138 http://www.InternationalArtist.com
"In the process of becoming a
professional painter, I have spent
countless hours and tens of
thousands of dollars gathering
and organizing knowledge to
help me personally grow as
an artist. I have searched out
key discoveries from a wide
variety of sources including
apprenticeships with several
world-class contemporary
artists, a personal library of
over 100 contemporary and
out-of-print historical textbooks
on painting, and my own
personal discoveries in color
harmony. I have found that
if you want to learn to paint
well, there are at least 700 key
discoveries you need to know
about and become proficient
in. I have now structured these
key discoveries into the Virtual
Art Academy® programs of
self-study courses to provide a
quality alternative to expensive
art schools and professional
artist workshops for those
who want to make a serious
study of painting. Hopefully
by sharing this knowledge
more widely we can bring
more beauty into this world."Master the principles of
painting that took Barry John
Raybould from raw beginner
to prize-winning professional
in only five years. Barry's
work is proof that mastering
these key discoveries really
works, it worked for him and
it can work for you too.DISCOVERING ART
The Making of an Artist
Part 83 Key Discovery: Iridescence
and Shimmering Water
I
n both of these paintings
is the view from the beach
outside my studio in Xiamen,
China. When the air is hazy
like this, it is a great place to
study the iridescent shimmer
on the ocean.
Iridescence is a color
effect seen in nature in
mother of pearl, butterfly
wings and in the colors on
a hummingbird. It occurs
when the surface of an object
splits color into its separate
spectral hues. These objects
tend to change color when
seen from different angles.
Another type of iridescent
effect can happen in a
backlit ocean scene at sunset
when the atmosphere is so
full of moisture that the
light of the sun is greatly
subdued. Light reflects from
the waves at different angles,creating the effect.
The secret to creating this
color effect is twofold. First,
you need to create a value
contrast between the warm
light and the cooler part of
the ocean where the light is
not being reflected. Secondly,
you need to control the
saturation of your colors very
carefully. The secret to thisis to have a large field of a
middle value gray color, on to
which you lay your lights. Use
a touch of yellow in the lights
to increase the saturation. A
lot of artists make the mistake
of making the non-lit part too
saturated (generally blue or
violet) and not gray enough.
This creates a kind of artificial
effect that you want to avoid.To learn more
» Go to the International Artist website http://www.internationalartist.com and click on Virtual Art Academy®.
» To learn much more about advanced color effects such as iridescence, luminosity, and optical color mixing, see
the Virtual Art Academy® Apprentice Program, Workshops O and P.Xiamen Sunset 2, oil on linen, 14 x 23 cm (6 x 9")Xiamen Sunset 1,
oil on linen,
14 x 23 cm (6 x 9")