Colour Contrast

This latest set of work is in its early stages. Essentially I’m looking into colour and the various ways it can be used to create contrasts.

I’ve started with a simple 12 point set of colours beginning of course with the primary colours featured below. Initially I have chosen an isometric format to work with. In this case a cube. I want at this point to have continuity in formas it’s going to get complex enough.

1 Original watercolour 9 x 9 inches

 

Here are the 12 colours I’m initially using. So in addition to the primary colours we have the secondary orange, violet and green.

There is a red and yellow orange, a yellow and blue green and a blue and red violet, so 12 in total.  All are featured below. The background greens move clockwise from yellow, yellow-green, green and blue-green.

2 Original watercolour 18 x 20 inches

 

 

Here is the same set of green back grounds.  with the colours on the cube face swapped over. Note how as a fourth  “colour” I have used a neutral grey to enhance the contrast.

 

3 Original watercolour 18 x 20 inches

 

 

 

And again here are the two sets of 4 cubes that can be achieved using the red/orange spectrum as the background . So clockwise from red, red-orange, orange and yellow-orange.

4 Original watercolour 18 x 20 inches

 

 

5 Original watercolour 18 x 20 inches

 

Here is the last set of two using the blue section of the spectrum so clockwise moving from blue, blue-violet, violet and red-violet.

6 Original watercolour 18 x 20 inches

 

 

Here is the other set, with the cube colours swapped over. So there are 24 simple options

7 Original watercolour 18 x 20 inches

 

 

As I mentioned with the paintings above I have used a neutral grey to enhance the colour contrast. Below I have placed the grey as a background. Two different grays. The top left and bottom right are warmer so contain more red. The top right and bottom left are cooler containing more blue. This effects the perception of colour.

8 Original watercolour 20 x 26 inches

 

 

 

I’ve begun to look at some patterns. It’s hard to visualize results so I just started. These were my first two attempts based on a 7cm square

9 Original watercolour 20 x 26 inches

 

 

10 Original watercolour 20 x 26 inches

 

Again this painting is based on a 7cm square

11 Original watercolour 20 x 26 inches

 

 

Here based on a 5cm square I left one side of the cube blank, leaving out the yellow and greens.

12 Original watercolour 22 x 30 inches

 

This again is based on a 5cm square using all the 12 colours. Most remarkably there are 6 yellow sides of the primary colour cube in the centre of the painting. It is near impossible to perceive this as the surrounding greens swallow it.

13 Original watercolour 22 x 30 inches

 

The two paintings below are slightly more random, The next step is to make the colour blends more subtle and predict patterns

14  Original watercolour 14 x 14 inches

 

15 Original watercolour 20 x 26 inches

So  painting’s 16 and 17 have a more graded colour blend and have been cut and rearranged. There are some technical  aspects that still need to be addressed.

16 Original watercolour 20 x 26 inches

17 Original watercolour 20 x 26 inches

 

I moved onto to developing a series of patterns on a large scale. The following paintings are based on one of these paintings where no matter which set of 12 squares I picked there would always be 1 representation of each of my 12 chosen colours. The painting below has 24 squares, so 2 of each colour. 12 squares

18 Original watercolour 20 x 26 inches

Here we have just 12 squares, I’ve experimented with white and various shades of grey in the background.

19 Original watercolour 12 x 9 inches

 

20 Original watercolour 12 x 9 inches

 

21 Original watercolour 12 x 9 inches

 

22  original watercolour 12 x 9 inches

 

23 Original watercolour 12 x 9 inches

 

The latest development has been centered around using a 5cm on a graded grey wash. This helps to highlight the variations in contrast. I had trouble in cropping the images, time to update some software I think.

24  Original watercolour 15 x 11 inches

 

 

 

25 Original watercolour 14 x 11 inches

 

 

26 Original watercolour 11 x 20 inches

 

 

 

27 Original watercolour 15 x 11 inches

 

 

 

28 Original watercolour 20 x 11 inches

 

 

29 Original watercolour 18 x 11 inches

 

 

30 Original watercolour 15 x 11 inches

 

 

 

31 Original watercolour 12 x 9 inches

 

To be continued…

Note that allof these paintings are original and most will be available. Either email me at info@mjforster.com or DM me back on twitter with any questions.