As I begin to develop my shape and form from the last posts do to consider exploring contrast and successive contrast exercises,

I realise that it would be easier to establish colour relationships by using colour blocks as Picasso did in his Weeping Woman.
I have realised that after initial noticing detail in form and tone in a subject it is important at my stage to go back a step and forget detail in order to envisage colour.

In the same way that I have had to learn to sacrifice initial drawing  detail to establish form; I now want to  begin colour planning without  much tonal analysis. Tone and shade will follow during the painting stage.

Suddenly it hit me that I could cut out the key shapes to make colour blocking simpler. Then I realised that putting pieces on a black background would give me an opportunity to play with aspects of optical mixing. The rush of excitement and possibility that fills me at this time is rare and definitely one to cherish and remember in the many fallow idea times!

I was not able to enlarge the side profile without sacrificing the shadow  shapes ai want to explore. This gives me a further opportunity to expand the project in a completely different way later.

Meantime I moved the head on the same plane to emphasise the LHS- enlarging this side of face and hands and flattening out this side of the nose. ( I chose the LHS as it is most in shadow which is what I want to develop. The Left hand has moved out larger and forward. This will help me to indicate shade and depth in my similar colours ( orange and red).

in pictures 4 and 5  above I increased the negative space between blocks.

in 1 and 2 I played with the classic candlestick negative space that I realised had appeared and is mentioned in a lot of well known samples of optical mixing.
2 shows a diagonal move to suggest different between the blocks but I  note that it also show movement?

3 is an attempt to give significance to the space between the cupped hands. I have a notion to use tonal shading in this. Such spaces have been used by artists to represent the heart and also the centre of femininity in the reproductive system. I am still to develop where I choose to go with this!

Doing e recises to show complimentary colours together I can confirm colour theory findings that both are enhanced. The use of complimentary colours to frame a subject is particularly effective. While doing my weeping woman project I have discovered thr even though I like certain combinations eg blue , violet and pink it is of little surprise to see that Picasso’s choice of yellow , yreen and complimentary red wirk much better. Here lies a dilemma for artists!

Still life and still life with colour used to evoke mood.

The best example of this that I have is the kettle oil and tomatoes still life. Here I found it easier than usual to move through a fuller tonal range of red , blue and their mixes. Working on depth and looking at the result from a distance I was able to go back and add lighter and darker shades to give greater depth. Mixing more tones before would help me to make this more effective.

In the fruit study I kept the study small and simple. Using red and yellow tones I believe helped to create a mood of warmth of these summer fruits. This is better than previous studies where I mixed in blues to cool it down unintentionally. This latter picture is not successful in terms of linear perspective. It does use a doorway to frame the scene which is a useful device. AS I struggled with appropriate shades of shadow under the table and worked into it while still wet I muddied the effect.