Make a tonal scale with as many even steps between black and white as you can. Steps must be butted up against each other with no space or lines in between. While very simplistic, this actually becomes a rather useful tool for subsequent exercises and other purposes.

Tones should be flat, clean and opaque with a strip along one side with which the scale can be held and a flush edge on the other. Hint: Prepare the scale from prepainted "chips" which can be pasted down in the right order.... and if you have trouble doing this... maybe we need to talk!

2. CONTROLLING THE DIMENSIONS OF COLOURS.Get some control.

Three paintings, each of which varies in only one dimension at a time. That is,

(a) in TONE where saturation and hue remain constant

(b) in HUE where saturation and tone remain constant; and

(c) in SATURATION where hue and tone remain constant.

Restrict the influence of other factors... eg texure, gloss, transparency. Use plenty of imagination but keep design simple.

2A. COLOUR MAPS (some 2d and 3d colour models)

3. APPLYING AN UNDERSTANDING OF TONE IN CHROMATICS

A strip or section of a pure monochrome is faithfully converted to full colour in a divisionist technique *. Should involve a good range of hues and must adhere accurately to the tone underneath.This can be made easier by using your tonal scale! The"base" tone should be visible for comparison. Understanding the principle of this exercise will quickly convert a good sense of tonal composition into a much more powerful and comprehensive skill. If you dont already have a pure monochrome picture to work with... now is the time to experience the value of making monochrome preparatory works for later full colour pieces.

* Of small separate marks.

4. ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE

This really useful and often overlooked device is made easy by your knowledge of basic colour theory. It's really just the conscious use of contrast across a picture plane to deepen focus, focus the pictorial drama and dramatise the illusion of depth.

From a base "atmosphere" create an image which derives its depth from the use of atmospheric perspective. Prepare the colour range beforehand. Try to restrict the effect of other cues such as linear perspective, obscuration etc. You could use any arrangement of objects in space as a vehicle to produce a sense of greater depth and "atmosphere".

Hint: This exercise is often confused with 2(c); Contrast ratios (the issue in colour perspective) can involve any or all of the colour dimensions.

5. COLOUR IN SHADOW (this exercise must be done physically rather than digitally)

A. Form a linear hue scale (from subtractive colour circle) at home values but somewhat tinted up.

B. Arrange a simple object such as a ruler to throw a shadow across all the colours in the scale in natural daylight. Something like this (but full chromatic of course)

C. Make an accurate painting of the arrangement. Do not make assumptions about what might be required to mix the shadow. It may not be the same for each hue either.

This is not intended to be accomplished by a transparent wash of dark across the colours to create the shadow, but by accurately and opaquely mixing each colour in the shadow in its turn. Understanding what constitutes the colour in the shade will require some thought about the light source/s.

6. DEALING WITH SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST

Colours A and B are "islands" in "seas" of X and Y colour.

Make colours A and B slightly different in fact.

Adjust colours X and Y until A and B appear the same.

This exercise can be done at several levels of difficulty. Remember there are at least three dimensions of colour. You can examine the simultaneous contrast effect in one dimension at a time.... or more. Meaning the difference between A and B could be one of say, tone only or perhaps more complicated. If tone is the only difference, the solution (colours X and Y) needs only to be tonal (perhaps literally just black and white). If additional dimensions are involved, the solution will involve the additional dimensions. The point of this is not so much in solving every imaginable difference as in really understanding the effect.

Hint: dont make A & B fully saturated colours.

Hint: When mixing colours that contain white - always start with the white in the predicted appropriate total volume and add the other colour(s) little by little to the mix. The other way round will generally exhaust your supply of white paint in no time!

TERMINOLOGY

For other images from which you should be able to derive information (with or without text) click HERE

COLOUR REFERENCES

At this stage I am unaware of any single, perfect, comprehensive and reliable text in which appropriate Colour Theory for artists is provided. Itten comes perhaps closest but is far from accurate in some places and in others seems a bit silly. Our own Paul Green-Armytage in the Curtin University Department of Design is one of the best international researchers on this topic and he has published a number of works at least two of which are available from the library:"DIMENSIONS OF COLOUR"1986 Q752 GRE; "GERRITSEN FRANS,LOOKING AT A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO COLOUR" (video) 752 GER. Much of the material I use derives from Green-Armytage's research and some from that of Michael Wilcox and Alan Lee.

Along with Green-Armytage, Gerritsen and Osborne are better known contemporary writers on this subject.

I would be grateful to hear of any references which you uncover and would like to recommend.