Last time we spent a lot of time just looking at tone and how light effects the tone of colour we see. To make this easy we used white objects, varied the lighting and observed tones of grey. We can of course have tones of any colour and this week we are going to use paint to mix some. First of all though, we are going to look at the work of an Irish artist who works mainly with tones of colour.
Sean Scully was born in Ireland, grew up in London and now has studios in Germany, America and Spain. He is a world renowned abstract artist and has been inspired by the way light falls on surfaces from Mayan temples and Greek architecture to Irish bogs and stone walls. The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin has a dedicated Sean Scully room, which is lit mainly by natural light and was specifically designed to best show off the monumental tonal paintings which he gifted to the State. One of these works was recently selected as one of Ireland's favourite paintings. You can watch the video clips to find out why here: www.rte.ie/tv/masterpiece/masterpiece08.html
The example below in tones of bluish grey is characteristic of Scully's work, you can clearly see the brush strokes and the layer of yellow paint underneath and you can see the scale of the paintings from the photo of the artist at work below this.
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| Small Barcelona grey wall of light by Sean Scully |
Find out more about Sean Scully from the links below:
www.sean-scully.com
www.hughlane.ie/current-collections/184-sean-scully-gallery
Sean Scully You Tube channel
When you are trying to paint any picture, abstract or figurative, you need to have some idea of how to create tones of colour. As we noticed last time, it's important to be able to recognise tonal values if you want to make your objects appear 3-dimensional, so this week we are going to mix some tints (by adding white) and shades (by adding black) to a colour. As usual it is a good idea to do some of this in your sketchpad and take notes on what you do. A diagram of tonal values from lightest to darkest is a good way to start. You can use any paint, but ready mixed poster paint is probably best. Draw a line of 8 to 10 boxes and begin by painting the first box white. Barely tip your brush in the black paint and mix this into a lot of white, paint your second box. Continue adding slightly more black each time and painting the next box until you finish the last box with black. with a bit of experimentation you should end up with a line of even tonal changes like the one below.
Next get yourself a large sheet of paper and divide the surface up into several shapes. You can decide whether you want to evenly divide it into squares, rectangles or triangles or just take a line for a walk and create overlapping spaces. This time start with a basic hue such as red or blue and progressively add more white until you get a really light tint of the colour in white. Each time you lighten the colour paint one or two of your shapes with it. Again you can decide whether or not to this randomly or in a structured pattern. Start with a clean brush and the same basic hue and repeat the process adding slightly more black each time until you have a very dark shade of your colour. Apply each of these to your page too in the same way as you had been doing with the tints. Have fun, take notes as you work and don't forget to send us some photos.
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