Saturday, October 25, 2014

What is Munsell Color System?

Regarding "The Munsell Color System" A workshop with Graydon Parrish
 by CHERYL KLINE

Last weekend, we were fortunate to host one of the best figurative artists I have ever met, Graydon Parrish. Graydon's work can be found in many public collections including the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Butler Art Institute and the Blanton Museum of Art as well as the personal collections of Michael Huffington, Christopher Forbes and Carmen Dell'Orefice. 

Graydon is known for his acute knowledge of the "Munsell Color System." This system is a color space that specifies colors based on three color dimensions: hue, value (lightness), and chroma (color purity). There are large books by Munsell with color chips which help you to locate the exact colors for your paintings.
Learning to mix the perfect skin tone... 

Our workshop was geared specifically to mixing more accurate skin tones. By bracketing, (see image at right) with your hues, and concentrating on the value first and then in a grid like manner, work across to find the correct chroma. We started with a neutral: 3 parts ivory black and one part raw or burnt umber. Mix together and then mix for example a value of 5 or find the value of the skin tone you are trying to mix. In the second column is Yellow Ochre with Burnt Umber at the bottom, white at the top and the 3rd column is Windsor Quinacridrone Red at the bottom, mixed with white in the middle to the correct value. Then mixing horizontally, a neutral, yellow and a pink, we found our perfect skin tone match to a color chip Graydon gave us. If you would like to know more about "bracketing" to mix colors, come by one of our classical painting classes for a demo.


Painting an Orb is harder than you think!


On the last project, Graydon had us all mix a particular skin tone based on one of the color chips from the book. He gave us all a half orb which we tacked onto our canvas and painted the orb one solid color. He wanted us to see how light and shadow affect a form and how the hue, value and chroma changes with the light. We mixed, using the bracket system above, several variations of local color, half tones and shadows. Then it was our turn to create the three dimensional illusion.
This is my painting on the right.

How will this information change my painting or teaching?

First, I have to say, never stop learning. If we keep setting the bar higher and higher for ourselves, the sky is the limit. This workshop reminded me how gray and neutral most of our skin tones really are and that on the spectrum of color they occupy a very narrow range in hue, value and chroma, mostly neutrals. I personally mix color instinctively since I have been painting for so many years and as an art director on press runs, my job was to correct color. So to teach a student color mixing, I have a new tool to use to explain how to find the perfect match.

There was much, much more to this workshop...too much information to put into a short email, but I wanted those of you who could not make it to the evening demo or the weekend event, to know a little bit of what we learned.
  
 At Kline Academy, we will teach you foundational skills to reach your artistic goals... and then we may challenge you to break the rules to see what happens and find your unique view of the world.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Graydon Parrish Finally at Kline Academy!!

Graydon Parrish's Munsell Color System Workshop 
was just...

A MIND-BLOWING
EXPERIENCE!!

Graydon Parrish

It was all about COLOR this weekend!

We hosted Graydon Parrish, a master realist painter living in Austin, Texas, for the Musell Color System Workshop over the weekend. He has remodeled color theories by Albert Munsell and Josef Albers to fit traditional painting methods, and this time, he applied the system to painting skin tones for this workshop at Kline Academy.
  



Munsell Color Theory is based on a three-dimensional model, in which each color is comprised of three attributes of hue (color itself), value (lightness/darkness) and chroma (color saturation/brilliance)
a three-dimensional model in which each color is comprised of three attributes of hue (color itself), value (lightness/darkness) and chroma (color saturation or brilliance) - See more at: http://munsell.com/about-munsell-color/how-color-notation-works/#sthash.F6m0O8nX.dpuf

is based on a three-dimensional model in which each color is comprised of three attributes of hue (color itself), value (lightness/darkness) and chroma (color saturation or brilliance) - See more at: http://munsell.com/about-munsell-color/how-color-notation-works/#sthash.F6m0O8nX.dpuf

At the Friday Demo Night, Parrish used the color scanner, which identifies the nearest color tone(!!), and created guests' skin tones. 

is based on a three-dimensional model in which each color is comprised of three attributes of hue (color itself), value (lightness/darkness) and chroma (color saturation or brilliance) - See more at: http://munsell.com/about-munsell-color/how-color-notation-works/#sthash.F6m0O8nX.dpuf
is based on a three-dimensional model in which each color is comprised of three attributes of hue (color itself), value (lightness/darkness) and chroma (color saturation or brilliance) - See more at: http://munsell.com/about-munsell-color/how-color-notation-works/#sthash.F6m0O8nX.dpuf






is based on a three-dimensional model in which each color is comprised of three attributes of hue (color itself), value (lightness/darkness) and chroma (color saturation or brilliance) - See more at: http://munsell.com/about-munsell-color/how-color-notation-works/#sthash.F6m0O8nX.dpuf
Titanium White, Ivory Black, Yellow Ochre, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and Burnt Umber create hundreds of colors!






WOW!

 "What distinguishes my system is that I make strings of single chromas combined with single hues. I analyze what I am going to paint, find its notation, then mix up strings to cover the range. Reilly's method used cadmiums, way out of flesh range. A string of cad orange brought down with burnt umber/alizarin crimson shifts not only in value, but in hue and chroma as well, making it hard to predict. Reilly too recommended the addition of neutral greys to kill the chroma, but this causes the hues to shift as well. This is something Reilly never mentioned."

 - Graydon Parrish


Now you can't paint the same again!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Cheryl Kline's Solo Exhibition Opening Reception: Clouds got in my way



A big congrats to our master sky-scape painter Cheryl Kline on her solo exhibition opening night at Lahaina galleries in Newport Beach last Saturday!

The show will be on for another a couple of weeks, check it out and dive into the sky!










She already sold those two following paintings at the opening night!





Lahaina Galleries
Fashion Island, 1173 Newport Center Drive
below Cheescake Factory - Street level
Newport Beach, CA 92660

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Steven Assael's Narrative Figure Painting Workshop


This workshop was just a phenomena!!

Over the weekend, we hosted Steven Assael, an American painter recognized nationally as one of the leading representational figurative artists of his generation, for his 3 day Narrative Figure Painting workshop at Kline Academy.

For those of you who missed the workshop last weekend and the live demo Friday evening, we are sorry to tell you that you missed an amazing event. Drama and emotion are captured and applied with each fan brush stroke. He slaps down a huge hunk of paint and then feathers it to comply with his impression. Bright, bold colors, slapping the surface then caressing the board with a feather soft touch. Chaos becomes a masterpiece. Amazing process.
 


We had over 40 people came over for his live demo night where he showed a very dynamic painting technique!



Steven's demo of Vanessa









Steven also showed many of his sketches and drawings, and they were just stunning!







Steven and the model Vanessa
We will definitely have him back at Kline Academy soon! Subscribe now and keep your eyes on the email!