the impact of playing with the objects' proportions and juxtaposition on the overall composition. Itten (1973) asserts that specific colours generate particular emotional reations and relates this to particular works of art. I wanted to create warmth and a degree of familiarity with the objects.


I produced some studies in my sketchbook before deciding on creating an image on a square support, in this case acrylic paper. I had originally started out in a more abstract manner but found I was drawn back to trying to reproduce the still life more accurately. I built up the composition working on the background and still life objects at the same time. I avoided using black and restricted my pallet thus creating a more harmonious outcome.

As the image developed I adjusted the colour of the background and "Mother Hen" figure as well as the alignment of the junction of surface and wall. Initially I planned to restrict the composition to three objects but felt there was something missing having carried out prior studies with a set of four objects. I therefore added the fourth object but at a reduced scale to balance the composition.

Comparing my studies of this group of man made objects, I am surprised by the range of effects I have been able to create even though they have developed over a number of weeks. Playing with the scale of the objects created interesting compositions enhanced by the juxtaposition of different hues. I have noted that by varying the chose of colours I can turn the outcome form a cool to a warm image and that by adding tone creates depth and a feeling of perspective.