Pointillism: A Color Study
Materials:
-Primary colors
-Small brush
-palette knife, or plastic knife.
-Small canvas or canvas paper, no smaller than 4 X 6 inches.
-Q-tips
Still life:
2-3 hard-boiled eggs resting on either a sheet of white paper or cloth. Place a direct light source over the eggs. Lighting direction can be creative if you wish. Keep your still life protected from dogs, people, etc. You will be working on this for 2-3 weeks.
Objective:
Your goal is to finish a painting using only small dots of pure color to create the illusion of mixed color. You will be using the 3 primaries and Titanium white to create all color. Each primary will need to be mixed into three values: dark, medium, light. I will demonstrate in class. You will need to premix the colors with a palette knife. The concept here is that if you place a blue next to a red dot, from a distance, the illusion created will be violet or purple. Place a yellow dot next to the blue/red dots; the violet value will appear gray. Opposite colors gray each other out. You will need to back away from your painting often to have an idea how the color reacts from a distance. I will show examples of George Seruat in class to help understand the objective. George Seraut is a late 1800’s French painter whom initiated the movement known as “Pointillism”. Pointillism is a post impressionistic period focused on the interplay and reaction of light and color. The end result of this project is to further your understanding how color reacts with color. Also, think about composition (make several preliminary thumbnail sketches).
Helpful hints:
-Start out with large dots to cover your canvas quickly, and work your way down
to smaller dots. You will layer dots on top of dots several times.
-Do not use white directly from the tube onto your canvas.
-By the finishing point, your painting should have a thick rough texture.
-Spend at least a half and hour a day on this painting.