"Wings to Achievement"

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"Reading bridges the gap of failure and gives wings to achievement." Imagine what it would be like to not be able to read. Thankfully, we have technology which enables those who can't see to be able to hear or use touch to read. Of all the things I'm thankful for, the ability to read and have access to books is at the top of my list.

This was my first time to use Manganese Blue (Golden Fluid Acrylic). It is a transparent blue with tons of clarity, along with the Cadmium Orange which enables the viewer to actually read some of the words in the collage underneath the pouring medium.

The language of color is a never ending study, but it begins with understanding the three attributes of color. Of all the things I've learned about color, these three attributes are at the top of my list.

The first attribute of color is hue. The hue of a color is its name. The actual color or root color of any color will be one of the (12) colors on the color wheel. These (12) colors are the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. The difficulty arises if the color is lighter, darker, brighter, or duller than one of these (12) colors. But the first step is identification of the root color.

The second attribute of color is value. The light-dark evaluation of achromatic colors and their relationships as depicted on the gray scale are easy to see. The problem arises when trying to evaluate where a color in all of its tints, tones, and shades falls on the gray scale. Isolating the color will help along with "squinting your eyes" and comparing your color to the gray scale until you get a match. The discipline of doing this over and over again will cause it to become automatic.

The third attribute is intensity. Intensity is the brightness or dullness of a color. Adding a bit of the complementary color to the root color will dull the intensity. I also like to use Raw Umber to knock down intensity. Intensity is also achieved by diluting the color with white.

Learning everything you can about identifying the three attributes of color goes a long way in selecting and mixing colors that you like or see in an inspiration photo. Get your color wheel out and begin to notice the hue, value, and intensity of any particular color. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.