Judy Perez Color Theory Lesson 3

Tints

Yesterday I got some time to play & decided that I wanted to forge ahead with Lesson 3 of Judy Perez' Color Theory Class. No matter how many times I read about it, or how many times I am told about it ,shades are what always amaze me - how adding just a bit of black can make such wonderfully rich colors ...this was probably my favorite part of this lesson. I was also very surprised at what a difference adding gray to colors makes when mixing tones. In general I have a difficult enough time remembering what a tint, tone or shade is exactly & I think actually painting them helps to reinforce the names & their meanings. As you can tell, I like to work on the paper - which is just regular copy paper. I am sure that if I followed Judy's simple directions and did the swatches on separate watercolor paper and then cut and pasted - you would see much better clarity and fewer brush strokes !! This works for me though - gives me what I need - & I can always go back & be more precise some other time if I want. This is a great class for really imprinting some of the information - and I am really enjoying actually painting the swatches rather than just looking at them in a book ! Thanks Judy!

Shades

Tones

The Feeling Of Fall's Arrival & A Peek At Judy Perez' Color Theory Class

These are some of the last of my summer blooms. I was once an avid rose gardener but alas, our soil needs some serious improvement to make them happy and, worst of all, we don't get anywhere near the amount of sun they need in order to flourish. These few short blooms perfume the room in a way that nothing else can. The yellow roses in this little vase are called 'Sunsprite' - a floribunda rose with an intoxicating deeply rich scent. Oh! How I love this little rose. It just makes me smile. The other rose is called Joseph's Coat. It a climber with big glorious blooms that turn from brilliant oranges, reds & yellows as buds to softer versions of those colors when they open. Not much scent to these beauties, but they're teriffic. The air has the scent & the feel of Fall now - the nights are already crisp - in the mid 40's - and, although the days warm up well into the high 60's there is just a different smell to air. Fall is coming - the blooms are fading. Generally I long for these first crisp Fall days, but this year our summer was counted in days, rather than weeks or months - and by summer I mean sunny days with temperatures in the 70 or 80's. It's always possible that we will have a belated 'summer' this Fall as we often get a glorious Indian Summer to perk us up and ready our psyches for real Fall and the continuous rain it generally brings beginning in late Octoberor early November.
In more 'color full' news. These were the first two lessons from Judy Perez' Color Theory class. As I have mentioned before in a previous post the class officially began on September 1st but I got a little ahead - a good thing since I never know when an extra busy spurt will start leaving me scrambling for time to do class projects. Thanks Judy - I appreciate having the option of moving along at my own pace! I have never really taken any color theory classes although I have read many books about it on my own & have developed my own sense of color along with an accumulation of many books on the subject over the years! It's been interesting to actually make my own color swatches. Judy suggests making the swatches on another sheet of paper and then cutting & pasting them onto her grids. I did that for lesson one and found it tedious to cut and paste. I just painted inside the proverbial boxes for lesson two and I was a much happier camper - plus I think it looks neater this way. The book that Judy refers to for the calss is called "Exploring Color" by Nita Leland. I know I have mentioned this book in another post, but it really is work mentioning again! I love finding new books on using color that are just straightforward, well illustrated & great. This wonderful tome may be had for a song as a used buy on Amazon. Get yours and check out Judy's class while you're at it !