FOUR-Letters -- Gray Painting
STEP ONE -- Inspiration
Watch the video on Robert Indiana.
Watch the video on Robert Indiana.
Step Two--Sketch An Idea
- Get an 8.5"x 11" white print paper.
- Draw a 6-inch square in the middle of the paper.
- Sub-divide the square into 4 equal squares (3-inch squares).
- Think of a four-letter word (cannot be slang).
- Design a letter in each square (think Robert Indiana here ... how would he do it?). Letters should appear like shapes, not linear in quality.
- Each letter should touch at least 2 sides of that square that contains it. See example below -- click to enlarge.
- Get tracing paper and trace the square and letters. Save the tracing paper as it will be used for two painting projects.
Step Three: Shading For A Grade
- Using your different pencils, begin carefully and accurately shading each letter with a different value.
- Each value should be distinctly different; show good contrast between each one.
- After you shade your letters, shade the shapes around the letters.
Step Four: Trace and Transfer
Using your traced imaged (before shading), transfer two times to a 12 x 6-inch railroad board. (See my example.)
Step Five: Painting
Coloring Scheme Directions: Achromatic (no color -- grays only, including black and white) and Complementary Colors with its Tones
- Paint one of your words using only black, white and grays.
- Try to match the same values as the "value study" that was done in pencil.
- For Word #2 -- Choose a Complementary Color Scheme ... A complementary color scheme uses two colors that are directly opposite of each other on the color wheel. For example: Red and Green, or Yellow and Violet, or Blue and Orange. Even Tertiary colors like red-violet and yellow-green could work, as well as others.