OCA Drawing Skills Level 1, Expanse, Project 5, Exercise 3
In this exercise I have been asked to work from the townscape in the previous exercise and choose a limited palette of no more than three colours to develop it.
I have made some preliminary colour studies after reflecting on the colour choices I would like to make for this scene.
Initially I thought of being quite experimental and using bold primary colours. After swatching these out I felt they were a little too bold, cartoony and almost childish. I was unsure how I could make these work.
I then selected a mustard yellow to represent the sandstone of the church, a greyish blue for the office building to the left of the scene that recedes off into the distance (and this reflects the blue shift that occurs when things move away from us) and then as these colour mix to create green, I selected a green to be for Broadcasting house in the centre.
I then considered using three different tones of one colour. This would create a monochrome piece, but with three distinct tones.
I selected three tones in the Blue/green family, to still represent that blue shift, but these felt a little too vibrant.
I then selected three tones in the Blue/Violet family to get more of a coolness to represent the city concrete and also link to the blue shift again.
After this idea of concrete tones I selected three colours in the warm grey family, but my concerns were that the sandstone church wasn’t represented adequately and the tones felt too close to graphite.
Finally I selected some green tones, one of which I didn’t like as it was too vibrant. I chose these colours to revisit my previous monochrome exercise, but on reflection I noticed that these felt too earthy and natural and not fitting with an urban landscape.
I will attempt to blend some Indian inks in these colours when I come to draw the final piece, but I would like to reflect upon these colour choices a little more first.
Sturley.art 