Location
Avenida del Puerto/Puerta Diego Colón
Instructor
Jason Das
Workshop description
In this fast-paced workshop, we will explore the interaction between line, color, and value through several fun and illuminating exercises. Prepare to push your boundaries, set aside habitual approaches, collaborate with your fellow participants, and leave with a fresh perspective on your use of color. (This workshop is an evolution of Jason's popular "Urban Color" workshops at the 2010 Portland Symposium.)
Exercises will include (if there's not enough time, we may have to cut some):
- We'll sketch the same view twice, once with a warm-colored line, once with a cool-colored line. After coloring these sketches, we'll compare how the line color influences the finished piece.
- We'll color sketches of the same view multiple times: as a one-color value study, with only two colors (one warm and one cool), with "realistic" color, and with fantasy/impressionistic/"wrong" color. (Color aside, sketching the same view multiple times in a row can be a very useful exercise.)
- The collaborative finale! We'll each make a line-drawing, then swap with a classmate to color the other person's linework. By separating the line-making from coloring, we'll feel how different parts of the mind are at work at different points in the sketching process, and see how our classmates' color-sense can steer a picture in a direction the original sketcher would not have gone. This exercise can be equal parts nerve-wracking and fun.
Learning goals
To "think outside the box" in terms of color (or at least to recognize the boxes we create or ourselves) and to confront the diversiy of approaches to color adopted by our fellow urban sketchers. We'll also gain perspective on the different mental mechanisms at work when rendering line, value, or color, as we flex these "sets of muscles" in isolation and different combinations.
Supply list
- White (or at least fairly neutral) paper.
- Several colored line-drawing tools (ink or colored pencil) including at minimum: black (or very dark), a warm color (such as red or orange), and a cool color (such as blue or green).
- A full range of colors for coloring line drawings (ideally watercolors; but markers, colored pencils, or other media are OK too).
Reference images
