Exploring color... with me!

[Kaym]

I am a 20+ yearold wannabe-artist who switched from photography to drawing/painting. It didn't take very long until I discovered that I am still not very good at it. I had been drawing on and off all my life but I never really had the patience to get any good at it. Not enough practice I guess. At any rate, lately I've been trying this and that and, due to my pessimistic nature, dropping everything because I'm not getting good enough fast enough.

I've been trying to compensate my lack of practice by buying a lot of literature about drawing, painting and whatnot. Too bad it still doesn't seem to automatically improve my skills. My latest goal and idea was to start focusing on colours (hey, at least I don't have to be able to draw for that!) so I picked the Exploring Color book by Nita Leland and started from the beginning. I am going to go through all the exercises in the book and hopefully will pick up something during the process.

I've tried something similar before with not much of sucess so I decided to try something new too: I registered here and will start a sketchbook where I post everything I do with the book. Perhaps that will inspire me enough so that I won't just drop it right away again. All kinds of comments are welcome but do keep in mind that I'm focusing on colours here. So here goes!

The first exercise is "The four seasons". Going to paint a picture of all four seasons and trying to focus on them colourwise.

Winter:

[Saurus]

that's how to do it man...step by step...I am nowhere where I would like to be at...and I tend to be pessimistic at times too...but once in a while you'll learn something that completely makes the suffering worth it in the end...keep posting and don't expect too many comments! there's amazing art on this site and people tend to post on the good one's only....
but good start...simple strokes and you're getting the point across..I suggest drawing from life, study forms, and since you're concentrating on color, see how light affects different colors,...AND most importantly draw in black and white...that's more important than color to begin with...when you draw in black and white you are automatically learning about color...and that allows you to study color anywhere you might have a pencil and a paper.
good luck!

[Kaym]

I am not quite as satisfied with this one as I am with the first one. The colours are basically like I wanted them to be but I had some problems with things like the reflection on the roof, the shadows and I couldn't really think of a good way to make the walls have slightly different tone depending on the shadows. Now they're only one colour each. Anyway, here it is.

Spring:

[Tea Drinker]

Good start. Understanding of color only comes with time. I recommend doing color studies from life objects for sure. Are you using references of spring and winter images for these? Also I'm not sure if in the spring study if there is still snow on the tree and such, but be super careful of using straight white and try using complimentary color in the shadows.

[Kaym]

Are you using references of spring and winter images for these? Also I'm not sure if in the spring study if there is still snow on the tree and such, but be super careful of using straight white and try using complimentary color in the shadows.

Yes, I am using brief references for the pictures (I could actually call myself a copycat, I can barely draw a straight line on a paper without a reference picture) but this time I was rather brief. I only picked a random picture where I got the basic setting of the pictures (the tree and the house and the perspective) and then I briefly checked a couple of pictures trying to grasp the most dominant colours in winter and spring. I was trying to not go too far with the reference images this time because I tried to focus more on the colours and especially how I would colour them. Still needed some tips, though :) About the white.... yes, I should have known not to use pure white (actually I did know it, I just... did it anyway with bad results). I guess I got somewhat desperate with the reflections and messed that up. There is not supposed to be any snow on the tree. :)

[Kaym]

Same old problem: couldn't really think of more than one tone for some of the colours. Should have a closer look at some reference pictures. Here goes anyway.

Summer:

[Kaym]

Autumn:

[Warforce17]

I agree with Saurus.
With a lot of work you get better.
You draw and draw and draw and suddenly you see what you can make better and after that your pictures get better.
So keep on working and posting.