Color and Design

Color and Design was taught entirely in gouache. Apparently our school is the leading consumer of gouache in the nation. I could totally believe that.

The class' three major projects:

1. Posterized self-portrait using analogous colors (I chose red-orange and blue-green)


2. Piece relating to your major (illustration was pretty much free-reign) using a limited palette (red-orange/blue-green again)


3. Mandala with center focal point and split-analogous palette. I used Winsor&Newton's gold ink (microglitter-type) for the keyhole and key outline.



All in all I learned a lot from this class, and I wish I had taken it earlier in my school career. Hopefully the work I do from now on will be a bit more color-coordinated. I'm glad I got to work with traditional media painting since I'd only done digital up until now. Though this was more like vector art than anything, since we could only use flat colors and not mix or create a gradient effect. I'm taking oil painting this upcoming semester so I'll get a lot of practice with traditional painting and mixing very soon. :)

edit: The first portrait was accepted for AAU's Spring Show 2010.