Colour Research

I decided to research some artists so that I could get an idea of what the colours could be like. I knew that I needed an artist for brighter colours, and another for more depressive colours. I focused on the abstract art of PETER DRANITSIN ( http://www.petesoriginalart.com/ ) for a look into dramatic and bright colours. The pieces I researched were the most recent when I found his website, but I love what he’s put up as of late. It’s a very different approach from his other pieces. The paint is not as thickly applied. Closer to Earth (http://petesoriginalart.com/closer-earth-p-1042.html) and Here on Earth (http://petesoriginalart.com/here-earth-p-1035.html) are my two favourites of his new ones.

 

I looked at the colours he used and how he applied them in the pieces “Ocean Gates”, “Beyond Your Fantasy” and “Message From My Heart” and tried to mimic the colour schemes and the ways they merged and were applied in my sketchbook. Dranitsin says on his website that he uses liquitex Acrylic and different kinds of tools to create his pieces. I didn’t see the point in using different tools as I was really only studying his works for the colour, not the texture. I would do the same thing if I redid it. I didn’t have any Liquitex Acrylic available, nor did I know where to get it so I stuck with the usual Acrylic.

I find Peter Dranitsins works to be very dramatic and expressive. The colours he uses are powerful and any textures he creates with them only enhance the effect. For example, In “Ocean Gates”, because of the way the copper colours appear to be raised from the surface and the blue appears to be at the lowest point of the picture, it looks like (in my opinion) a tropical island, with shallow waters where the copper thins a little into the blue.  Again in “Message From my Heart”, the white in the middle still looks liquid and the smudged black at the edges looks broken this indicates, again, a thick application of paint. However this time it looks like the thick paint has been put over the entire canvas. The way the centre of the piece has been done (the crispy looking black centre with smoky white) it looks like something is burning. I’m not sure if this was intentional but it gives me the sense of lava/magma.

 ( Top to Bottom "Red", "No.61" and "Number 14")

Another artist I decided to look at was MARK ROTHKO whose most notable large abstract pieces of blocks of colour apparently seem to have varieties of the colours appear to be floating within (something I think I’d like to see in person should I get the chance). I looked at these because I had the idea of using my research on colours that these artists use as colour palettes for my own work (as I am thinking about colouring digitally to save time and to be able to experiment easily with different colours). I wanted to get a similar feel to what I found (via google images as I don’t have the time or money to go and view the original works) so I used oil paint to experiment. I have to say that I love how vibrant and full oil colour can be compared to Acrylic.

To me, his work looks like large swaths of colour on a smooth slate, maybe pottery. I think it’s because they seem so 2 dimensional and flat, but the background colour feels like it’s something more than just a canvas. It’s as if it has the privilege of holding swaths of the very essence of the colours. Or perhaps my imagination is running a little wild. But the works seem to be completely about colour and that’s something that I don’t think I can link with other artists.

For the more solemn colours of my story, I looked at some of PABLO PICASSOS blue period paintings. It’s not the subjects I’m interested in but how he has managed to use so many shades of blue without obscuring anything. I don’t feel that I can say much more than what the paintings say (left “The Old Guitarist”, right “Las Dos Hermanas”) as the colours and the posture of the figures tells the whole story. The blues show a sadness, grief and it would seem that the figures have lost all hope. The guitarists hands are frail and limp and his face shows a sort of depression; his sunken, shadowed eyes are the most prominent. But the “giving in” attitude that can be seen from this picture is mostly in his hunched posture and the fact that he seems so relaxed that he might’ve resigned himself to death if not wishing it were here sooner.

The Two Sisters  comforting one another after a sad event. You can see the same resigned look in the right sisters eye.

In order to try and apply these colours to my work I’m planning on creating a single panel (probably a room scene as it’s more versatile that a human face where expression is needed to show life) and then colouring it multiple times digitally.