April M. Rimpo Art: triad color scheme

Showing posts with label triad color scheme. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Night Scenes by April Rimpo

Nighttime Stroll 30" X 24" Fluid Acrylic
by April M Rimpo

I've started a series of night scenes and wanted to share not only the paintings but a little bit about the pigments I used to accomplish these.

Nighttime Stroll

Fluid Acrylic

30" X 24" *

Quiet Times 11" X 14" Watercolor by April Rimpo

Quiet Times

Watercolor

11" X 14" *

I often find it is best to experiment with color before starting a painting where I want something different. In this case, the colors that work best for nighttime scenes are still luminous and not what artists call muddy. Muddy colors are dull and lifeless.

In the fluid acrylic painting, Nighttime Stroll, I started with pale pastel color in the underpainting that I know would work well for the pale blossoms on the trees and also lend a glow to the rest of the surroundings. The dark sky was worked second to get an idea of the value range from the lightest areas by the street lights to the darkest areas of the sky. At the very end I wet the entire surface and applied one final coat of the grayed blend of blue I was using in the sky over the entire surface (except by tree near the light) to add continuity and to shroud it all in night. The blend was primarily Indigo with touches of Permanent Alizarin Red, and Yellow Ochre to gray it. These three colors have recently found there way into several of my fluid acrylic paintings, a new favorite triad of color for me.

Quite Time is watercolor and required a different set of pigments. This time a different triad of Daniel Smith Indanthrone Blue, Permanent Orange, and Hansa Yellow Medium. These were a new combination for me that I found through some research in a blog by Jane Blundell (https://janeblundellart.blogspot.com/search?q=mixing), where she presents complements that make a good "black" and perfect neutral blends. I chose this particular triad also because it supports not only the dark sky but also a great set of greens that I knew I needed for the foreground. I love how three pigments can be used to create such a wide variety of colors.

I added a fourth color for the light sky areas (Daniel Smith Magnesium Blue). How I decided to use this particular color is a story for another blog post.

* Both paintings will be varnished and framed.

Click here to Contact April

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

"Traffic Jam II" 12" X 20" acrylic

Traffic Jam II by April M Rimpo

Traffic Jam II
Acrylic
12" X 20" X 1.5" deep gallery wrapped*
$600

Traffic Jam II is a second nod to Flam, Norway, where the ferry boats take travelers from near and far on a beautiful trip through a fjord. This tiny town must survive on tourists since the primary traffic we saw was the ships waiting to take us on a wonderful adventure. What a beautiful place.

The four houses you see along the water's edge are typical of what we saw in Norway. Red houses nestled on green covered mountains, with a few neighbors who chose the second favorite color, golden yellow.

The mountainside was truly the bright yellow green of Spring. I decided to feature that color by using a tertiary triad of color that included leaf green, cobalt aqua, and mauve. The mauve is a mixture of Permanent Alizarin and Phthalo Blue. I started the distant trees using Mat Acrylic Medium Gel to build up some textures then applied several variations of color from the triad to the medium while it was still partially wet. Once dry, I used fluid acrylics for the balance of the painting, working back over the thicker background to create soft color variations in the shadowed side of the mountain.

I find that this combination of soft acrylic with fluid acrylics creates great depth to a painting, making it fun to visually explore.

* The image is painted around the edge of the canvas, so no frame is required.

You can see more "Traffic Jam" paintings at these links:

Traffic Jam at the Concert - Concert goes waiting on the ticket takers
Rush Hour - Enjoy the view when trying to get home
Traffic Jam III - Cyclists backed up at a crossing
Full to the Limit - An overloaded canal
Thoroughfare - Amsterdam: More bikes and trikes than you can believe
Traffic Jam - Sometimes it doesn't take much
Country Tour - Cars waiting on a bike race
Trapped - Traffic congestion in a tunnel

Click here to Contact April

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Friday, October 30, 2015

How to gallery wrapped paper (revisited)

Running Up by April M Rimpo

Running up is a triptych done using fluid acrylic on a gallery wrapped paper surface. A triptych is a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works of art; in this case a piece of art composed of three panels. You can see the color scheme used for this triptych is similar to the color scheme used for my Rhythm abstract discussed in my November 15th blog post. The same complementary triad color scheme of orange, green, and purple was used since these paintings are in the same home as Rhythm.

This was my first time creating gallery wrapped paper surfaces. I used 1.5" deep stretcher bars that measure 45" X 24" that were varnished with Liquitex Satin Varnish.

I initially used a process described by Ona Kingdon in her blog. After I had more experience I modified her approach with the text marked as an "UPDATE." YOu can read Ona's posts here:

UPDATE: As time has passed I have learned that starting with one or two coats of gloss varnish give the finished piece a nice sheen. There are two reasons for this: the glossy finish is more reflective, but more importantly if you use more than two coats of satin or mat varnish the varnish can become cloudy.

UPDATE: I have found using foam core and gallery wrapping has worked wonderfully for small paintings, but larger pieces can sometimes have problems with rippling in the corners after varnishing. For those I have started to attach the paper to Alumalite (a corrugated plastic board with a thin aluminum surface on both sides) using Acrylic Medium Gel. Since the paper is essentially glued to the board there will be no buckling. These can be framed watercolor or fluid acrylic pieces that are mounted, varnished and displayed without glazing. Those who know David Daniels' watercolors will be familiar with this approach. Unlike David, I often gallery wrap the paper around stretcher bars and paint around the edges so no frame is required.

To create the abstracts shown above, I placed a small amount of each fluid acrylic color in a small measuring cup, added some water to dilute the paint sufficiently for it to flow over the paper, while still being an intense color. The colors were allowed to mix on the paper as I painted. Only a few colors were premixed on a palette before applying to the paper. The spray bottle shown in the picture at right contains water, which was sprayed on the paper prior to applying paint to encourage the paint to run and flow freely. Below you can see the finished painting installed in its new home.

Running Up, installed in the living room, helps emphasize the vaulted ceiling, dark beams,
and expansive view from the adjacent wall of windows

For more details on the process of gallery wrapped paper, see Ona Kingdon's posts on her process.

UPDATE: Ona mentions two options for folding the corners. I've found the corners are too bulky if you do not cut the corners. Ona did not provide an image of how to cut them. Here is an image of how I cut the corners. First I remove the large triangular piece. If you were to fold the paper down the paper would extend about 1" from the corner of the stretcher bar corner. The small triangle is then removed so the point of that triangle is about 1" from the stretcher bar corner.

I fold one side so it is very tight against the stretcher bar and staple near the corner. Press and crease so the paper is snug all the way across from top to bottom of the corner and test that when the paper extending to the right is folder up (in the next step) that it will be parallel with the corner. I try to place the staple so it spans the corner with one leg in each piece of wood.

The last step is to fold the right side up and staple it to the back. Again be sure the edge is parallel to the corner. You don't want it to extend out past the corner of the stretcher bar.

I normally flip the painting over to dry and because I live in a humid area I have a fan blowing across the surface for a full day to help the paper dry and tighten.

One final addendum: One of my paintings that I had gallery wrapped and varnished went through the May 27, 2018 flood in Ellicott City. The bottom two inches of the painting were submerged briefly when the wave his the painting. Mud and debris was left on the painting when the water level fell back down. When I got the painting back I was able to easily wipe the mud and debris off the surface to see the painting surface was unaffected. The stretcher bars had gotten wet and I felt they could become a problem over time, since they are made of wood. I removed the mounted painting from the stretcher bars. Verified the painting was still well adhered to the Alumalite board and then framed it in a lovely Silver Wood Frame. A great testimonial to how well this mounting and varnishing process protects the painting from the environment.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

"Bike Ride", 14" X 11" acrylic and watercolor

Bike Ride by April M Rimpo

Bike Ride

fluid acrylic and watercolor

14" X 11" varnished in brushed silver frame

Available to purchase at HorseSpirit Arts Gallery
info@horsespiritartsgallery.com

410-461-3505

I am really enjoying my bicycle series paintings. I've been taking photographs of bicyclists every time I see them along the road. In this painting I decided to combine a couple of lone riders into one scene to add some energy to the image. I also liked the idea of them having someone to ride with. There is a couple who live near me who ride together nearly every day, but somehow I never have my camera with me when I see them. I think in a way this painting is a tribute to them.

Since the focus is all about the riders I chose to abstract the background providing only hints at the trees and landscape behind the riders. While I was in the mood for abstraction I also decided to use colors that would energize the scene. This painting was done almost exclusively with Dioxazine Purple (ASTM# PV23), Alizarine Crimson (Quinacridone) (PV19), Gamboge (Hue) (PY97/PY42), and Viridian Green (Hue) (PG7/PW6). You may wonder where the Viridian Green is hiding. I used it with the Alizarine Crimson to create the muted maroon shades. It is amazing how a color can nearly disappear when used in combination with other colors. Although the two pigments were applied directly to the paper they blended on the paper to make these wonderful shades. Only a few hints of the green remain. A similar approach was used with the Dioxazine Purple and Viridian Green. So those of you who found this post based on the triad color scheme, be assured the green really was used it just hid itself among the other colors.

After Gallery Wrapping

* Although the flat painting size is 17" X 14" I gallery wrapped this painting ove r a 14" X 12" stretcher bars which results in a painting surface as show at right, with the balance of the painting wrapping around the edges. It is varnished so it can be hung without a frame or glass. Let me know what you think.

Note: ASTM International, formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), is a globally recognized leader in the development and delivery of international voluntary consensus standards. ASTM International defines pigment standards (designated in parentheses above), which includes the pigment's light fastness, transparency, and other characteristics. Paint manufacturers use these standards allowing artists to identify the actual pigments used in paints, getting beyond the manufacturers name for the paint.

Links to my bicycle and other transportation paintings can be found in the "Smart Car Choices" post.

** Contact April regarding shipping outside the United States

Saturday, May 18, 2013

"Flower Vendor" watercolor 22" X 17.5"

Flower Vendor by April M. Rimpo

Flower Vendor is my third painting about vendors. In each case the vendors seem to be small business owners. This painting and The Vendor are based on people here in the United States, while Fruit Vendors features Guatemalan vendors. Perhaps I am drawn to these because I grew up in a family that has a small business and know the long hours it takes to make a venture succeed. Each of these paintings capture the vendors concentrating on their wares.

Flower Vendor

watercoclor
22 " X 17.5" image

28 " X 23.5" framed

$1100

Although the vendor is an important character in this painting, it is the flowers I wanted to highlight. To accomplish this, I used blue pigments to mute the background and the woman while keeping the central flowers bright warm colors: yellows, reds, and pinks. The woman has a red apron to help create a consistent color scheme throughout the painting, but the red is more subdued than in the flowers; I added blues and purples to reduce the vibrancy of the apron.

I also reflected golden and red colors from the bouquet in the vendor’s face but again used blues and greens in her flesh tones to keep you focused on the brilliant flowers. Of course I want you to look at the woman, but when all is said and done, it is her love of the flowers that I want you to admire.

At left is the triad color scheme I chose for the painting. I ended up shifting the yellows toward gold and the reds toward pinks, but I did retain the concept of the blue triad. Primarily cobalt blue is used in the initial wash to help push back the background and much of the woman allowing the bright colors in the flowers to be the star. I used a very wet wash in the background so a wide variety of colors could mix on the page creating a beautiful backdrop. After the first background wash had dried I added a second dark wash created from a variety of dark pigments. As the second wash was drying I sprayed it with a mist of water to create water spots, which further diffused the background and revealed some of the underlying color.

I happen to love drips in watercolor paintings since it reveals the fluidity of the medium. I wanted drips across the bottom of the painting. Although the woman was placing flowers in a vase I decided to change it to wrapped flowers where the stems are sticking out of the bottom of the wrapping. This way the stems could also be created from drips.

Other "vendor paintings" include:

April has prints of many of her paintings, if you don't see one in her online store ask her about availability.

* Contract April regarding purchasing outside the United States

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

"The Vendor" watercolor 29.5" X 18"

The Vendor by April M. Rimpo

The Vendor

watercolor

29.5" X 18" image
36.5" X 25.5" brushed silver frame

$1200 when shipped within the United States*

The emphasis of The Vendor was the wonderful shadows cast on the vendor and his surroundings, when the late afternoon sun shone through the fence. Shadows help convey an instant in time, which I enjoy capturing. I feel like we are glimpsing a tiny piece of life and that each viewer can fill in the story associated with this instant.

I suspect the vendor was preparing boxes in which he places the last packages of food he’ll be selling before the sun sets. I hope people will wonder about his story and take a moment to think about the beauty of everyday events.

Taking a Break
by April M. Rimpo

In this painting I used hard edges to emphasize the shadows rather than using smooth transitions which may dilute the shadows. I also used a limited color palette to keep the focus on the shadows.

The Vendor is a companion to Taking a Break (SOLD) which also highlights late day shadows.

Some of my other paintings that capture an instant in time include:

A Day at the Fountain -where the fountain spray and children at play are frozen in time
Wash Day - which captures women washing their clothes in a lake
Heading to Market - where her blurred feet portray the speed with which this woman was walking
Aglow - where the contrast of bright light and sun dappling against the dark background freezes time

To see available limited edition prints check my online store.

April standing by The Vendor,
which was hanging in the Laurel Art Guild Open Exhibition

* Contact April regarding shipping costs outside the United States

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

"Woman with a Wrapped Hat"

Woman with a Wrapped Hat, 20.5" X 28" watercolor by April M. Rimpo

Woman with a Wrapped Hat

watercolor, varnished, mounted and framed

20.5" X 28"

Available on my website

"Woman with a Wrapped Hat" was selected by Paul Jackson for inclusion in the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society's 33rd Juried Exhibition in 2012 ; was selected by judge Ratindra Das as recipient of the Excellence in Figurative award in The 29th National Exhibition 2013 of the Illinois Watercolor Society; and received the First Place award in the 45th Laurel Art Guild Juried Open. Thanks go to Lee Boynton who was the juror for the Laurel Art Guild exhibit. Below is a description of my inspiration and little about my painting process.

This woman from Santiago, Guatemala was rewrapping her hat which is made of a long belt about 15 feet in length. This is a traditional hat in Santiago village, on Lake Atitlan. She smiled for the camera then asked for a small payment, which I happily provided. That smile and the colors in the hat cried out for me to paint them. I wanted to emphasize the orange red color and use it throughout the painting as an integrating design element. As a result I decided to use a complementary color scheme primarily blue and orange with smaller hints of green.

I love having very wet runs and drips in my paintings, since they are so specific to watercolor paintings. In contrast to these passages are the hard edges I used in her face. I added horizontal and vertical stripes which also contrast with the organic runs and the diagonal shapes formed by the woman's arms.

I start most of my paintings of people by doing an initial drawing on tracing paper. When drawing people I frequently shade portions of the face to ensure the contour lines are properly placed. I frequently make adjustment to the drawing as a result. I then use a fine tipped marker to emphasize the contour lines that I will then transfer to the watercolor paper. This photo is of the tracing paper drawing, which I hang in my studio for reference while I paint. Although I always hang these up, I almost never refer to them, but like knowing they are there in case I need them.

The other photo below (right) shows a color grid I use to select which pigments to combine to get the desired flesh color. A long time ago I created this flesh color grid. The grid shows mixtures of different reds with a set of different greens. Each combination was about a 50/50 blend of the red and green.

To see available prints check my store .

Drawing on Tracing Paper by April M. Rimpo

Flesh color chart

Monday, July 23, 2012

A Favorite Color Scheme demonstrated in "His Dugout"

His Dugout, 32.5" X 23.5", fluid acrylic
and watercolor, by April M. Rimpo

His Dugout

acrylic & watercolor on paper

32.5" X 23.5" image

39" X 31" silver brush frame

One of my favorite color schemes is a triad that uses primarily blue and orange with smaller hints of green.

Source: www.colorschemedesigner.com

I use www.colorschemedesigner.com to preview the triad and zero-in on the shade of blue and orange that I want to use. Often the next step in my process is to use Adobe Photoshop to vary the colors in my reference photo(s) to try out my plan. The Photoshop version never looks quite like the final painting, but gets me close enough to know whether I want to go forward.

His Dugout is an abstract, representational painting that shows a Guatemalan man beside his dugout. He was getting ready to repair the dugout using a molten, tar-like substance in his wooden boat. As I mentioned in my blog post on Basket Maker, few of the Guatemalan men wear traditional clothing, but many of them build and use these dugout boats. I'm sure I'll paint examples of these boats in the future.

His Dugout received an Honorable Mention Award at The Pennsylvania Watercolor Society's 34th Annual International Juried Exhibition. Many thanks to Pat Dews for selecting this painting for the exhibit and to Frank Webb for granting this award.

Click the link at right to hear me discuss this painting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jht7P1m60bI

Like many of my paintings I used a combination of fluid acrylic and watercolor in His Dugout. Only two acrylic colors were used: Da Vinci Leaf Green 945A and Da Vinci Cerulean Blue (Hue) 921A. I wanted the bright intensity I could get with acrylic for these light valued colors. The balance of the painting was done in watercolor. Below are three photos:

A picture of my source photograph before I manipulated it to push it to my desired color scheme.
An initial work in progress (WIP) after lying in the first blues and establishing some of the darkest values.
A later WIP photo after many of the orange hues had been added.

Established dark values and a variety of blue hues

Below are some of my other paintings in which I used a similar blue/orange triad color scheme

Taking a Break

Woman with a Wrapped Hat

The Vendor

Related post on combining fluid acrylic and watercolor

To see available prints check my store.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

"City Reflections I", 14" X 40" watercolor

City Reflections, 14" X 40" image, watercolor

My city paintings are frequently about pattern and color. Like many artists, I am drawn to the reflections in city windows. This building had sixteen panes reflecting back surrounding buildings. Since I wanted the details of the patterns to be more visible I cropped down to the four panes shown here. Distortions in the windows cause the reflections to look more like a Picasso painting where the buildings are melting instead of a picture perfect image of the surrounds. To me the distortions were the charm I wanted to emphasize. Having the straight vertical window muntin bars that hold the panes in place seems to emphasize the fluid, melting reflections. If you squint at the painting, which helps emphasize value rather than color, I used the darker values as pathways to connect one part of the buildings to another. Quiet blue sky reflections provide occasional relief to the jumble of the reflections.

Taking a Break

I used a triad color scheme focused on orange as the primary, blue the secondary with hints of greens. Including the light pole surrounded by flowers that was in front of the building allowed me to add in a few touches of green. I have found this triad very dynamic in other paintings I have done. Taking a Break, shown at right, is the same color plan but with slightly redder oranges.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Color Schemes

Frequently when taking art classes the instructor will discuss color schemes in your art. Monotonic, Complementary, Adjacent, and Triad color schemes are those most frequently discussed. Even though this is common knowledge I find I need to be reminded regularly or I drift off course, using too many colors to have good color harmony in my work.

I recently learned about a website called "Color Scheme Designer" that is intended for web designers, but can be quite useful to painters as well. You can plan not only with the color schemes mentioned above but also Tetrad and Accented Analogic. While playing on this site http://colorschemedesigner.com/ I discovered I had used a Tetrad design in one of my most successful paintings this year. See if you agree?

For future reference I have added Color Scheme Designer to my links.

To view other posts on color schemes check:

A favorite color scheme

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Copyright April M Rimpo