Color Challenge #2

Happy Wednesday!

Color Challenge #2 is this:

• Select a subject that you want to paint.
• Identify the one color you cannot do without for that subject. (Cad red in this one.)
• Use a standard palette or a CMYK palette.  Study and decide what other colors could work best for you.  Select three other colors, two spaces apart on the color wheel, creating a tetradic color scheme.  (This scheme makes a square.)
• Do two color studies, one warm and one color, using these four colors.  Note that you have two warm and two cool (usually) and that you have two sets of complements.
• Paint your subject using these four colors in combinations that work for you.
• Remember to have color and temperature dominance.
• Be cautious while creating grays that may become "dead" if taken too far.
• Notice what decisions you had to make to make the scheme "work" for you in an actual painting.

I hope to see some fun results of this exploration!  I had a terrific time trying to apply this tetradic scheme to "Flying Free (Green-winged Macaw)" 14x11 oil.  I fudged the red toward the red-orange, using cad red as the color I had to have, and using cad yellow pale, phthalo blue, and a little ultramarine (BV).

As a footnote, the free online Gamut Mask Tool is a great resource for playing with color options.