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INDEX Unit – I ................................................................... 3 Lesson 1: Colour Theory ......................................... 4 Lesson 2: Colour Vocabulary ................................ 17 Lesson 3: The Munsell System of Colour Notation 24 Lesson 4: The Colour Wheel ................................. 30 Unit – II ............................................................... 39 Lesson 5: Colour Schemes .................................... 40 Lesson 6: Colour Psychology ................................ 59 Unit – III.............................................................. 73 Lesson 7: Graphite Pencils ................................... 74 Lesson 8: Colour Pencils ....................................... 83 Lesson 9: Pastels.................................................. 93 Lesson 10: Pen, Brush and Ink ........................... 103 Lesson 11: Markers ............................................ 111 Lesson 12: Texture ............................................. 126 Lesson 13: Pattern ............................................. 137 Unit – V .............................................................. 144 Lesson 14: Drawing & Sketching ........................ 145 Lesson 15: Light & Shade ................................... 151

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Reference Books ................................................ 163


Unit – I COLOUR WHEEL & COLOUR THEORY Colour Theory Colour Vocabulary The Munsell System of Colour

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The Colour Wheel

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Lesson 1: Lesson 2: Lesson 3: Notation Lesson 4:


Lesson 1: Colour Theory Objectives To examine colour and its effects in designing Interiors. To identify and use he vocabulary of colour. To develop an understanding of how a colour scheme is developed.

Structure 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Experience of Colour 1.2.1 Sensing Colour 1.2.2 Surface Define the Colours We See 1.2.3 The Eye Records colour Stimuli 1.2.4 Three Types of Receptors Produce our colours 1.2.5 Feeling Colour 1.2.6 Colour and Object Become Cultural Symbol 1.2.7 We Perceive colour Depending on What‘s Around Them 1.2.8 Two colour Can mix Appear Like a Third 1.2.9 Some colours Make objects appear closer

Colour is one of the most vital tools in the hands of an Interior Designer. It is the most perceptible and prominent aspect of any interiors, and hence is central to the success or failure of a design scheme. It is therefore very important that an Interior Designer has the full knowledge and understanding of this tool.

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Introduction

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1.1


1.2

Experience of Colour

Touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing— these are the ways we get our information about the world, about where we live and where we work. But the world of humans is primarily a world of sights, with 90 percent of what we know of the world coming to us through our vision.

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The visual equipment we use to see light and its characteristic colour is the same for everybody, and when it‘s working, it works very well—the human eye can distinguish over 10 million different colours.

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What we see is colour. Objects, landscapes, faces all register in our brains through the light that enters the eye, sent to us from a luminous —or lightproducing—object (such as a red-hot iron or a glowing incandescent light) or as light reflects off a non-luminous object (such as a tree or a table). The eye‘s retina absorbs the light and sends a signal, or sensation, to the brain. This sensation makes us aware of a characteristic of light, which is colour.


However, colour does more than just give us objective information about our world: It affects how we feel. To know this, we need only recall how a string of grey, overcast days lowers our spirits or how working in a drab, dull room leaves us listless. With so much of what we know and feel coming from what we see, you‘d think we‘d all be experts on colour. In a way, we are. No one has to tell you what you‘re seeing or how you‘re feeling as you sit in the glow of a late summer sunset. But how would you describe the pink of that sky? Dazzling? Fleshy? Glistening? Iridescent? The qualities we assign to our perceptions of colours—to the way they make us feel—are called indeterminate attributes. They cannot be measured; rather, they arise from our intuitive experience of colour. These indeterminate attributes provide the mystery of colour and range from the poetic language we use to express our perceptions of colour to the psychological effects of colour on our mood. Determinate attributes are another matter. They can be measured by various instruments and include hue, value, and chroma—(as some describe them) warm/cool, light/dark, and brilliant/dull colours.

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The mystery and the mechanics of colour are tightly entwined. We seldom see a single colour in isolation, completely independent from the influence of other colours or other external factors, such as the light source, the surface of the object, and the surrounding objects. Also, we never perceive colour

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They have given rise to optics, a branch of science that analyses the mechanisms we use to perceive colour—the rods and cones on the eye‘s retina—and colourimetry, which measures the colour systems developed to precisely communicate colour.


without the modifying influences of psychological and symbolic factors. In other words, our response to colour depends on who we are and what our culture tells us certain colours should mean. As simple as it may seem on the surface, colour has a depth that is worth fathoming. The more we understand colour, the more we can appreciate the joy it brings to our lives and the better use we can make of it. That use can be as focused as knowing what to put on in the morning in order to look our best or as broad as knowing how colour in environments, particularly the office, can influence motivation and performance.

1.2.1

Sensing colour

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and then into your eyes. But in another sense, you see only what you want to see—the carpet, done in the same lush green as the one you just installed in the family room; the fluorescent blue of the pin the

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Walk into an office and what do you see? Well, if your eyes are open, in one sense you see everything. Natural light streaming in through the windows and artificial light from lamps flood into your eyes and bounce off everything in the room


receptionist is wearing on her red dress; the curious yellow of the reception seating fabric. For centuries everyone, from Greek philosophers to Age of Reason scientists, considered only the first half of seeing—the mechanics. They believed our eyes were merely receivers. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) called them ―visual equipment‖ that measures light waves much like a clock measures time. Consequently, most research involved optics, the branch of physics that describes how light is produced, transmitted, detected, and measured. Light allows us to sense colour. To a large degree, sensing colour depends on four key factors: 1) The spectral energy distribution of the light, i.e., the conditions under which the colour is perceived; 2) The spectral characteristics of the object in terms of how much light it absorbs, reflects, and transmits; 3) The sensitivity of the eye in registering light and then turning it into electrochemical impulses and sending them via the optical nerve to the brain; and

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Scientists define the first of these factors, light, as a form of radiant energy or, more precisely, electromagnetic energy, a category of energy that includes gamma rays at one end of the spectrum and radio waves at the other. The light our visual system responds to in the experience of seeing, called ―visible radiant energy,‖ is a very small portion of the spectrum, falling between infrared and ultraviolet radiation. Bands of visible radiant

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4) The psychological factors, namely the experiences and the personality of the viewer, all of which affect how colour is perceived.


energy appear to us as colour, and we call them light.

1.2.2 See

Surfaces Define the Colours We

The second factor influencing our perception of colour is the spectral characteristics of objects, sometimes called ―surface‖ and ―surround.‖ How a surface reflects, absorbs, or transmits light and how the colours and textures surrounding the surface influence its colour give us the information we need to understand the objects we perceive.

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We experience the surface mode of colour as part of a material or substance. The different visual sensations we get from viewing two table tops—one

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They help us know an object‘s shape and location, although the interaction of surface and surround can also distort our perceptions— as when a yellow office makes the faces of the people who work in it appear jaundiced.


with a gloss finish, the other with a matte finish— illustrate the influence texture has on the character of colour. Even though the colour of the two tabletops may be identical, the gloss on one will create an internal refraction, or bending of the light waves, making its colour appear more brilliant than the colour on the matte finished top. Surface colour can also be the result of a material‘s structure. Polar bear fur, blue jay feathers, and a kitten‘s blue eyes are actually clear. Their structures refract, or bend, the light that illuminates them to cause the colours we see.

1.2.3

The Eye Records colour Stimuli

In considering the third factor upon which our perception of colour depends—eye-brain neurology—the focus turns from the world around us to the world within. Light, whether from a luminous object or reflected from the surface of a non-luminous object, enters our eyes and photochemically activates key nerve cells on the retinas known as rods and cones.

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1.2.4 Three Types of Receptors Produce Our colours

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Rods operate at low light levels—for example, at night or in a darkened, windowless room—and sense blacks, whites, and greys, also called achromatic colours because they have no hue (the property of colour that is perceived and measured on a scale ranging from red through yellow, green, and blue to violet). The cones in our eyes operate at higher light levels—for example, during the daytime or in a lighted room—and sense chromatic colour, or hues. When the cones are active during the day, the rods are dormant. At night, the rods take over and the cones rest.


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Some creatures, such as surface fish, bees, and some birds, can see more colours than humans can because they have more colour-making photoreceptors than we do. On the other hand, many mammals, except for humans, have poor colour vision. The expression ―to see red‖ comes from the anger of the bull as it charges the matador‘s red cape. In actuality, however, cattle have no cones in their retinas, so they can‘t

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Humans see colour with three types of reception systems (red/green-, yellow/blue-, and black/whiteproducing) from three types of cone photoreceptors (red/blue/green-making). Because we create all the colours we see from red-, blue-, and green-sensing cones, humans are known as trichromats. When one set of colour-sensing cones fails or is missing, a form of colour blindness occurs—either monochromatism (when only one of the three photoreceptors works) or dichromatism (when two of the three work). These dysfunctions are a gene trait carried by women and occur mostly in men— about eight of every 100 men suffer from some type of colour blindness, while only one in every 200 women does.


perceive hues; what irritates the bull is really the matador‘s twitching of the cape, not its colour. The use of the names of colours in expres --sions (―seeing red,‖ ―once in a blue moon,‖ or ―a redletter day,‖ for example) actually has more to do with the fourth factor influencing our perception of colour— the experiences and personality of the viewer, or the process of ―feeling colour.‖

1.2.5

Feeling colour

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Life would be dull if our brains merely registered the signals sent to them by the rods and cones through the optic nerve. Instead, our minds bring memory, imagination, and reason to the activity of sensing colour. According to art historian Rene Huyghe, ―from the moment the sensation comes into consciousness it is connected in time with what no longer exists except in memory. The sensation of colour does not just affect our psychology at the time when it occurs, it connects with all of our experience in time.‖


To look without preconceptions, then, is virtually impossible. Colour is something we see, but we adjust what we see based on our experiences. Because our experiences occur within the context of the culture we live in, we develop symbolic ways of sensing colour. These differ from culture to culture. For example, white is associated with death in India, while for most Westerners it immediately calls to mind purity.

1.2.6 Colour and Object Become Cultural Symbol Symbolic ways of sensing colour are almost always tied to specific objects—white mourning clothes in India, white wedding dresses in the United States— which is why one colour may have widely different connotations from one culture to another, or even within the same culture. To Americans, for example, black is a symbol of death, yet a chair upholstered in black leather suggests affluence and sophistication. According to colourist and art educator Patricia Sloane, ―Response to colour symbolism is a response to colour preconception, and is a predetermined response based on literary and psychological ideas about colour, rather than a response to the nature of colour itself.

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In other words, humans can‘t resist the urge to add to what they see how they think and feel about it. Our human need to develop a symbology for colours—reflected in fashion, culture, and tradition— is matched by our need to experience the joy that sensing colour brings.

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In part, man feels impelled to create symbols—and to impute symbolic connotations to colour—because he cannot help allowing his feelings and emotions, his literary, psychological and intellectual preconceptions, from interfering with his direct perception of the physical world.‖


1.2.7 We Perceive colours Depending on What’s Around Them

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When complementary colours of equal intensity are next to each other, the afterimages (the ghostly tinges of colour we see when we look away) heighten our experience of both colours. That is why red/green or yellow/purple or orange/blue colour combinations are the most startling. It is also why, when we study a painting, the afterimage of one

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The second brain phenomenon that affects how we experience colour —simultaneous contrast—involves our tendency to perceive colours differently depending on what is around them. Designers are well aware of how grey carpets seem to shift in colour, depending on the surrounding wall colour. This occurs because our perception of one colour becomes tinged toward the complement (the colour directly opposite another on a colour wheel) of the colour around it. For example, a grey square looks reddish on a green background and greenish on a red background.


patch of colour influences the next patch of colour we look at.

1.2.8 Two colours Can Mix and Appear Like a Third The third brain activity that influences our perception of colour—optical mixture—is the opposite of simultaneous contrast. When an object‘s patches of colour are so small that they pass below the threshold of conscious perception, we see the colours as optically mixed.Sometimes, as when the two colours on a topspin too fast to be seen individually, we perceive a third colour. This also happens when viewing a multi-coloured brick building from a distance. The building appears to be one colour, optically mixed. Understanding optical mixture in interiors is necessary for determining where best to use patterns, especially in regard to their scale and location in a room. Choosing a coloured pattern without evaluating it in the position it will occupy in a space can be risky. A tack board covered in a fabric with a small pattern may look red and blue close up, but from a distance the red and blue will mix and the tack board will look purple among the other red and blue elements in the space. That combination may not be what the designer intends at all, or it can be a way of achieving a new colour without actually using it in the scheme.

Spatial dimension, the fourth of these internal phenomena, occurs when our brains add or subtract distance, depending upon the colours perceived. We tend to perceive warm-coloured objects—red, orange, and yellow—as closer than cool-coloured ones—green, blue, and purple.

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Some colours Make Objects Appear

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1.2.9 Closer


This may have more to do with the focal point at which we see the colours than with their perceived

―temperatures,‖ however. Red, orange, and yellow may be ―warmer‖ in the sense that they are closer to us, since red has a longer wavelength and therefore a closer focal point than blue does. The shorter wavelength of blue and its longer focal point may mean, ―cool‖ as in ―distant.‖

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The implications for interior spaces are obvious: If you want to make a space seem larger, you choose green, blue, or purple for the ceiling and walls because they appear to recede, giving the space a more open feeling.


Lesson 2: Colour Vocabulary Objectives To understand and use the vocabulary of colour.

Structure 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6

Hue Chromaticity Saturation Value Luminance Tints, Tones and Shades 2.6.1. Tints, Shades, Pastel Colour, Pastel Tints and Pastel Shades 2.6.1.1 Tints 2.6.1.2 Shades 2.6.1.3 Pastel Colours 2.6.1.4 Pastel Tints 2.6.1.5 Pastel Shades

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2.1 Hue: This is what we usually mean when we ask "what colour is that?" The property of colour that we are actually asking about is "hue". For example, when we talk about colours that are red, yellow, green, and blue, we are talking about hue.

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Colour is such a fun thing to look at and enjoy but it is often difficult to communicate about. The reason is that the words we use to describe colour are vague and frequently misunderstood. Not only are technical terms such as "value," "saturation" and "chromaticity" confusing but even simple words such as "bright," "pure," "shiny" and "dim" are hard to use accurately. Even the experts struggle without a set of standardized definitions.


Different hues are caused by different wavelengths of light. Therefore, this aspect of colour is usually easy to recognize.

Hue Contrast - strikingly different hues

Hue Constant - different colours, same hue (blue) 2.2 Chromaticity: Think about a colour's "purity" when describing its "chromaticity" or "CHROMA". This property of colour tells us how pure a hue is. That means there is no white, black, or grey present in a colour that has high chroma. These colours will appear very vivid and well, ... pure. This concept is related to and often confused with saturation. However, we will continue to use these terms separately because they refer to distinct situations, as explained here.

High Chroma - very shiny, vivid

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Constant Chroma - medium chroma similar vividness despite differences in hue; less purity than top mage.

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Low Chroma - achromatic, no hue


2.3 Saturation: Related to chromaticity, saturation tells us how a colour looks under certain lighting conditions. For instance, a room painted a solid colour will appear different at night than in daylight. Over the course of the day, although the colour is the same, the saturation changes. This property of colour can also be called intensity. Be careful not to think about SATURATION in terms of light and dark but rather in terms of pale or weak and pure or strong.

Saturation Const. - same intensity, different hues

Saturation Contrast - various levels of fullness, same hue

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Low Value, Constant - same brightness level

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2.4 Value: When we describe a colour as "light" or "dark", we are discussing its value or "brightness". This property of colour tells us how light or dark a colour is based on how close it is to white. For instance, canary yellow would be considered lighter than navy blue which in turn is lighter than black. Therefore, the value of canary yellow is higher than navy blue and black. Click here to find out why humans are very sensitive to a colour's VALUE/BRIGHTNESS.


Contrast of Value - grayscale = no chroma

Contrast of Value - stark differences in brightness

2.5 Luminance: Although brightness is often used interchangeably with luminance, we prefer to use the term "lightness." This concept deals with many of the same variables as value but using a different mathematical equation. Check out our own definition of LUMINANCE/LIGHTNESS or more simply, think about the colour Wheel as colours having equal luminance. Adding white will increase lightness and adding black will decrease it.

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2.6 Tints, Tones and Shades: These terms are often used inappropriately but they describe fairly simple colour concepts. The important thing to remember is how the colour varies from its original hue. If white is added to a colour, the lighter version is called a "tint". If the colour is made darker by adding black, the result is called a "shade". And if grey is added, each gradation gives you a different "tone."


Shades (adding black to a pure hue)

Tints (adding white to a pure hue)

Tones (adding gray to a pure hue)

2.6.1 Tints, Shades, Pastel Colours, Pastel Tints and Pastel Shades There are not many of us who have not, at some time or another, consulted a paint manufacturer's shade card. Shade card? No, the one thing it most certainly is not is a shade card. It should really be referred to as a paint sample card. Neither should we comment on such things as, "That's a lovely shade of pink," for the colour we are referring to most certainly cannot be pink and a shade of a colour both at the same time. The word "shade" is far too often misused when referring to colour, so let us find out a little more about it.

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Tints are chromatic colours to which a quantity of white has been added. If we take a pure colour such as red or orange and add to it some white, however small this quantity may be it will make the colour lighter in tone than the original, and it becomes a tint. If only a small amount of white is added the difference may not be noticeable but when a large amount is added to red, for instance, then the difference is noticed to such a degree that we call

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2.6.1.1 Tints


the colour pink. A tint, then, is a pure colour to which only white has been added. Referring to the last paragraph we can see that pink cannot be a shade because it fits the description of a tint. 2.6.1.2 Shades As we have seen this is the term most misused with regard to colour. Similarly to a tint, a shade is formed by adding black only to a pure colour. We have already seen what happens to a light colour such as yellow when black has been added to it- it not only becomes darker but the natural order of colour is reversed and it becomes discordant. Similarly, when white is added to a dark colour it reaches a stage when it, too, becomes discordant. A shade, then, is formed by the addition of black only to a colour. 2.6.1.3 Pastel Colours

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Pastel colours are again pure colours but in this case both white and black have been added in equal proportions. They become greyer, softer, subdued colours and are generally very pleasant.


2.6.1.4 Pastel Tints Having already dealt with tints it is quite easy to deduce that a pastel tint is a colour to which has been added a mixture of both black and white. Black and white added in equal proportions to a colour, as we have seen, produce a pastel colour, so to produce a pastel tint the proportion of white must be greater than the black.

2.6.1.5 Pastel Shades

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A pastel shade is formed in a similar manner to a pastel tint, except that in this case the proportion of black must exceed the white.


Lesson 3: The Munsell

System of Colour Notation Objectives To understand the numerical scales developed by Munsell.

Structure

3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6

The Munsell colour-order system is a way of precisely specifying colours and showing the relationships among colours. Every colour has three qualities or attributes: hue, value and chroma. Munsell established numerical scales with visually uniform steps for each of these attributes. The Munsell Book of Colour displays a collection of coloured chips arranged according to these scales. Each chip is identified numerically using these scales. The colour of any surface can be identified by comparing it to the chips, under proper illumination and viewing conditions. The colour is then identified by its hue, value and chroma. These attributes are given the symbols H,V, and C and are written in a form H V/C, which is called the Munsell notation. Utilizing Munsell notations, each colour has a logical relationship to all other colours. This opens up endless creative possibilities in colour choices, as

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3.2

Hue Value Chroma Munsell Notation Munsell Colour Space Munsell Colour Solid

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3.1


well as the ability to communicate those colour choices precisely.

3.1

Hue

Hue is that attribute of a colour by which we distinguish red from green, blue from yellow, etc. There is a natural order of hues: red, yellow, green, blue, purple. One can mix paints of adjacent colours in this series and obtain a continuous variation from one colour to the other. For example, red and yellow may be mixed in any proportion to obtain all the hues from red through orange to yellow. The same may be said of yellow and green, green and blue, blue and purple, and purple and red. This series returns to the starting point, so it can be arranged in a circle. Munsell called red, yellow, green, blue, and purple principal hues and placed them at equal intervals around this circle. He inserted five intermediate hues: yellow-red, green-yellow, bluegreen, purple-blue and red-purple, making ten hues in all. For simplicity, he used the initials as symbols to designate the ten hue sectors: R, YR, Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P and RP. The hue circle is illustrated in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Munsell Hue


Munsell arbitrarily divided the hue circle into 100 steps, of equal visual change in hue, with the zero point at the beginning of the red sector, as shown in Figure 2. Hue may be identified by a number from 0 to 100, as shown in the outer circle. This may be useful for statistical records, cataloging and computer programming. However, the meaning is more obvious when the hue is identified by the hue sector and a step, based on a scale of ten, within that sector. For example, the hue in the middle of the red sector is called five red, and is written 5R. (The zero step is not used, so there is a 10R hue, but no 0 YR.) This method of identifying hue is shown on the inner circle.

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Figure 2: Hue Designations


3.2

Value

Value indicates the lightness of a colour. The scale of value ranges from 0 for pure black to 10 for pure white. Black, white and the grays between them are called neutral colours. They have no hue. Colours that have a hue are called chromatic colours. The value scale applies to chromatic as well as neutral colours. The value scale is illustrated for a series of neutral colours in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Munsell Value Chroma is the degree of departure of a colour from the neutral colour of the same value. Colours of low chroma are sometimes called weak, while those of high chroma are said to be highly saturated, strong or vivid. Imagine mixing a vivid yellow paint, a little at a time, with a gray paint of the same value. If you started with gray and gradually added yellow until the vivid yellow colour was obtained, you would develop a series of gradually changing colours that increase in chroma. The scaling of chroma is intended to be visually uniform and is very nearly so. The units are arbitrary. The scale starts at zero, for neutral colours, but there is no arbitrary end to the scale. As new pigments have become available, Munsell colour chips of higher chroma have been made for many hues and values. The chroma scale for normal reflecting materials extends beyond 20 in

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Chroma

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3.3


some cases. Fluorescent materials may chromas as high as 30. A scale of chroma is

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Figure 4: Munsell Chroma

3.4

Munsell Notation

The complete Munsell notation for a chromatic colour is written symbolically: H V/C. For a vivid red having a hue of 5R, a value of 6 and a chroma of 14, the complete notation is 5R 6/14. When a finer division is needed for any of the attributes, decimals are used. For example, 5.3R 6.1/14.4. The notation for a neutral colour is written: N V/. (The chroma of a neutral colour is zero, but is is customary to omit the zero in the notation.) The notation N 1/ denotes a black, a very dark neutral, while N 9/ denotes a white, a very light neutral. The notation for a middle gray is N 5/. Munsell hue, value and chroma can be varied independently so all colours can be arrange according the three attributes in a threedimensional space. The neutral colours are placed along a vertical line, called the neutral axis with black at the bottom, white at the top and all grays in between. The different hues are displayed at various angles around the neutral axis. The chroma scale is perpendicular to the axis, increasing

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Munsell Colour Space

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3.5


outward. This three-dimensional arrangement of colours is called the Munsell colour space. The relationship of the three scales in three-dimensional space is illustrated in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Munsell Colour Space All colours lie within a specific region of Munsell colour space called the Munsell colour solid. Hue is limited to one turn of around the circle. The scale of value is limited on the lower end by pure black, which is as dark a colour can be, and on the top by pure white, which is as light as a colour can be. For a given value, there is a limit to the chroma that is possible, even with theoretically ideal colouring agents. Real colouring agents, with less than ideal characteristics, impose further limitations on physical representations of the colour solid. The Munsell colour-order system itself is applicable to all possible colours. The highest chroma yellow colours have rather high values, while the highest chroma blue colours have lower values. Thus the Munsell colour solid has the irregular shap.

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Munsell Colour Solid

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3.6


Lesson 4: The Colour Wheel Objectives To understand the meaning and importance of the Colour Wheel.

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Colour wheels show how visible colours are related. Primary, secondary, and intermediate colours are organized on a circular chart. Colour wheels help

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A colour circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colours in 1666. Since then scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous variations of this concept. Differences of opinion about the validity of one format over another continue to provoke debate. In reality, any colour circle or colour wheel which presents a logically arranged sequence of pure hues has merit.


artists remember how to mix and think about pigments. Colour wheels are based on colour theory, which is based on the physics of light. There are two common types of colour: additive colour and subtractive colour. Additive colour refers to the mixing of colours of light. Example 1 shows how the light from red, green and blue flashlights would appear if shone on a dark wall. The three primaries in light are red, blue, and green. When all of the colours of the spectrum are combined, they add up to white light.

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mixing of colours of pigment, such as paint or the ink in your computer's printer. This type of colour is what is used in the art and design world. When learning basic colour theory, students typically use familiar colours like red, yellow, and blue. Printers' primaries—yellow, cyan, and magenta—are typically used by professional designers and printing presses.

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The colour wheels above are examples of subtractive colour. Subtractive colour refers to the


Example 2 illustrates subtractive colour by showing how primary colours mix on a piece of white paper. Here are some common colour wheels based on subtractive colour and familiar colours like red, blue and yellow:

Colour wheel with primary and secondary colours

Colour wheel with primary, secondary and intermediate colours

One of the most common teaching aids in demonstrating how colour works is the "colour wheel". In theory, every colour in existence can be found somewhere on the colour wheel. Understanding the colour wheel helps you to understand some of the basics of imaging such as hue, saturation, and brightness.

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The colour wheel is divided into 6 triangular segments. The three primary colours that occur in nature (red, yellow, and blue) occupy 3 of the triangular segments.

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There is no definitive rule as to how many colours a visual representation of the colour wheel should contain. However, using the millions of colours that the human eye can recognize isn't very practical, so the most common format is for a colour wheel demonstration to use a few dozen sample colours.


Each of the 3 primary colours, (red, yellow, and blue) are then combined in equal amounts with their neighbouring primary colours, to create the secondary colours:

Red + Yellow = Orange Yellow + Blue = Green Blue + Red = Purple

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This image shows pure red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, as they exist in the centre band of the colour wheel. The colour wheel accounts for the need to create shades of these colours by adding light to colours as they extend outward from the centre band of the colour wheel, and removing light from colours as the extend inward toward the centre of the colour wheel.

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In order to account for lighter and darker shades of colour, we now add light into the mixture. Artists sometimes say that "white is the presence of light, and black is the absence of light."


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The point at dead centre inside the colour wheel, the point where light no longer exists, is pure darkness or pure black. The area outside the confines of the colour wheel, where light drowns out all colour, is pure lightness or pure white.


Summary: Colour is one of the most vital tools in the hands of an Interior Designer. What we see is colour. Objects, landscapes, faces all register in our brains through the light that enters the eye, sent to us from a luminous —or light-producing—object. They can be measured by various instruments and include hue, value, and chroma—(as some describe them) warm/cool, light/dark, and brilliant/dull colours. Surfaces define the colours we see. We experience the surface mode of colour as part of a material or substance. The eye records colour Stimuli. In considering the third factor upon which our perception of colour depends—eye-brain neurology—the focus turns from the world around us to the world within. The fourth dimension is that we tend to perceive warm-coloured objects—red, orange, and yellow—as closer than cool-coloured ones—green, blue, and purple. Colours also have a vocabulary of their own. Terms like HUE, CHROMA, VALUE, SATURATION are a bit confusing as they all are related to one word i.e. ‗colour‘. Hue: This is what we usually mean when we ask "what colour is that?" The property of colour that we are actually asking about is "hue". For example, when we talk about colours that are red, yellow, green, and blue, we are talking about hue. Chromaticity: Think about a colour's "purity" when describing its "chromaticity" or "CHROMA". This property of colour tells us how pure a hue is.

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Value: When we describe a colour as "light" or "dark", we are discussing its value or "brightness‖. The important thing to remember is how the colour varies from its original hue. If white is added to a

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Saturation: Related to chromaticity, saturation tells us how a colour looks under certain lighting conditions.


colour, the lighter version is called a "tint". If the colour is made darker by adding black, the result is called a "shade". And if grey is added, each gradation gives you a different "tone." The Munsell colour-order system is a way of precisely specifying colours and showing the relationships among colours. Every colour has three qualities or attributes: hue, value and chroma. Munsell established numerical scales with visually uniform steps for each of these attributes. The Munsell Book of Colour displays a collection of coloured chips arranged according to these scales. Each chip is identified numerically using these scales. The colour of any surface can be identified by comparing it to the chips, under proper illumination and viewing conditions. The colour is then identified by its hue, value and chroma. These attributes are given the symbols H,V, and C and are written in a form H V/C, which is called the Munsell notation. Newton developed the first circular diagram of colours in 1666. One of the most common teaching aids in demonstrating how colour works is the "colour wheel". Understanding the colour wheel helps you to understand some of the basics of imaging such as hue, saturation, and brightness. There are 3 primary colours which are mixed to obtain secondary colours and then further mixing of secondary and primary colours gives tertiary colours. 12 colours are obtained by this kind of mixing based on colour wheel.

2. Achromatic colours: black, whites, grey

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1. Iridescent: shimmering, shinning

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Key words:


3. Trichomats: human who create all colours from Red, blue and green sensing cones. 4. Monochromatism: when one colour sensing cone is missing, a form of colour blindness occurs or dichromatism. 5. Hue: It is the actual colour. 6. Chroma: describes purity of colour. 7. Saturation: the intensity of colour to look or weak and pure or strong. 8. Value: to describe colour as ‗dark‘ , ‗light‘ 9. Luminance: the ‗lightness‘ of a colour. 10.Tints: when white is added to any colour 11.Shade: when black is added to any colour 12.Tone: when grey is added to any colour. Munsell notation: H V/C H stands for Hue V stands for value C stands for chrome

Assignments and learning activities

3. After understanding the terms like hue, value, and intensity, using design plates, students will

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2. To understand the importance and use of colour in interiors, they will be collecting pictures from various books and magazines and make collages for residential and commercial areas, basically to understand the difference in colour used.

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1. Students will be explained about colour as it is perceived by different people. Students shall be asked to make compositions (abstract or real) using colours with their own imagination.


experiment with changing the hue, value, or intensity of colour. 4. To understand the terms like tints and shades, students can pick up any two colours and can experiment with them on ivory sheets.

Terminal Exercises 1. How does the human eye see colour? 2. Write short notes on the following: a) Hue b) Value c) Intensity d) Pigment e) Chroma

Intext Exercises 1. Why is it important for an Interior designer to have a very thorough knowledge of colour and colour theory? Explain with the help of examples. 2. Draw a geometric composition using tints and tones. 3. What is the Munsell system of colour notation? Explain.

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4. Draw a Colour Wheel on an ivory sheet and show primary, secondary and tertiary colours in it using poster colours.


Unit – II COLOUR SCHEMES & COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

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Lesson 5: Colour Schemes Lesson 6: Colour Psychology


Lesson 5: Colour Schemes Objectives To develop an understanding of how a colour scheme is developed based on colour wheel. To understand how a colour affects the psychology of the viewer and what effects are produced in a space by using different colours.

Structure 5.1 Types of Colour Schemes Based on the Colour Wheel 5.1.1 Neutral colour schemes 5.1.2 Complementary colour Scheme 5.1.3 Triad Colour Schemes 5.1.4 Analogous Colour Schemes 5.1.5 Monochromatic Colour Schemes 5.2 A ‗Little‘ Technical Background on colour schemes 5.3 Colour Facts 5.4 Tips on using colours 5.5 Flooring & Colour 5.6 Walls & Colour 5.7 Ceilings & Colour 5.8 Window Treatments & colour 5.9 Furniture & Colour 5.10 Open Floor Plans & Colour

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When you construct a circle out of the spectrum of colours (basically the colours of the rainbow), you have a colour wheel. Primary colours on the colour wheel are red, yellow and blue. The full spectrum of colours includes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. In a circle or wheel arrangement, it is easy to see how the colours interact with each

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Introduction:


other. The Chroma of a colour is the intensity (amount of lightness or darkness in the colour) and purity in the hue. A neutralized colour is a colour that has been muted or "greyed" so that it loses some of its intensity. In the following descriptions, you can refer back to the colour wheel see how they fall in comparison to each other. Lime green and shocking pink are complimentary colours because they fall directly opposite on the colour wheel. They are ideal colours together because they intensify and complement each other.

5.1 Types of Colour Schemes Based on the Colour Wheel In reading the following, you may want to go back and look at the colour wheel to see where the colours (also their tints and values) fall compared to each other.

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5.1.1 Neutral colour schemes: This colour scheme can be easier to live with than vibrant colour schemes. Neutral colours are often used as background colours in rooms because they blend well with other colours. Touches of accent colours are usually added in this colour scheme for interest.


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5.1.2 Complementary Colour Schemes - When schemes that are built around two colours that are on the opposite sides of the colour wheel, the colours will intensify each other and make an exciting and stimulating room. Colours can be pure and vivid or neutralized and muted. Examples: burgundy and forest green yellow and purple


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5.1.3 Triad Colour Schemes - This scheme is applied when a room's colours are based on three colours on the colour wheel that are located at equal distances from each other. Colours can be pure and vivid or neutralized and muted. Example: red, yellow and blue.


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5.1.4 Analogous Colour Schemes - This colour scheme uses two or three adjacent hues on the colour wheel. It is a very harmonious scheme and can be very restful. The accent colour in an analogous colour scheme is often a complementary colour from the opposite side of the colour wheel. Colours can be pure and vivid or neutralized and muted. Example: terra cotta, orange and gold


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5.1.5 Monochromatic Colour Schemes - This is when only one colour family is used in a scheme. Diverse tints and shades of one colour can be used throughout the room. Colours can be pure and vivid neutralized and muted. Examples: white, ivory and beige pale pink, rose and burgundy.


5.2 A "Little" Technical Background on Colour Schemes Most rooms will typically be made up of 3 to 5 colours. One (or two) of the colours should be the dominant colour and will be used extensively throughout the room. It will cover the majority of the space, such as the colour on the walls or wallto-wall carpeting.

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Accent colours are used the least, so often, a strong colour that makes a statement is used. Accent colours breathe life into a room and are used in

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A secondary colour or colours are used a little less than the dominant and will provide interest and balance to the colour scheme. It might be the background colour of a printed upholstery fabric or the colour of the fabric for the window treatment. It will not be the main colour in the room, but will play a secondary role. There are usually only 1 or 2 secondary colours.


pillows, rugs, art pieces, or as contrasts on window treatments. There is no hard set way to determine which colours in a room fall into which categories, you may have two designers think that a room has a different secondary colour than the other. This doesn't necessarily mean that one is right and one is wrong. With colour - everything is very subjective therefore, it helps to digest the above information, but that doesn't mean that you can't bend the rules a little. ....after all, Picasso did. Neutrals are used to anchor a colour scheme. Neutrals are not just white, ivory, off white and grey. Almost any colour can become a neutral once it is "greyed" or neutralized with its complementary colour. Neutrals are often used for trim work, but can also be used as the dominant colour, the secondary colour, or even an accent in a room. A room that is built around neutrals as the dominant and secondary colours is often a very sophisticated and elegant space Often, in traditional interiors the dominant colour is neutralized and accents are more bold. There is no reason why you cannot do the reverse and allow your accents to be the more neutralized colours in the room and the walls more vivid. This is done frequently in contemporary design. If you want a room to appear larger - the floor colour should be similar to the wall colour. For instance: a room with an ivory carpet will look larger with the walls painted the same shade of ivory. A room with wood floors will look larger if the walls are painted in a shade (although you can go a bit lighter) similar to the wood floor. This will create an unbroken line and will room will not seem as fragmented.

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Colour Facts

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5.3.


The darker the colour of a room, the more intimate and smaller the room will appear. Light colours recede visually and will make a room appear more spacious. As an elderly person ages, the lens of the eye yellows, therefore, when selecting paint colours an elderly person is seeing more "yellow" in the colours than a younger person would. Warm colours typically have a yellow or orange undertone to them and cool colours typically have a blue undertone. Example: Blue red (cool red) and Orange red (warm red). A room on the North side of a house will generally be more comfortable in a warm undertone colour. A room on the South side of a house is more comfortable in a cool colour scheme. White will make colours around it seem paler. Black makes adjacent colours appear darker and bolder. The same shade of yellow will appear soft next to white, but can appear bright and vivid next to black. Matte (non shiny) surfaces look darker because they do not reflect as much light, while shiny, high gloss surfaces appear lighter.

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Blue will tend to make the skin look pale and sallow. Blue also happens to be an unappetizing colour. If you use it in your Kitchen, throw in accents of yellow or peach. However, blue is our favourite colour (according to colour research) and is perfect for the bedroom because it is soothing and calming.

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If you want to look great all the time, paint all your walls in your house peach. This is the most complimentary colour to all skin tones. Think about how much candlelight helps!


Orange has the unhappy honour of being our least favourite colour - but this is only true in its vivid and strong value. Generally people are very fond of terra cottas and peach. Colours in the yellow or orange family may become too glaring and bright if used in a pure, vivid colour over an extensive area. It may be wise to go a bit more neutral in an orange or yellow colour than you originally intended.

5.4

Tips On Using Colours

If you're frustrated when attempting to select a colour scheme for a room, let any favourite fabric, print or even a scarf be your inspiration. Begin by pulling 3 to 4 colours you like from the print by matching the colours to paint chips. Decide which colours you will use on the flooring, wall colour, upholstery, etc. Whether you use the actual fabric in the finished room doesn't matter, but by pulling a few colours from the print you have the benefit of an exciting colour scheme.

5.5

Flooring & Colour

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and its furnishings. It is always wise to use a more neutral coloured flooring for the simple reason that

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Floors can add quite a bit of colour to a room. The floor is the foundation and base for an entire room


it creates a foundation for everything else. Remember, even a forest green or a muted blue can be considered neutral if muted enough. Kelly green or sky blue are not. If you decide to change your colour scheme in a few years, it will be easier to work around a neutralized colour floor. Don't feel you have to remain neutral with area rugs though. These are easily moved and replaced with another in a different style or colour if you want to change the room. To make your house appear more spacious and less choppy, select one colour of carpet or flooring to go throughout your entire home. This is another reason to go with a neutralized colour on the floor so that each room's colour scheme will complement it. Ceramic tile floors will last for many years, so it is usually safer to go with a neutral or classic colour that enables you to easily change the colour scheme of the room in the future. You can help to make your tile flooring safer by selecting a floor tile with a slip-resistance surface.

5.6

Walls & Colour

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Walls are an extremely important part of a room. The colour or pattern you use on the walls can easily become the dominant part of a room, because


of the large amount of space covered. Decide if you want the pattern in a room to be on the walls, the furniture, a rug, or a lavish window treatment. Typically, two very bold patterns in one space will fight each other and will not create a harmonious room. When you think of colour on the walls, don't rule out all the possibilities. You can expand the feel of a room and add architectural interest to a plain room by adding a mural to the space, such as the tree and faux stone door moulding added to the kitchen wall below. Flaws in the wall can be disguised (or, unfortunately, can be amplified) depending on the sheen of the wall finish. The flatter or more matte the finish, the less the flaws in the plaster or drywall will show. If there are quite a few bumps or ridges in your dry wall surface, you should go with a flat or satin finish, avoiding any shine. Flat and matte paints also allow furniture and wall decorations to become the focal points in the room. Entrances, foyers, guest baths and corridors are transitional parts of the house, and those walls can be bolder or darker than areas in which you spend a great deal of time. A bolder or darker colour will also help a small space make a bigger visual impact. If you have a dark room that doesn't receive much sunlight, paint the walls in a light colour satin or semi-gloss paint. The reflective surface, along with a lighter colour, will reflect more light into the room.

There are many ways to alter the perception of the height of a room. Ceilings have traditionally been painted white to create an illusion of more height.

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Ceilings & Colour

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5.7


However, if you do not want more height, then consider painting the ceiling a darker colour. Always paint the ceiling before the walls. If you paint the walls first, it is extremely hard to keep ceiling drips and splatters off of the wall surface. In a child's room, it is a nice touch to paint the ceiling in a deeper colour. This will make the ceiling seem lower and the room will be a more intimate space for a child. Consider painting a faux sky or cloud effect on one of your ceilings. This paint technique is especially nice in bathrooms and bedrooms.

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If you have a low ceiling you would like to visually lift, paint the wall from floor to ceiling in one colour. If there is a chair rail or dado, use the same colour or pattern on the wall above and below the moulding and paint the chair rail in a colour close to the wall colour. If there is large crown moulding, you can paint or stain it the same colour as the wall which will also make the room appear to have more height.


5.8

Window Treatments & Colour

Windows are a natural focal point in a room. Depending on your furniture arrangement, window location or view from the window, you may want to either enhance the window as a focal point or have it blend into the background of the room. If you have a beautiful view, use window treatments to

frame the view, without covering it up. Similar to how you would frame a work of art. Don't ignore the view, light or the colours in nature your home receives from windows and skylights. These magnificent features that windows provide in a room should affect the colour and window treatment choices you make.

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If you choose to have the window treatment blend in with the room's decor, the fabric colour should be close to the same colour as the wall surrounding the window. This will also help to make the room visually larger, because the wall will be an unbroken, continuous colour, even with an elaborate window treatment.

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If you have multiple layers on your windows consisting of sheers, draperies and top treatments, you can downplay the proportions and significance of the window by allowing all layers to be of the same colour. To make the window a focal point, use contrasting colours on the different layers.


Regardless of the colour of your drapery fabric, always use a white or ivory drapery lining. This will assure that the windows blend with each other on the exterior of your home. Even coloured window blinds can give your home an inconsistent appearance on the outside. Before purchasing sheers, you should do the following to view their true colour, which may be hidden. Roll the sheer fabric up in a ball, this will show the precise colour of the material. Ivory sheers can have a hidden warm or a cool undertone colour that will become more obvious once hanging.

5.9

Furniture & Colour

Don't be afraid to mix furniture styles and finishes within one room or space. Most homes that are expensively decorated do not have matching pieces of furniture, but have unique pieces that compliment each other. An eclectic design style may seem to some as the easiest style to pull off, because anything goes. To others, a traditional room is the simplest, because there are rules and guidelines to follow. Whatever your style, the following tips on using colour on furniture will help you make decisions.

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For seating, a textured or patterned upholstery is best to hide soil and can also pull together your colour scheme. However, a solid colour or small print upholstery will make the room look larger. Small patterns and muted colours on furniture will create a more restful environment, while bold patterns and vivid colours will create a room full of energy.


Furniture that is upholstered in dark colours, heavy textured fabric or skirted with fabric will look more massive and can crowd a small room. Furniture in light colours, smooth textures and exposed legs will tend to give even a small room a light, airy appearance.

If you would love a white sofa, but have small children or pets that make it impractical, use white accent pillows and throws on a neutral beige sofa instead. All the wood on furniture in one room does not have to match exactly, in fact, it usually looks more interesting to have a mix of woods and stains. Just make sure the woods undertones complement each other. The orange undertones of oak next to the burgundy undertones of mahogany may not blend well to your eye. Many homes built in the last few years are designed with open floor plans. An open floor plan usually involves a great room or living area, that is open to the kitchen and dining room. Often, open floor plans can create a problem in selecting a colour scheme,

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Open Floor Plans & Colour

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5.10


because one room flows into the other. If you do have an open floor plan, you'll want to make sure that all areas flow well aesthetically, which can be difficult. There are several things you can do to create uniformity while allowing each room to have its own unique personality.

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kitchen could be a light beige, the dining room a rich bronze and the living room a shade between the two. Just find a natural transition point, such as a corner, to vary the colour of the walls. A long straight wall, without a natural transition, will look awkward in two different colours or textures and is best kept one colour. However, if there is a horizontal break (such as a chair rail) the colours and/or textures can be different above and below the chair rail.

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You don't have to use the same colour throughout, but do choose a colour scheme that you enjoy and use it in the entire open area, changing the dominant, secondary, and accent colours to give distinction to each space. Use paint or apply wallcovering on the walls in each area with a different colour within the pallet. For instance, the


There are a few details that you will want to pay attention to in order to retain flow in an open floor plan. Have all trim work painted or stained the same colour and the flooring should remain close to the same colour if you cannot continue the same floor in all open areas. For instance, if the living room has a light beige carpet and the dining room has a wood floor, it would look best to have a light wood floor as opposed to a dark wood floor. A consistency in the style and mounting height of all the window treatments in an open area is important. You can vary the top treatment some, but overall, draperies should compliment each other in length and style. This does not mean that they have to match exactly, just make sure they complement each other. The same colour will look slightly differently in different areas of your home, depending on the lighting. This adds interest to your colour scheme and helps each room become unique. A wall painted peach in a room that receives natural daylight all day will look different than the same peach paint will in a room on the north side of the house.

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If your kitchen is open to the living area, make sure that the kitchen cabinets complement the colours and style in the adjacent rooms. If the cabinets are wood, determine if they are a warm or cool stain

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Avoid using conflicting styles or colours within an open area. If you have a country kitchen, it will look out of place flowing into a contemporary dining room. Use colour in your accents (pillows, rugs and artwork) to pull the different spaces together if your main colour schemes are different. Install dimmers on your kitchen lighting to create a soft ambiance when you're not cooking or preparing meals. This enables an open kitchen to blend in with the living area in the evenings, particularly when you want to create an elegant mood.


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and then select warm or cool colours for your schemes. If painted, make sure the colour complements the colours in the other rooms. For instance, if you have soft ivory in your colour scheme in the living area, you will probably not want to paint the open kitchen cabinets bright white, or they will look out of place. It would be better to paint them a soft ivory. If the refrigerator is visible from the living area, think about having the doors fitted with front panels to match and blend in with the kitchen cabinets.


Lesson 6: Colour

Psychology Objectives To understand the psychological affects created by different colours on different persons and places.

Structure

A remarkable number of references to colour are expressed in our language using slang, metaphors and colloquial expression. Some of them, such as feeling blue, seeing red, or green with envy, associate colours with specific human emotions. Others, such as blue blood, white cockade, and red carpet originated in the Middle Ages. And still others, among them yellow journalism, the Red guard, Purple Heart, Black Market all have an interesting, although more recent history. Colour is the single most powerful decorating tool. Colour can affect your mood, make rooms appear larger or smaller, provide continuity or jumble, and

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Red Orange Yellow Green Traditionally Blue A combination Literally White Grey

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6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9


provide welcoming warmth or alienating cold. This is a lot of pressure to put on selecting your colours! First, colours can evoke emotions and moods. Colour conveys moods that affix themselves quite automatically to human feeling. Some of the responses to colour are inborn, while other responses are cultural perceptions or personal preferences. We'll review some basic colour rules, but remember that these are only guidelines, and that your personality and cultural upbringing can influence your perception of these colours.

6.1. RED: The colour Red has been part of the

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Found not only in the lores of ancient medicine but in the superstitions of modern times, red has been viewed as the vigorous colour of health. Red wool was applied to relieve sprains in Scotland, sore throats in Ireland, and to prevent fevers in Macedonia. The ruby, a precious gemstone with a

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English language since about A.D. 900. It is the primary colour at the lower or least deflected end of the visible spectrum. Its name is used for shades ranging from very bright, bold red, to reddish yellow or reddish brown.


brilliant red colour, was worn in China to promote long life. The colour red has also been a representation of love within a relationship between two people. A red rose, given to the bearer's lover or mate has always been known as a symbol of love. As well as the ever-popular red heart on Valentine‘s Day. Red is a stimulating warm colour, defined by heat and fire in nature. Red exudes passion, desire, royalty and sexuality. Want to spice up your bedroom? Paint a wall red! Red can add drama to a room by creating a hot focal point, perfect when used sparingly in bedrooms, kitchens, and vibrant living spaces. However, if you want a room to provide peace and comfort, the drama of the red colours can upset the balance.

6.2 ORANGE: Orange is the only colour of the

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The fruit come from an evergreen tree, Citrus aurantius, and the word "orange", comes from the Old French orenge. Since about 1300 it has used as part of the English language. Because the tree is evergreen and ever bearing, the colour orange became associated with fruitfulness.

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spectrum whose name was taken from an object, the well known and popular fruit called the orange.


On the visible spectrum this reddish-yellow colour lies between, red and yellow the two colours that when blended together are the creators of the colour orange. In folklore the colour orange stands for fire and flames, lust, vigour, excitement, adventure and wholesomeness. Orange is an active colour denoting motion and unrest. Used in softer shades it can be used as an accent colour to create a cool trendy dĂŠcor, think of pumpkin, terra cotta, and peach.

6.3 YELLOW:

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the Latin and various Germanic languages. In heraldry, where it is called or (for gold) the colour yellow stands for the positive virtues of faith, constancy, wisdom, and glory. It also has been thought of as being a colour that represents playfulness, light, creativity, warmth and an easy going attitude about life. The colour yellow also has many negative associations as well. Among them are jealousy, treachery, cowardice, aging, and illness.

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The bright golden colour yellow lies between green and orange on the visible spectrum and is, along with red and blue, one of the primary colours. Since about A.D. 900 the colour yellow has been integrated into the English language, stemming from closely related words in


Yellow is the colour of the sun, stimulating and comforting all at the same time. Yellow, and related tints such as cream, brown and beige, represents a good base colour, balancing feelings of activity with tranquility. However, we have seen this colour at times overused, with various shades of beige and yellow room after room. In homes with this colour scheme, the mood can be shallow, unless dramatic artwork and furniture, or more substantive shades such as red or blue accent walls are added to liven up the monotone appearance.

6.4 GREEN:

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Reappearing in springtime, after the dull, seemingly colourless winter, it became a symbol of fertility and growth, of abundance and external life. The colour green represents harmony, nature and radiates a feeling of fullness. When thoughts of nature come to mind, green, being the colour of grass, trees and plants, 99% of the time is the dominant colour of one's mental images.

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Green is the colour of freshness and renewal, and has been in Western culture since the earliest of times. The word "green" comes from the Old English grĂŠne, in turn from grĂŞne in Old Frisian and various related Germanic languages.


On the visible spectrum green lies sandwiched in between blue and yellow. Green is the colour of the forest and meadows, and as such, provides natural, restful comfort. Green acts as a great colour for blissful bedrooms, family and living rooms, providing a place of peace, rest and relaxation. Green is perfect for balancing the power and heat of red, particularly with yellow-greens like sage, celadon, or avocado. It can also be used to transition the depth of true blues by creating turquoise or aqua.

6.5 BLUE:

Traditionally blue is the colour of constancy and faith, the colour painters used for the Virgin Mary's robe, the colour of the heavens and

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The word "blue", from Middle English blew and Old English Blaw, has been used since about 1300 to describe a colour of the spectrum. In the symbolism of heraldry blue is called azure and signifies piety

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the oceans. The soothing colour blue stands for sensitivity, peace, loyalty and ones desire to nurture.


and sincerity. Around the twentieth century it became a symbolic representation of the male gender. Pink being the colour representative of the female gender. Young children are usually dressed using these two colours to distinguish the "boys" from the "girls". Blue is the colour of the ocean and the sky, generating moods of coolness and rest. The colour is associated with sensitivity and thoughtfulness. Many corporate logos use blue to denote feelings of depth and stability. Blue can be used as an accent to relax the heat of red, orange, or yellow colour schemes. Used in dark shades with abundance however, the colour can cause a room to look small, and produce melancholy in your guests.

6.6 PURPLE: A combination of red and blue, purple is a colour that has been associated with royalty since ancient Roman times.

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porphura, a species of shellfish that yielded, through an elaborate process, the dye called Tyrian Purple.

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The colour purple is symbolic of power, leadership, respect and wealth and has been worn by emperors, military commanders, and other high ranking officials. The word "purple" comes from the Greek


Very expensive to produce, it was reserved for special cloth and garments, such as those of kings. Violet - the colour of flowers, violet has traditionally been used for celebrations, ceremony and royalty. It is the coolest of colours in the spectrum. Violets and purples can add a twist of the unexpected to a neutral room. However, violet is difficult to work with to create the correct blend and mood, so if you are wanting to add violet colour and accents, consult with friends or even a professional to be sure the effect is as intended.

6.7 BLACK:

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Yet long before the physics of light was understood, the word black was in common use. In Old English it was blaec, closely related to its equivalents in Old High German (blah, blach) and Old Norse (blakkr). In many languages and cultures, black was associated with evil (and white with good). Both in art and in religion black signified despair, sin and mourning. Its use in mourning is very old, it probably comes from the ancient Semitic custom of blackening the face with dirt or ashes to make it unrecognisable to the malignant dead, as well as a

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Literally, black means absorbing all light, without reflecting any of its rays.


mark of grief and submission. The tradition of today's funeral is the wearing of black garments to mourn the loss of a family member, relative, or close friend. Despite the colour's many negative associations, in heraldry black, called sable, also stands for virtues of constancy, prudence and wisdom. Black - black is actually not a colour, but the absence of colour. When light hits a black object, none of the light is reflected back, it is absorbed. Black is a very modern and stylish colour creating a dark, mysterious mood. However, for those mysterious amongst us we should remember that black absorbs light, and when used in abundance such as on a large sofa or a wall covering, it will make a room appear smaller and require significantly more lighting. It is for this reason that we suggest using black sparingly, for accent furniture and accessories.

6.8 White is, literally speaking the absence of all colour. Or rather, it is the "colour" produced by reflecting almost all kinds of light found in the visible spectrum.

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When light hits a white object, as opposed to black which absorbs all of the light, the white object reflects all of the light. White is the colour purity,

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This is why white clothing is considered cooler than other colours on a hot summer day; since it reflects back sunlight (and heat) rather than absorbing it; as black does. The word white comes from the Old English hwĂ­t, which in turn is related to very similar words in old Germanic languages. Symbolically white has long represented purity, goodness, light and innocence. In heraldry white is also called argent. This word comes from the Latin argentum, for silver. The colour white projects feelings of calmness, relaxation and an inner peace with ones surroundings and inner soul. White is a combination of all colours.


peace and joy. White rooms appear larger, requiring less artificial light to create a bright airy feeling. White however can be difficult to maintain in its clean pristine state.

6.9 Grey is a non-colour, a combination of black and white. Grey is the colour of rain clouds, creating a sombre mood.

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Grey is a shade that needs to be used carefully, although it will not make a room appear dark, too much grey within a room will have a dull, monotonous feel. Grey is easy to use as an accent, such as on a wall, combined with colourful more dramatic art and window treatments.


Summary: Colour schemes are based on colour wheel. Study of these colour schemes will help in making the best use of colours. The basic colour schemes are monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, double complementary, triadic, and accented neutral as they relate to the colour wheel.

Revision Points a) Neutral colour schemes are easy to live with. They are used as background colours. b) Complementary Colour Schemes are those that are built around two colours that are on the opposite sides of the colour wheel. Examples: burgundy and forest green yellow and purple. c) Triad Colour Schemes - This scheme is applied when a room's colours are based on three colours on the colour wheel that are located at equal distances from each other. Example: red, yellow and blue.

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f) There are warm and cool colours, which affect the temperature of the room. Warm colours typically have a yellow or orange undertone to them and cool colours typically have a blue

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d) Analogous Colour Schemes - This colour scheme uses two or three adjacent hues on the colour wheel. Example: terra cotta, orange and gold. e) Monochromatic Colour Schemes -This is when only one colour family is used in a scheme. Diverse tints and shades of one colour can be used throughout the room. Examples: white, ivory and beige pale pink, rose and burgundy.


undertone. Example: Blue red (cool red) and Orange red (warm red). g) Matte (non shiny) surfaces look darker because they do not reflect as much light, while shiny, high gloss surfaces appear lighter. h) Colours have their own language. They speak for themselves. So we should always select the colours very carefully keeping the factors like flooring, ceiling, furniture and furnishings. They all should blend with each other. i) Colour is the single most powerful decorating tool. Colour can affect your mood, make rooms appear larger or smaller, provide continuity or jumble, and provide welcoming warmth or alienating cold. This is a lot of pressure to put on selecting your colours! j) Some of the responses to colour are inborn, while other responses are cultural perceptions or personal preferences. Different psychological effects are produced by different colours Red is a stimulating warm colour, defined by heat and fire in nature. Red exudes passion, desire, royalty and sexuality. k) Orange is the only colour of the spectrum whose name was taken from an object, the well known and popular fruit called the orange. Orange is an active colour denoting motion and unrest.

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m) A combination of red and blue, purple is a colour that has been associated with royalty since ancient Roman times. The colour purple is symbolic of power, leadership, respect and wealth and has been worn by emperors, military commanders, and other high ranking officials.

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l) Green is the colour of freshness and renewal. The colour green represents harmony, nature and radiates a feeling of fullness.


n) Blue is the colour of constancy and faith. Blue stands for sensitivity, peace, loyalty and ones desire to nurture. o) Literally, black means absorbing all light, without reflecting any of its rays. Black is a very modern and stylish colour creating a dark, mysterious mood. p) White is, literally speaking the absence of all colour.The colour white projects feelings of calmness, relaxation and an inner peace with ones surroundings and inner soul. White is a combination of all colours.

Assignments and learning activities 1. Students will understand the importance of colour and its many uses in interior design.Using design plates, students will experiment with changing the hue, value, or intensity of colour. 2. Paint the colours on the colour wheel beginning with primary colours and then mixing two of those to create the secondary combining a primary and a secondary colour to create intermediate colours. 3. Students will identify the basic colour schemes: monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, double complementary, triadic, and accented neutral as they relate to the colour wheel.

Terminal Exercise

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a) Red b) Green c) Blue

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1) What is colour psychology? Describe in detail the psychological effects of the following colours‖


d) Yellow e) Purple 2) Draw and colour compositions using the following colour schemes: 3) Monochromatic colour scheme 4) Analogous colour scheme 5) Contrast colour scheme 6) Split-complimentary colour scheme

Intext Exercise 1) Explain in detail any five kinds of colour schemes based on the colour wheel. 2) How can colour schemes help an Interior Designer in creating ‗optical illusions‘ in a room? Explain by giving examples. 3) What kind of colour schemes would you provide in the following areas:

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a) Children room b) Library c) Office d) Bedroom of a teenaged boy e) Kitchen f) Dining room 4) What factors would you keep in mind while designing an interior space and what colour facts would you keep in mind related to to any given space?


Unit – III RENDERING TECHNIQUES & MEDIUMS Lesson 7: Graphite Pencils Lesson 8: Colour Pencils Lesson 9: Pastels Lesson 10: Pen, Brush &Ink

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Lesson 11: Markers


Lesson 7: Graphite Pencils Objectives Learning to use the various colour and rendering mediums and to develop an understanding of how to choose different mediums for presenting various works.

Structure 7.1 Material 7.1.1 Clutch Pencils 7.1.2 Graphite Sticks 7.1.3 Graphite Powder 7.2 Techniques 7.2.1 Hard Line 7.2.2 Soft Line 7.2.3 Hard Scribble 7.2.4 Soft Scribble 7.2.5 Studio Pencil 7.3 Graphite Stick

When it is mastered, however, the pencil is a versatile drawing tool with which you can create

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The most common of all drawing instruments, the graphite pencil is by no means the easiest to use. Compared with many other drawing tools, its lines can get small and fussy. They invite detail, and all too often this leads the beginner into a trap -for it is best not to pay too much attention to detail at first; far better to aim initially for the bold strokes and outlines, or areas of tone, which make up the main characteristics of a composition.

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Introduction:


beautiful, and finished pictures as well as make rough outline sketches. Although not as bold and chunky as some other materials, it has a varied range, allowing for broad, heavy and light strokes, fine lines, and subtleties of shading. A crystalline form of carbon, real graphite has historic links with the English Lake District, where it was extensively mined and from where it was widely

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The term 'lead pencil' gives the wrong impression. Early deposits found in England were originally thought to be lead. The first graphite pencil was made in 1662 and the design of the pencil has not changed greatly over the centuries. Early ones were

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exported. It is found in many parts of the world, including North Carolina, Mexico, Sri Lanka and eastern Siberia. It is also manufactured artificially both in iron furnaces and by electrical methods. The graphite available on markets comes in pencil, stick and powder form.


rods of graphite (graphite mixed with gum or resin) pressed into a grooved piece of wood, rather like the modern pencil, or held in a metal holder very similar to today's clutch or propelling pencils. The Latin 'pencillus' referred to brushes, used with ink in the Middle Ages, rather than to the pencil as we now know it. A more closely related ancestor was silverpoint, a narrow rod made from lead and tin. In the hands (artists as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), silverpoint was made to produce beautiful pictures fine lines, varied to create an immense range of tones. Silverpoint has its drawbacks. It needed a special ground which was time-consuming to make.

7.1

Material

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The pencil is ideal for detail, and for smaller-scale working. It can be made to produce pictures with amazing contrasts and subtleties of tone and textures. Generally speaking, soft pencils make dark, thick lines; hard ones produce light, thin lines. But many new types of drawing pencil are coming

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The ordinary 'lead' pencil is a thin rod of graphite encased in a hollow tube of wood -wrongly named 'lead pencil' because this was what some graphite deposits were originally thought to be when they were first discovered, and because some pencils did occasionally contain lead. The graphite rod is known as the 'lead' or the 'strip'. Pencils, of course, are easily available from many types of shop but the cheaper ones, for Use in offices or schools, tend to be crude compared with artists' pencils; they also tend to be at the harder end of the range. It is a good idea to buy superior quality pencils from art shops. They come individually or in sets, and range in hardness from 9H to 9B -very hard to very soft. Some manufacturers use numbers, starting at 1, 2 etc, with the low numbers designating the softest.


onto the market. Some of these are extra soft, with softer, thicker strips than any in the standard range, and these can be used for large-scale work. 'Studio' pencils are also specialist tools - rectangular in shape, with a rectangular strip -and again, these are good for bigger scale drawings, allowing you to vary the thickness of the line by turning the pencil. Traditional carpenters' pencils were made to a similar design.

7.1.1

Clutch pencils

Most ordinary pencils can be sharpened with a pencil sharpener, either manual or electric, as well as with a craft knife or other type of blade. But the flat studio pencils must be sharpened with a blade or knife. Instead of sharpening your pencils, you can obtain clutch pencils or propelling pencils- which

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A wide variety of papers can be used for drawing with pencils. Smooth boards and cards, cartridge, watercolour papers, tinted paper -all these are suitable. The paper's texture dictates the effects and

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hold the rods of graphite in place so that they can be extended as necessary. These rods, too, come in a full range, from soft to hard, like the woodcovered normal versions.


type of line. Generally, hard pencils do not take very well on smooth surfaces, and very soft pencils can be difficult to control on extremely coarse papers. For lasting results, a finished pencil drawing should be fixed -and for soft pencils this is essential.

7.1.2

Graphite Sticks

For spontaneous and less detailed work, graphite can be obtained in chunky sticks. These are especially recommended when operating on a very bold, large scale. They allow you to achieve various degrees of softness and thickness, coming in softto-hard ranges like ordinary pencils and also in varying thickness. The lines can be altered by using the point, the side of the pointed end, or the flattened length of the stick.

7.1.3

Graphite Powder

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For special effects such as softly graded tones, graphite is available in the form of fine powder. This


is obtainable in some art shops and is used to produce varied areas of tone in a drawing. Rub the powder on with your finger or with a cloth, and use the smudged areas in conjunction with line. An eraser can be used to remove parts of the powder and create white zones in the dark patches. Graphite powder needs practice. It can be slippery, and must be fixed.

7.2 Techniques 7.2.1

Hard Line

Hard pencils produce a paler, thinner line than the softer grades, and are generally less popular with artists than soft pencils. But the thin light line is sometimes useful for an initial drawing which is required to be inconspicuous and not to smudge. So choose a hard pencil when you specifically require a lighter tone -you will get a cleaner line than trying to use a. soft pencil lightly. Avoid the mistake of so many artists who tend to stick to one pencil, varying

the pressure to change the line. There is full range of pencils to choose from, so use them! Here the artist cross-hatches with a 2H pencil to create an area of crisp, light grey tone.

7.2.2

Soft Line

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Dark soft lines characterize the graphite pencils at


the soft end of the range The cross-hatched lines below are drawn with a 3B pencil. Without pressing too hard, the artist is able to make a fairly concise line by using a freshly sharpened pencil . Yet at the same time, the finished sample has a dark, mellow quality. The slightly rough cartridge paper contributes to the soft look, and close observation shows that the pencil lines are broken, with flecks of white showing through.

7.2.3 Hard Scribble The marks you can make with a hard pencil are limited to light grey, whether you are working in line, tone or texture. Make the most of this limitation; when you want to quickly block in a large area of pale texture and tone choose one of the H pencils. There is a considerable difference between an H and 7H pencil, so experiment and explore the possibilities of the whole range. In the illustrations below, the artist is working with a 4H pencil, using

loose scribble on white cartridge paper. The result is a loose and natural texture which the artist frequently employs to break up flat expanses of background in figure and still-life drawing.

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The B pencils, the soft ones, offer a range of deeper tones. Here scribbled texture takes on a more velvety appearance than that created by their harder counterparts. A 4B pencil is being used to cover an expanse of white paper with wide, regular scribbles. The soft, curved strokes are an ideal

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7.2.4 Soft Scribble


technique when dealing with sweeping landscapes, where areas of sky, water, hills and fields require a broad, expansive treatment.

7.2.5

Studio Pencil

A newcomer to the pencil family, these chunky studio pencils have flattened strips. The advantage here is that, by turning the pencil round, you can

alter the width of your line. Here, the artist uses the broad edge of the graphite to block in a flecked texture of broad marks. Graphite sticks allow you to make bold lines and to block in solid areas. Try the 'various types -hard and soft; thick and thin -practising their various effects. For example, in the illustration here the artist uses the flattened edge of the point to lay an area of light tone on rough paper.

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Graphite Stick

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7.3


7.3.1 Blending

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You can rub pencil lines to soften their effect. The softer the pencil, of course, the more effective this type of blending will be. Rubbing hard pencil lines will produce a slightly out of focus effect (1), with soft pencil marks, the result can look very smudgy and dark (2). Most artists restrict such blending to selected areas of a drawing - using it to contrast with the linear character of most pencil drawing or to knock back a tone or texture which has become too strong. Carry out your own experiments, fixing the final effects so that your work does not become more blended than you intended!


Lesson 8: Colour Pencils Objectives To use the various colour and rendering mediums and to develop an understanding of how to choose different mediums for presenting various works.

Structure 8.1.1 Material 8.1.2 Ordinary Colour Pencils 8.1.3 Watercolour Pencils 8.2 Techniques 8.2.1 Cross hatching 8.2.2 Optical Mixing 8.2.3 Colour Mixing 8.2.4 Blending

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The striking characteristic of coloured pencils over the last few decades has been their coming of age. They are no longer exclusively the playthings of children experimenting in the nursery. They are sophisticated tools, continually evolving into more refined products. This is not to criticize the activities of schoolchildren -what we learn with coloured pencils in the classroom is probably the best


grounding of all for potential artists and designers. But nowadays, large sets of artists' pencils, some of them containing a range of 72 colours, give the adult artist command over an extremely subtle variety of tones. This vastly increased range can even threaten to overwhelm the beginner.

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Both ordinary coloured pencils, and their watersoluble versions (sometimes called watercolour pencils), are extremely popular with illustrators and animators. They produce a certain effect which has become fashionable -a lightly-textured delicate finish seen in many animation films and children's and magazine illustrations. This lightness, in fact, is the symptom of a characteristic which, for the fine artist, can be quite a problem. It is difficult to build up 'tonal contrasts; the white paper is rarely completely obliterated. Even if you are using black, it is difficult to prevent the paper from playing a lightening role. It is not easy to build up tone as you would with paint, because the waxy nature of the


pencil colours obliterates the slight texture of the paper surface, the 'key', making the support increasingly smooth with each additional pencil stroke. Most artists take this into account, and use pencils for certain tasks and particular subjects, working within these limitations. For work on a smaller scale with coloured pencils, you can combine blocked-in areas of colour with linear drawing, producing a detailed or naturalistic finished picture. But one of the areas where coloured pencils really come into their own is in mixed media work. Here you can combine the light touch of the coloured pencil with the stronger, denser tones of inks, paints and many other materials. These, and other adventurous combinations, open up a range of unusual and experimental effects.

8.1

Material

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Factories produce billions of coloured pencils to a high degree of precision, ensuring that once a hue has been established -careful measurements of components churned automatically in huge drums the same colour is reproduced, exactly. The wood

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Coloured pencils are made from a mixture of clay and pigment, bound together with gum, soaked in wax and pressed into rods encased in wood. In recent years, there has been an enormous increase in the variety of coloured pencils available in the market. Not only has the range of colours been vastly expanded, but you-can now obtain watercolour pencils -allowing you to dissolve or partially dissolve the colours on the paper with water. Ordinary coloured pencils differ according to the manufacturer and the series you choose. Some of them are waxy and extra hard; others are soft and crumbly, approaching the pastel pencils in texture and effect.


encasements are often made from soft Californian cedar so that the pencils can be sharpened without splitting. Coloured pencils are more difficult to erase than graphite pencils. The only way to remove a heavy coloured pencil mark is to scrape it back to the surface with a sharp blade. However, this type of correction must be severely restricted because the roughened paper surface quickly becomes unworkable.

8.1.1

Ordinary Colour Pencils

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in sets of up to 72 colours. Children's and generalpurpose coloured pencils are all right for quick sketching and drawing, but they are less refined than those made specifically for use in the studio. The pencils can be obtained in round or hexagonal wooden encasements. They look practically indestructible - but like all pencils, they must be handled with care. This is something a lot of people do not realize -if you drop them or treat them roughly; the colour strips inside the wood will fracture. Thus when you sharpen the pencil the short crumbled pieces will simply fall away.

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You can buy ordinary coloured pencils individually or


Special coloured pencils are produced for use on film and acetate. This type of pencil is used mainly by illustrators and in animation studios, and is unnecessary for ordinary drawing.

8.1.2

Watercolour Pencils

These can be used as ordinary coloured pencils, or as 'painting' pencils. When using them in a painterly way, apply clean water with a soft brush to those areas which you want to blend or soften. Alternatively, you can dampen the paper first, so that the marks made by the pencil will bleed and expand slightly to produce a broad, soft line.

Techniques

8.2.1

Cross-hatching

The secret of mixing coloured pencils is to make the white or light tone of the paper work for you. Artists and illustrators who work frequently with this versatile medium know that you cannot bully coloured pencils into forming a particular colour you have to cajole them. For example, if you decided to mix green from blue and yellow: -and a 'mixed' green composed of flecks of yellow and blue is far more interesting than a green which is merely picked from the box -you could not easily achieve this by simply scribbling dense yellow over dense blue. The result would be uneven and unattractive, and such closely worked strokes would automatically prevent you from building up further colour should you so wish, because the surface would already have become shiny and unworkable. By far the best approach is to build up the colour

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8.2

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Very soft, chunky jumbo-sized watercolour pencils are now available, ideally suited to large-scale work. They come in sets, complete with their own pencilsharpener L standard sharpeners do not fit these outsize materials.


gradually, using widely spaced lines with plenty of white paper showing through -as the artist is doing in the illustrations on this page. Cross-hatching is a good way of doing this because the fine, regular lines give you maximum control over the final result. First, patches of regular blue hatching are applied evenly over a fairly large expanse of white cartridge paper -if the area is too small it will be difficult to appreciate the overall effect. Yellow hatching of a similar texture is then worked on top of this. The result is a lively, broken colour in which the pure yellow and blue are still discernible, yet which is interpreted by the viewer as green.

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The 'optical' mixing demonstrated here is simply a continuation of the cross-hatched colour combination on the previous page. First, more blue

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8.2.2 Optical Mixing


is added to darken the tone; the artist then works in a bright red, lending a warm tone to the overall colour. Had they been laid over each other in dense layers, the red, yellow and blue would have turned into a dull mass of uneven brownish-grey; the top colour would have been the dominant one, and the general effect become clogged and dull. But, because the artist allowed plenty of white paper to show between the strokes, the three colours combine quite naturally to form a neutral hue which is brownish-grey when viewed from a distance, but in which the yellow, blue and red are still visible.

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likely to be. Why use flat orange, for example, when

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These illustrations demonstrate one of the basic principles of coloured pencil drawing, and they also help to explain why the medium has become such a popular one. With coloured pencils you can achieve glowing and shimmering effects by building up the colours. And the more you can exploit these colour combinations, the more interesting the result is


you can create a whole range of exciting, multicolour oranges from red, yellow and tinges of any other colour you care to add? The resulting mixtures -often delicate and unusual -' have far greater visual impact than flat, commercially mixed colours. Try your own colour mixing. The result will be surprisingly effective and encourage you to experiment further with this innovative medium.

8.2.3

Colour Mixing

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Work through your pencil set, taking each colour in turn and overlaying this with every other colour in the box. You might find it useful to keep a chart of your discoveries, a handy reference to help you see at a glance how to mix the colour you want.

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We have talked about the various ways of mixing colours - including cross-hatching, optical mixing and overlaying. And with a little practice you will be able to use the materials without any problem. But knowing how to blend and mix the pencils does not actually tell you what colours to choose if you want to make a particular colour. For this you need to know a little about colour theory, and to experiment by trying as many colour combinations as possible.


Water-soluble pencils can be blended with water. After lightly overlaying the required colours, take a soft brush and work the overlaid colours with a Little clean water. The result is similar to .that of

watercolour paint, and often has the same delicate transparent quality. There is one problem with this technique; the colours tend to darken and change sometimes quite dramatically - when they are wet. It is not always easy to know what the result will be. Again, practice will help you to anticipate a likely outcome. But in any case; you should not attempt to imitate watercolour paint with watercolour pencils -they are essentially a drawing medium and are at their best when blending is restricted to limited areas. On the previous pages we looked at effective ways of mixing colour, of overlaying two or three separate colours to create a new one. This was made possible by using the white paper and by building up the pencil lines gradually in several easily controlled stages. The 'blending' here -is done more directly, by overlaying colours, one flat area on top of another. If you decide you want this type of flat tone rather than the broken colours of optical

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Blending

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8.2.4


mixing and cross-hatching, you must remember the limitations of the material and proceed carefully. First, apply the initial colour as lightly as possible with the side of the pencil. This method does not completely destroy the key of the paper surface and enables you to add one or two more colours if you continue to work as lightly, as possible. Deeper tones can be created by building up two or three flat, light colours but already the artist is finding it difficult to add further red because the underlying pencil is too dense to receive more colour.

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The texture of the paper is important when blending coloured pencils. Here the artist made the task easier by using fairly coarse cartridge paper -the waxy colour got caught on the raised parts of the support's surface texture, leaving the minute indents as white, Regular sharpening is another essential if you want to keep the colours unfuzzy and clear, and the surface of the paper as unclogged as possible.


Lesson 9: Pastels Objectives To learn the technique of using pastel colours and their areas of application.

Structure 9.1. 9.2. 9.3

Material Choosing Supports 9.2.1 Oil Pastels Techniques 9.3.1 Blending 9.3.2 Mixing 9.3.3 Side of the stick 9.3.4 Scribbled Texture 9.3.5 Texture 9.3.5 a Cross-hatching 9.3.6 Optical Mixing 9.3.7 Oil Pastel and Turpentine

Introduction

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Where do pastels really belong? Some say they are really 'paints', and 'pastel painting' is often the term


used for work done with them; but they are also linear tools, and therefore they have a rightful place in a drawing book. In many ways, they belong with the chunky materials such as the colour sticks, but as they require more practice, they warrant a section of their own. Like colour sticks, pastels are ideal for large-scale work and suited to a free, interpretive use of colour. They can be employed on a small scale but there is a tendency for this to have a 'chocolate box' look if you are not careful.

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The more recent oil pastels are another matter. Here, there are fewer colours, with a limited range of tones to each one. They are cruder, and it is difficult to achieve any subtle effects -usually a

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They come in two definite types -the familiar soft, crumbly pastels and oil pastels. And two completely different approaches are called for. With soft pastels, colours need to be built up; blended and overlaid to obtain the right tone and colour. In this respect they are similar to paints. You therefore need a large range of colours - several tones of the same colour can be used to obtain a realistic effect. Look at the pastels of Edgar Degas (1834-1917), a formidable experimenter with techniques and materials. You will see flesh tones built up with bold directional strokes of pinks, oranges, mauves and browns to achieve the subtle, translucent effect of human skin. This technique, however, definitely needs practice! An amateur's common mistake is to start by using the colour too densely, making it difficult to add further colours. When you have become used to them, pastels can be used to produce a beautiful finished painting with as much subtlety and detail as you may wish. Soft pastel needs fixing -a light, spray with fixative after each stage will help stop the fine powder rubbing off as you work.


mistake to try. Oil pastels are best for large, bold work -an immediate effect if you want a lively, colourful and quick rendering of a subject. They are extremely handy for outdoor work for this reason. Oil pastels can be dissolved with turps to achieve a blend, but this is usually best kept to a minimum, for there is no point using oil pastels if what you really require is a smoothly blended oil painting. They belong to a quick, bold, instant approach -just right if you want to build up confidence in drawing with colour.

9.1

Material

The so-called 'soft' pastels are made from powder pigment bound with resin or gum to hold them together in stick form: They can be square or round. Soft pastels come in three grades -soft, medium and hard. The harder pastels are mixed with extra gum or binder, which detracts from the colour brilliance; and this is why the softest pastels are the brightest.

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When working with soft pastels you need a wide selection of shades or tints. The lighter the tint, the more white chalk it contains. You can buy the sticks singly or in sets containing widely varying amounts, from 12 to more then 300 sticks. You can also


purchase 'landscape' and 'portrait' sets in which the colours are biased towards either of these areas. How the pastels are stored is important. Boxed pastels are laid on strips of ridged cardboard to separate the colours. Loose pastels become very grubby, rubbing off on each other until it is impossible to tell the colours apart. One good idea is to keep loose pastels in a box partially filled with grains of dried rice -the friction of the grains cleans the pastels and keeps the sticks sparkling and fresh. Many artists make their own pastels, by mixing up the pigments and varying quantities of zinc white with distilled water and. gelatine. Despite the wide range available, they still prefer to make colours to match their own particular requirements. The lighter shades are made by increasing the amount of white each time, so a very large range of tones of one colour can be achieved, to fit in with an individual taste.

9.2

Choosing Supports

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Supports for soft pastels are crucial. The colour of the support will become an important part of the finished picture, and should be chosen to match the subject. Papers with a matt or slightly textured surface are best for pastels. Smooth papers are less suitable although vellum or calligraphy paper is good for delicate, light pastel work.


The paper must be of good quality in order to withstand the layers of pastel work. Special pastel paper similar to the very finest grade of industrial sandpaper is available in art shops. Colours adhere thickly to this surface to give a strong, brilliant effect. Ordinary sandpaper can be used but produces a very definite effect which you may or may not like. You need to fix the work, spraying each stage lightly and allowing it to dry. If you overdo this, however, you will create a shiny varnished surface which is unworkable. Fixing also alters the colours, so take care. Many artists fix from the back- spraying the back of the paper so that some soaks through. Some artists find this less effective, but it does hold the powdered colour to some extent and does not darken the colours. Use a torchon to blend the colours -buy one or make your own by rolling a piece of paper to form a stick with a pointed end. Alternatively, you can rub with tissue paper or fine cloth for larger areas. You can also use a soft brush to lift the colour, and a kneadable eraser to remove colour.

These are heavy -more like oil paint than any other drawing medium -and they do not crumble like traditional soft pastels. They are therefore ideal for outdoor colour sketching. They come in bright colours, usually available in sets. There are less choices of tone, but oil pastels are' best for bold line work with the occasional block of solid colour or texture. They are best used on a large scale. Use strong paper. You can blend the colours with turps. Limited colour mixing is possible by overlaying colours, but this is not easy to control.

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Oil Pastels

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9.2.1


9.3

Technique

9.3.1

Blending

The secret of successful soft pastel work lies in colour blending. With practised handling pastels are as versatile as paint, carefully blended to produce a complete range of subtle tints and hues. These may be either areas of flat tone, or textured broken colour. Here the artist demonstrates one method of blending two separate colours to create a smooth, yet broken colour combination -an effect often used to depict skies and water. Bold white streaks are first drawn on to an expanse of flat blue pastel colour. This is then gently rubbed to remove the harsh pastel lines and edges, thus merging the colours.

9.3.2

Mixing

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Providing you apply the colour sparingly and lightly, pastels can be built up in several layers to produce beautiful and shimmering effects of mixed colour. Only by experimenting and practising will you find out how different shades and hues combine, and how many pastel colours can be laid over each other before the paper becomes clogged and unworkable.


In the illustration here, the artist starts by blocking in an area of fairly solid purple, lightening this with thin white streaks. Light red scribbling lends a pinkish tinge to the overall colour. You might find it helpful to fix each colour with a light spray of fixative, allowing this to dry before moving on to the next colour.

9.3.3

Side of the Stick

Paper tone is an important element in pastel paintings, and this can be better integrated into your picture if you lay colour with the broad side of the stick. This method allows the colour to adhere to the

raised parts of the matt pastel support, causing the paper tone to show through. With a particularly coarse support, such as watercolour paper, the effect is even more marked, and has a rough, granular texture. In the demonstration, bright red is laid evenly on a darker paper; the final tone is influenced by the deeper tone showing through.

9.3.4

Scribbled Texture

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Again, the tone of the underlying paper can be


exploited by applying colour in scribbled or broken strokes. This basic technique may seem obvious, yet it is one of the most important underlying principles of all pastel work. Practice the method extensively; starting as the artist is here, scribbling a colour on a tinted paper to produce an area of loosely broken colour. You can then develop this, lightly adding more colour and tone to achieve the exact combination you require. Keep the scribbles loose and wide apart to prevent the colour from becoming too dense, otherwise you will lose the light, airy quality which this approach creates.

9.3.5

Texture

'Texture' is an all-embracing term which, to the artist, means the visual or tactile surface structure of the work. Thus: all areas of pattern or built up marks fall into this very broad category. Try out as many textures as you can think of. In this way you will have at your disposal a store of techniques -a sort of visual repertoire -to fall back on, and your work will be more creative and lively as a result. Here the artist experiments with a texture of looped scribbles starting with one colour and adding to this with further colours worked in the same looped strokes.

9.3.5a Cross-hatching

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Cross-hatching with pastel is unusual, simply because it is not strictly necessary. There are quicker ways of building up colour and texture when using pastels. However, hatching and cross-hatching does produce a crisp linear effect which can often provide a welcome contrast to the soft, smudgy


nature of much pastel work. Use the pastel in exactly the same way that you would work with a pencil or pen, building up small regular lines to produce an overall criss-cross texture. Here the dark red paper shows through, deepening the colour of the final effect.

9.3.6

Optical Mixing

All coloured drawing materials are ideal for mixing colour optically, and the small flecks, which mix in the eye rather than being blended together on the paper, can be easily and quickly dotted in with pastel. The soft, broad tip of the stick produces a largish mark, and the slight flick of colour, created naturally

as you lay dots quickly, provides an irregular mark which prevents the pattern from looking too mechanical. Here the artist combines light blue dots with bright red ones, using the tone of the paper as a third colour in the finished effect

Oil pastels can be dissolved with turpentine or white spirit, enabling you to blend colours smoothly and completely. However, it is not a method which should be overdone. For full effect, limit these blended areas to selected parts of your drawing, and try blending the selected colours on a separate sheet of paper first -the strength and tone of oil

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Oil Pastel and Turpentine

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9.3.7


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pastels increase a lot when diluted with turpentine. Practise the technique by laying two colours next to each other and using a brush or clean rag dipped in turpentine to dissolve and work the colours together.


Lesson 10: Pen, Brush and

Ink Structure: 10.1 Materials 10.1.1 Technical Pens 10.1.1.1 Dips Pens 10.1.1.2 Ballpoints 10.1.1.3 Fountain pens 10.1.1.4 Quills and Reed Pens 10.1.2 Inks 10.1.3 Brushes

This creative medium allows you to combine line with areas of colour and tone. If can be used in monochrome or in multi-coloured pictures. You can

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This is a medium which was used by some of the great masters centuries ago and is still easily available, not only in its traditional form but also in a wide range of modern variations. When you sit down with pen, brush and ink, you may be working directly in the tradition of past artists such as Rembrandt (1606-69), who created drawings with brown ink and wash -some as preliminary sketches for paintings but many as finished pictures in their own right. Yet you are also working with a medium which allows for a great deal of experiment, for it embraces some of the latest materials,

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10.2 Techniques 10.2.1 Technical Pen 10.2.2 Quill Pen 10.2.3 Brush 10.2.4 Ballpoint Pen


work with line alone, or you can use line with blocks of colour. Our artist demonstrates a line drawing with a technical pen; a bright circus scene with blocks of pure colour enlivened with dip pen and line; and a quick sketch made with an ordinary ballpoint pen. You would be well advised to experiment with different pens. Get the feel of an old quill pen and compare it with- modern fountain pens, ballpoints and technical pens. The medium can be used for finished works or for rapid on-the-spot sketching. Inks are now available in a huge range of colours, some brilliant or even fluorescent; they also come as concentrates.

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For the beginner, ballpoints and technical pens are ideal training tools. There are no precedents (no old master ballpoint drawings!), and therefore you can feel completely free to experiment. And the limitations of these tools can also be turned to advantage for quick sketching -they produce rather boring, unvaried lines in themselves. This means you can concentrate on getting down the information without worrying about how the finished drawing looks. You can work tight or loose, or combine these two approaches in the same work. The uncompromising lines will also force you to tackle directly some of the basic techniques of drawing, such as hatching and cross-hatching, to achieve a tonal effect.

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There are various ways of exploring the possibilities and limitations of the medium. You can experiment with brush drawings, such as the Chinese 'boneless' style without outlines. You can start with line and add colour, or begin with blocks of solid colour and add line.


10.1.

Materials

These materials include the ordinary, everyday pens which can be bought in stationery shops and also some of the more technical types of pen. Even though there has been impressive technological development in this field, the old-fashioned quill has still not disappeared, and in fact is increasingly used by artists who like its characteristic, natural-looking line. The quill is direct opposite, the modem technical pen, is a rewarding challenge if you are a beginner seeking to explore some of the basic principles of drawing. Our artist chooses a technical pen to illustrate some of these principles.

10.1.1 Technical pens The tubular nib of the technical pen produces a regular, ungiving line. This is suited to graphic, linear work, and our artist uses one in the still life on page 70. Technical pens can be bought at art shops and graphic suppliers. You can obtain different nibs -sometimes called 'stylos'- from very fine to very broad. The number varies with the make. One manufacturer produces 19, another 12. The tubular nibs can clog and must be cleaned after use with a proprietary solvent cleaner. You can use special inks, made by the pen manufacturers and obtainable along with the pens, to help prevent this clogging. But if a nib does clog, soaking in solvent cleaner can often save it. These are the pens once associated with schoolrooms, where children made blots on their initial, scratchy efforts at handwriting. Dipping the pen into the ink and controlling the lines on paper was not easy for young schoolchildren at first, because. the pen itself does not greatly restrict the flow of ink, and it responds to varied pressure on the paper. It is for these very reasons that the dip

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Dip Pens

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10.1.1.1


pen is popular with artists. The pen gives a varied and undulating line which can be turned to different effects. Most art shops have a range of nibs which are used in the same standard holder; and for tiny, extra-fine lines there are mapping nibs with their own small holders. You need a good supply of nibs. They don't last for ever, and with constant pressure they tend to spread.

10.1.1.2

Ballpoints

These are cheap and easily available. Although they do not make interesting or varied line's, they are ideal for the quick sketch which is to be used as a reference for later work in the studio or home. They come in limited ranges of colour, usually red; blue, black and green.

10.1.1.3

Fountain pens

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Fountain or reservoir pens are also useful for


drawing. They offer a variable line -not quite as interesting as that of the dip pen, but you do not have to keep stopping to dip into the ink, so they are useful for sketching. Remember, however, that the nibs are riot designed for drawing, and consequently they can be comparatively short-lived.

10.1.1.4

Quills and Reed Pens

These earliest types of drawing materials have maintained their popularity over the centuries because of their ability to produce varied lines and often beautiful effects. Quills are available in art shops, You will need practice in order to develop their versatility. They require cutting frequently, to form anew nib, because the tip soon softens; use a sharp blade or craft knife for this.

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10.1.2 Inks

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Reed pens can also be bought at many art shops and these make a hard, jerky line, capturing the linear effect of dip pens but on a completely different scale. You need to dip into the ink a great many times with quills and reeds, and you should experiment to collect the right amount of ink and avoiding flooding and blotting,


The last few years have seen a big increase in the range of inks. Water soluble and waterproof are the main categories. Inks come in all colours. Waterproof concentrates can be obtained in bottles, and they are very strong. The colours can be diluted as required, allowing for some degree of experimentation. They come in a 'very good range of colours. Some of these, however, are fugitive and fade quickly. 10.1.3

Brushes

Any watercolour brushes can be used with inks. For line painting, sable has a nice, springy quality, but sable- mixes and other hair brushes, are also effective. Synthetic brushes are suitable, although they have less spring. Chinese and Japanese brushes have soft, pointed bristles, good for flowing, natural lines.

10.2

Techniques

10.2.1 Technical Pen

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The technical pen forces you to use line, and only line. Tone, texture and pattern must all be created from this single element, and you therefore need to be as resourceful and inventive as possible when using this piece of equipment. And the regular, mechanical line -so restricting in many ways -also has its compensations. For example, the rigid tul1ular nib can be relied upon not to flood and blot, and you can exploit this constant factor by extensively weaving the fine lines into a wealth of


different textures and surface patterns. Here the artist builds up regular marks of cross-hatched tone, using the smooth surface of white card to help produce the final, graphic effects.

10.2.2 Quill Pen The old-fashioned quill pen differs from the modem technical pen in almost every way. Here, the problem is not one of how to make a mechanical line more interesting, but rather one of having a line which is uniquely interesting, but can also be too irregular and sometimes difficult to control! The quill needs practice, and you will have to dip into the ink frequently as you work. Do not attempt a neatly rendered drawing-instead, make the most of the natural, undulating marks which your feather pen produces. Here the artist uses a scribbly line to produce an area of broken tone from the irregular hatching.

Tension or uncertainty will be reflected in the quality of the lines, and the smooth, articulate flow which typifies the best brushwork will not be achieved. So

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Watercolour brushes make ideal drawing tools. The finer the brush, the more delicate the line. But a word of warning -the artist who draws with the brush, must be relaxed and well-versed in the medium.

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10.2.3 Brush


spend same time getting used to the technique of brush drawing. Ideally, decide where you want to make the mark, and then apply it boldly and confidently -don't work cautiously, or hold the brush too tightly. Here, the characteristic tapering lines of the watercolour brush are used to create an area of tone.

10.2.4 Ballpoint Pen

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With ballpoint pens, you are not ain1ing for subtle drawing. This everyday, familiar writing tool comes into its own as a quick, convenient means of sketching when more conventional drawing tools are unavailable. Its techniques are confined to unexpressive line, hatching and scribbling, so get used to working within these limitations. Our artist uses scribble tone a lot when sketching with a ballpoint pen, usually starting with a loose, overall pattern, and then building this up to the required darkness or density.


Lesson 11: Markers Structure 11.1.1 11.1.2 11.1.3 11.1.4 11.1.5 11.1.6 11.1.7 11.1.8

Materials Markers Felt-tip pens Fine Liners Techniques Using Markers Making Texture Using Lighter Fuel

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The 'traditional' wedge tipped studio markers, with their thick rectangular drawing points, are commonly used for presentation work, graphic design and occasionally for animation. In the commercial studio, marker artists are specialists who learn a whole range of techniques to fit the product. Wood grain, reflective metal surfaces and even the subtle gradations or tints of portrait and figure work can be miraculously rendered with markers. However, without going to these lengths of

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Technology is relentlessly improving upon the marker and fibre-tip pen, and new products are coming on to the market all the time. There is no need to recoil in puritanical shock from this brash young medium -it is available for all types of artists to experiment with, even though they have come to be associated norri1ally with the graphic artist's studio. For the fine artist, the wide variety of products available offers a whole range of colours and lines which can be used in a completely different way from their normal commercial role.


expertise, and without producing the finish necessary in studio work, markers can be borrowed from their commercial settings to produce lovely and unusual drawings. They exist in their own right as a colourful and chunky drawing material. All artists use them in an individual way -creating graphic pictures which exploit the crisp quality of markers; yet making the colours work in a controlled manner. However, he has not forgotten the basic characteristics of the medium. Remember that you cannot produce traditionally-rendered pictures with a flat colour. There are limitations. The secret is to choose a subject which suits this medium, something which can be illustrated in a striking, graphic manner, rather than a subject calling for traditional toning. Look for something bright and bold -and have a go. There are numerous felt-tip pens, liners, fibre-tip brushes and other tools which come into this broad new category. You don't have to become an expert in them all. You are probably familiar with some of these pens as writing tools. Be open-minded and experiment with the different marks. A good artist is not dependent on conventional pens and pencils -a marker or felt-tip pen can be made to do -some spectacular work.

11.1

Materials

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For the fine artist, however, there is no need to worry too much about technical categories, or about their specialist role in the designer's studio. Your

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As any artist knows there are thousands of markers, fibre-tip pens and related drawing implements now on the market. Not only does every manufacturer produce its own range of such materials, but these are changing and being developed all the time, with superb and bewildering ranges to choose from.


interest will probably be of a more general and experimental nature.

11.1.1 Markers Wedge tipped markers come in sets or can be bought individually. Each marker has a broad, obliquely cut felt tip which draws the ink from the cylindrical, glass holder. This glass holder has a removable screw top to allow for refills. Many artists prefer these traditional markers to some of the more recent streamlined types because when not in use they can be stood upright rather than left around the desk or table. Markers come in a wide range of colours, and each colour is usually available in a number of shades. For example, one product has nine cool greys and nine warm greys. The colours are very accurate, but they do darken with use. The life of a marker can be extended by diluting the ink with lighter fuel, although this obviously lightens the colour. Marker artists generally work on special marker paper because the colours tend to bleed on ordinary, more porous surfaces. This makes them unsuitable for the slick finish which markers are most often used for. However, as a drawing and sketching medium this may not matter indeed, you probably prefer a brighter, more spontaneous effect. The marker ink is soluble in lighter fuel, making it easy to spread the colour in graded washes. It is also an effective way of creating broken colour and texture.

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Broadly speaking, felt-tips are flexible arid wide. Markers fall into this category. There are many other brands available. Some, such as the luminous 'highlighters', are made specifically for office use. Others come in a range of colours and are available

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11.1.2 Felt-tip Pens


from art and graphic suppliers. Look at the label to see if you are buying a soluble or waterproof product. 'Brush' pens have a soft, pliable tip and produce lines similar to those made with a watercolour brush. Some of these have a solid, pithy tip; others are actually made like brushes, with tiny synthetic bristles. Again, the choice is a wide choice. Try one or two brands to see which suit you best. Some have hard tips; others are more flexible; some pens are water soluble, others permanent. You can buy sets of felttips in a wide range of colours -some of these are manufactured specially for the artist, others for use in the office or playroom. The 'office' variety tends to come in limited colours, often black, blue, red or green. For drawing and sketching, your main concern will probably be with the width and type of tip. New tips are usually rigid and produce a hard line, and become more flexible after being used. Many artists keep two pens to hand -a new one for strong, hard lines, and an old favourite with a 'broken in' tip for softer shading.

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The terms 'fine liner' issued broadly for all those synthetic tip pens which produce a characteristic thin, spidery line. These pens are used in offices and graphic design and illustration studios. In many ways the fine liner is a disposable version of the technical pen – sometimes these drawings are almost indistinguishable from one done with a technical pen. Fine liners are excellent for detailed, illustrative work and for small-scale drawings and sketches.

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11.1.3 Fine Liners


11.2

Techniques

11.2.1 Using Markers Probably the most popular type of marker in use is the wedge-tipped variety, so-called because of its broad chiselled end. With this one drawing tool you can make three widths of line, lay broad areas of colour and tone, and glaze one colour over another. Practice is the key to successful marker work. Markers have definite limitations, and specialist marker artists readily admit that their job consists chiefly of finding ways round these limitations. However, if you are using markers solely as an adventurous drawing and sketching medium, you need not worry about these professional drawbacks. Your main concern is to familiarize yourself with the materials so that you can use them confidently and quickly. The techniques on this page are simple and straightforward, but you do need to try them out several times before attempting to integrate them into a drawing. Use good quality products -not only are the results smoother and easier to achieve, but the colours are less likely to bleed and 'drag' into each other when one marker is laid over another.

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The wedge-tipped studio marker is capable of producing a variety of marks. Here the artist uses different sides of the felt-tip to make broad, medium and narrow lines. Practise this until you achieve a smooth, even flow -by turning the marker as you draw, you can vary the width of a particular line, producing a flowing, undulating mark.


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To overlay colour, allow the first layer to dry before working quickly over this with a second colour. Providing you choose a good quality product, work quickly, and allow the first colour to dry properly, the second colour should not 'drag' or disturb the underlying colour.

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To lay a flat colour, work quickly in broad; horizontal lines, taking each line over the edge of the previous one before it has time to dry. For a large expanse of colour, use lighter fuel to spread the ink.


11.2.2 Making Texture

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2. Broad flecks of colour are laid with the wide end of the marker strip. The pattern of such marks can be varied to suit the subject in hand, and the flecks can be close and dense or wide apart, depending on the required texture and density of colour. Here the marks are laid in a loosely parallel fashion. The technique is often used by this artist to block-in wide expanses of flat ground -the direction of the marks being used to indicate the direction of the flow of the landscape.

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1. Markers produce a steady flow of even colour. This makes them excellent for some types of work, but limits their use in other ways. For instance, to produce the light feathery texture demonstrated here, the artist works in loose, scribbly strokes, relying on the irregular, broken shapes of white paper showing through to produce the textural effect.


3. Use the side of the marker strip for blocking in broad areas. Again, the technique is useful for wide, directional sweeps of colour. To achieve a flatter effect, use lighter fuel with the marker (see following page).

11.2.

Using Lighter Fuel

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Lighter fuel-normally used to refill cigarette lightersis extremely versatile and useful, and an essential item in the marker artist's studio. Not only can it be used to dilute the ink, thus extending the life of a marker, but it can also be exploited to create a whole range of texture effects. Although most marker manufacturers make proprietary solvents, specially suited to their particular products, lighter fuel is a cheap, all-purpose alternative and works


quite adequately with all petroleum-based markers. You must, however, treat lighter fuel with respect. It is highly flammable and it also gives off dangerous fumes, so be sure to work in a wellventilated area, away from cigarettes and naked light. Although markers can be used to create flat areas of colour, this becomes tricky if you have to cover very large areas. The ink tends to dry in streaks before you have time to blend the edges. However, if you first spread lighter fuel over the area to be rendered, the marker colour remains wet long enough for the marks to bleed, or blend together and the result is completely even. This technique can be adapted to create multi-coloured 'washes', and to lay graded colours.

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1. To lay an area of flat colour, first sprinkle the lighter fuel across the area to be blocked in. Work on the sealed side of the marker paper, using enough fuel to cover the area properly, but taking care not to flood the paper. Spread the fuel with a clean rag or tissue.

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Choice of paper affects results, especially when using lighter fuel to spread the colour. Proper marker paper is sealed on one -occasionally, both sides. This stops the marker inks from bleeding, thus producing brighter colours and also enabling you to produce crisp shapes and hard edges. Other papers, not specially prepared for use with markers, absorb colour and give a softer, amorphous effect. One drawback with 'non marker' papers is that the colour soaks through to the reverse side. This can be messy and will spoil any paper underneath, especially if you are working on a pad.


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2. Holding the marker strip firmly between the thumb and forefinger, lay the colour with parallel, overlapping stripes. As the marker ink starts to run out, the colour becomes lighter.


Summary: Students should understand the role of colouring and rendering and decide on the medium most suitable for a particular presentation work. The most commonly used and available materials are: graphite pencils, Colour pencils Pastels, Pen brush and ink and Markers. The most common of all drawing instruments, the graphite pencil, is by no means the easiest to use.The pencil is ideal for detail, and for smallerscale working. It can be made to produce pictures with amazing contrasts and subtleties of tone and textures. Generally speaking, soft pencils make dark, thick lines; hard ones produce light, thin lines. Clutch pencils, Graphite Sticks, Graphite Powder etc are used to get different effects. Hard pencils produce hard lines that are paler, thinner line than the softer grades, and are generally less popular with artists than soft pencils. But the thin light line is sometimes useful for an initial drawing which is required to be inconspicuous and not to smudge. Soft lines are produced by soft pencils. Dark soft lines characterize the graphite pencils at the soft end of the range.

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The B pencils, the soft ones, offer a range of deeper tones. A newcomer to the pencil family, these chunky studio pencils have flattened strips. The advantage here is that, by turning the pencil round, you can alter the width of your line. Graphite sticks allow you to make bold lines and to block in solid areas. Blending

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The marks you can make with a hard pencil are limited to light grey, whether you are working in line, tone or texture which is just like a hard scribble.


You can rub pencil lines to soften their effect. The softer the pencil, of course, the more effective this type of blending will be. There are ordinary Colour Pencils and water colour pencils. Cross hatching, optical mixing, colour mixing and blending are the most commonly used techniques. The secret of mixing coloured pencils is to make the white or light tone of the paper work for you. Colour pencils can be used for optical mixing i.e. two-three colours are mixed to produce a different colour by means of any rendering technique. The so-called 'soft' pastels are made from powder pigment bound with resin or gum to hold them together in stick form: They can be square or round. Soft pastels come in three grades -soft, medium and hard. The harder pastels are mixed with extra gum or binder, which detracts from the colour brilliance; and this is why the softest pastels are the brightest.

The old tool of writing reed and quill pens, brushes and ink can also be used to create different style of rendering. Markers can also be helpful in rendering.

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Other than colours and graphite pencils, another medium of rendering is pens. There are many technical pens available like rotrings with very delicate and flat tip, ball pens, gel pens, fountain pens.

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Pastels are heavy -more like oil paint than any other drawing medium -and they do not crumble like traditional soft pastels. They are therefore ideal for outdoor colour sketching. They come in bright colours, usually available in sets. The techniques of using pastels are the same like blending, mixing, using the side of the stick etc.


Assignments and learning activities 1. Students have to do exercises with the help of the available mediums using two or more mediums. 2. Students must do a number of assignments using the all the materials discussed to gain proficiency in work.

Intext Questions: 1. Discuss any two materials used for rendering and their application and technique to use. 2. Write short notes on a) stippling b) scribbling c) blending d) cross hatching.

Terminal Questions: 1. On what basis would you choose the colour medium for rendering any composition? Explain with the help of examples. 2. Transfer the following view on a ivory sheet and render the same in the following mediums: a) Poster Colours b) Water Colours

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c) Pen and Ink


1) Transfer the following view onto a gateway tracing sheet and render it in the following mediums: a) Pencil Colours

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c) Technical Pens

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b) Crayons


Unit – IV

Texture and Pattern Lesson 12: Texture

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Lesson 13: Patterns


Lesson 12: Texture Objectives To explore texture and the application to interior design. To understand the importance of texture in any space.

Structure 12.1 Texture: surface 12.2 Overview Find Relief with texture The feel of texture The look of texture Texture affects colour Patterns & Weaves produce texture 12.2.6 Textures in a Room 12.2.7 Wall Coverings 12.2.8 Paints 12.2.9 Masonry 12.2.10 Hard Flooring 12.2.11 Fabrics 12.2.12 Trimmings 12.2.13 Straw, Cane, Rush 12.2.14 Pattern Creates Interest 12.2.15 Room Emotion by Texture 12.2.16 Combining Textures

Texture is the definition of surface attributes having either visual or actual variety. Soft velvet, rough stucco walls, coarse sisal fibre flooring, colour

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12.2.1 12.2.2 12.2.3 12.2.4 12.2.5


alternation, smooth glass, and rock jaggedness to name a few examples. Except for colour, nothing adds so much interest to a room as pattern and texture. Although technically, everything has texture, smooth surfaces lack the three dimensional interest of rougher surfaces. The shadow play that sets up in textural materials, creating changing patterns & subtle nuances of colour, is part of magic. Another element is the pleasure that many textures, smooth or rough, give the sense of touch -a pleasure that is suggested just by looking at them

12.2

Overview

12.2.1 Find Relief with Texture Surfaces that have character bring visual interest to the room without sacrificing overall visual harmony. The attention to detail becomes apparent when the occupant gets closer to the texture. This invites feeling the depth or relief of the surface while interacting with the room. The rule for texture is the same as that for colour. Don't over do it. Just as a room lacking in texture is bland, so one with an excess of textured materials, or one with too many kinds, is distracting. What is needed is a delicate balance of smooth, pile & rough texture, each one enhancing the other.

12.2.1.1

The Feel of Texture

12.2.1.2

The Look of Texture

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Building bricks, gravel walls & burlap curtains feel rough to the touch. Satin feels smooth -so does a painted window sill or a glass tumbler. Velvet feels soft -so does a kitten's fur; & moss feels soft & cool. The skin of a peach feels fuzzy. Contrast the sharp scratchiness of steel wool or sandpaper with cold, slick feel of metal.


Some textures spell enjoyment to you and you are drawn to touch them; others indicate by their look that you will dislike them & you avoid contact with them whenever possible. You know when you look at it that a thistle or a thorn will be prickly, or that steel wool will be rough. The rough look of some ceramic cups might make you decide that you do not want to drink from them. So long as you do not

touch them, some imitation textures wallpaper that looks like cork, vinyl flooring that simulates brick can create the effect to the real thing.

12.2.1.3

Texture Affects Colour

Patterns & Weaves Produce

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12.2.1.4 Texture

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A shiny smooth surface reflects light & the colour appears clear & bright. Rough materials absorbs or takes up some of the light & the colour may appear deeper and duller. Velvet because of its deep -cut pile both absorbs & reflects light, so the colour appears to be different in the folds of the fabric.


You will find a difference in texture within the same kind of material. Velvet made from cotton differs from that made from nylon in feel & appearance. Plastered walls may be smooth or rough. Wood may be sanded satin smooth, but the grain pattern gives more texture to some types. Paper has many textures: the smooth, thin look of tissue; the coarse roughness of construction paper; the many variations in wallpaper and all the different kinds of gift-wrappings available today. So pattern can contribute to the textured look of materials Small all -over pattern is upholstery or curtain fabrics lose their detail & appears as a textured fabric. The design gives it a textured look. Examine the plain weave & fine thread of sheer, crisp organdie, the smooth finish of a percale sheet. Each of the many different WPt1ves contributes to the final fabric texture, & each finds its own companions in other materials.

12.2.2 Textures in a Room 12.2.2.1

Wall Coverings

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Amongst those with real texture which you can feel are grass, cloth, cork, bamboo, suede, and both fabrics and papers with velvet like flocking. In addition there is a simulating everything from silk to marble, including taffeta, damask, lines, bricks etc.


12.2.2.2

Paints

There are some paints with texture incorporated into the mixture to give a graining or stucco like effect.

12.2.2.3

Masonry

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Stone, bricks, Concrete, all have distinctive surface, often So three dimensional that the play of light and shadow has particularly handsome effect


12.2.2.4

Hard Flooring

You can use natural materials with tangible texture, such as wood, marble, brick, terrazzo, stone, or ceramic tiles, or vinyl flooring that imitates these material.

12.2.2.5

Fabrics

Use of curtains, draperies, upholstery, slipcovers, flooring coverings, bedspreads etc., and offer limitless variations in texture. The basic meaning of texture is "something woven".

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Linen comes in all textures from a heavy basket weave to the: finest gauze. Cotton ranges from silky percale to rugged corduroy, Wool is sometimes used for fine-textured casement cloth but is found more frequently in tapestry or frieze types or upholstery fabrics and in rugs and carpets. Silk is used for producing velvet, brocade, damask, taffeta, crepe, satin etc.


12.2.2.6

Trimmings

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Fringes, tassels, embroidery and appliquĂŠ are useful for adding three dimensional interest to a smooth fabric.


12.2.2.7

Straw, Cane, Rush

Woven in a variety of ways, these contribute texture to chair seats, headboards, cabinet doors, mats, lamp bases and shades, screens, baskets, trays etc. The effect of texture may be formal or informal. Silk, damask, satin, fine-grained woods, elaborately carved surfaces are thought of as belonging in formal rooms; tweeds, muslin, chintz, brick, furs, are informal ones. Textures can also affect the dimensions of a room A high or shaggy piles of a rug tends to 'fill' the room from the hot tom up and makes a low ceiling seem even lower.

12.2.3 Pattern Creates Interest The presence of a design adds variety and excitement to any surface. Pattern is sometimes a by-product of texture -as in a brick wall, or a tiled floor -and this kind of pattern must be kept in mind while planning a room. On the other hand, very small pattern lose their design when viewed from a distance; the effect is simply to give the material a textured look.

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The safest course is to avoid using more than one strong pattern in a room. However, some of the most striking effects are achieved by a combination of designs. Two important patterns will live very well together if they are related in design but different in scale. You might combine a pattern featuring a large rose design with a small all-over rosebud print. Another possibility for the second or third pattern would be a coordinated geometrical such as a plaid, stripe or trellis motif.


A pattern in the rug or carpet often dictates plain walls and subdued designs in drapery or upholstery fabric. Like colour and texture, pattern can play tricks on you're eyes. A wallpaper with a vertical design makes a ceiling look higher, while a strong horizontal motif seemingly lowers the ceiling's height. A large pattern may seem out of scale in a small room, while in a large room, a small pattern tends to be overwhelming. A great deal of pattern in

a room seems to fill it up, while too much pattern can made a room look crowded

A bold, strongly coloured, or splashy pattern is usually better confined to a fairly small area, where

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Pattern can disguise architectural defects. A hall or foyer cut up by many doors can be given a unified look by covering the walls and doors with an exciting pattern. A small all-over pattern is good for disguising patchy walls


it will provide a centre of interest. Used too lavishly, it seems overpowering.

12.2.4 Room Emotion by Texture Removed: sharp, repeating, radial, concentric Open: smooth, shiny, reflective, rippled Enclosed: soft, Rough, fuzzy, jaggy, velvet, fibrous Formal: grid, stainless steel)

straight

lines

(like

brushed

Down to Earth: fibres, weaves, wicker, rough, terra cotta Functional: smooth surfaces clean easy but reflect noise and light. Rough textures absorb sound and light, but do not clean easily and untreated fibre can stain. Texture can appear smooth or solid if the scale or appearance of scale is small enough. This is exaggerated by foreshortening when the areas of uniqueness or variety in the surface are no longer discernable. Bring the outdoors inward by providing textural transitions like rock and tile entryways, hard wood flooring and natural fibre wall coverings. Create visual interest without making the room feel enclosed, ornamental or busy, as large patterns tend to do.

12.2.5 Combining Textures

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Cohesive use of texture creates harmony. Mixing textures without context to one another, challenges tradition and creates a mood of avant-garde. Consider what an embossed fabric sofa in a room with sculpted carpet might look like. Would the textures compete? What about a corduroy jacket


with a velvet pair of pants or natural fibre shirt. Too much texture or exciting and on-the-edge? Combining patterns with more contrast of scale helps the eye distinguish areas of interest and will prevent visual confusion. Textures lose their visual variety when the viewer is further away; so small textures capitalize on visual interest without visually cluttering the room. Rough textured objects seem to advance, take up more space, while smooth textured ones seem to recede. A small object with a very textured surface will generally balance larger piece that has a smoother surface. The texture of wall makes a difference in the optical size of a room Smooth fabrics seem better suited to painted, delicately styled furniture. Heavier styles of coarse -grained woods may demand a sturdier fabric. Too much of the same can be monotonous.

12.2.6 Expressions often used with texture The following terms may help to communicate the intent of the designer internally or to a client. Comparative perspective - the ability to discern and compare depth differences via foreshortening.

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Foreshortening - patterns, lines and shapes becoming visibly smaller while the furthest edges of an object appear to close together toward a single vanishing point in the distance.

Surface attributes - differentiation, depth or variety of the surface

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Relief - surfaces having depth, dimension or varying shallow elevation.


Lesson 13: Pattern Objectives To explore pattern and its effects on designs. To understand the importance of creating patterns in any space to design

Structure 13.1 Combination of motifs 13.2 Overview

13.1

13.2.1

A Pattern for living

13.2.2

Combining Patterns

13.2.3

Expressions often used with pattern

Combination of motifs

Pattern is the combination of motifs like shapes, lines, colours, textures, and relief used to form a composition. If each one of the motifs is large enough to be seen readily, the composition is known as pattern and may not be repetitive. If the motifs are too small or emphasize relief and depth that can be felt, the composition is known as a texture.

13.2 Overview: 13.2.1 A Pattern for Living

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Patterns exist in nature as well as man-made materials. The ability to look at a composition and see it overall or move around it to explore detail is what provides rich visual interest. An example of this would be looking at a rocky cliff. From a distance its main colours, shapes and depth can be seen. Moving close to it reveals veins,


inconsistencies in colour, tonal changes, sharp or jagged relief, cracks, and smaller areas of change. During the Baroque era from 1600 - 1700 A.D., extensive ornamental pattern in tapestries, rugs, wall hangings, upholstery, and flooring were used to create a sense of grandeur and formality. It was a time of discovery about detail and pattern in both science and living. The effective use of pattern is the metamorphosis of sterile unbroken expanses into live, stimulating surrounds of detail. It can make a large space seem smaller and more elaborate, establish a small collection of furniture into its own environment helping break up space, or create a painterly, cozy feeling for a small room. Patterns help define shape and space. They are mechanisms for comparative perspective. Depth perception for objects without pattern is dependent on shading while a pattern provides depth through shading and perspective. The motif of a floral print appears smaller as it gets further away from the viewer. A great example is the pattern on the edges of a throw pillow wrapping around which make it appear to have more dimension.

13.2.2 Combining Patterns

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How is it that we don't often see two different plaids worn together? Very similar size, colour, style, or tonal ranges of patterns being combined causes conflict, lacks harmony and just doesn't look good. Competing detail can prevent fluid eye movement from one area of pattern to the next.


A single primary pattern can be selected from which secondary patterns of different scale, saturation, colour or style visually support. This tends to keep a room from overwhelming the viewer. A contemporary effect can be achieved by juxtaposing many strong secondary patterns together without a primary pattern. This can create visual confusion and does not follow traditional design. By combining many subtle secondary patterns, a room can maintain its openness yet look more dimensional.

13.2.3 Expressions often used with pattern The following terms may help to communicate the intent of the designer internally or to a client.

2. Composition - the unity of various elements either actual or implied that can be evaluated as a whole.

3. Foreshortening - patterns, lines and shapes becoming visibly smaller while the furthest edges

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1. Comparative perspective - the ability to discern and compare depth differences via foreshortening.


of an object appear to close together toward a single vanishing point in the distance. 4. Motif - pronounced 'moe-teef'. A stylistic visual expression or representation.

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5. Relief - surfaces having depth, dimension or varying shallow height.


Summary: Texture is the definition of surface attributes having either visual or actual variety. Soft velvet, rough stucco walls, coarse sisal fibre flooring, colour alternation, smooth glass, and rock jaggedness to name a few examples. Surfaces that have character bring visual interest to the room without sacrificing overall visual harmony. Some textures spell enjoyment to you and you are drawn to touch them; others indicate by their look that you will dislike them & you avoid contact with them whenever possible. A shiny smooth surface reflects light & the colour appears clear & bright. Rough materials absorb or take up some of the light & the colour may appear deeper and duller. Pattern can contribute to the textured look of materials. Wall Coverings, Paints, Masonry, Hard Flooring, Fabrics, Trimmings, Straw, Cane, Rush all have a different texture and hence create different feel in the space. Texture can appear smooth or solid if the scale or appearance of scale is small enough. Cohesive use of texture creates harmony.

Patterns help define shape and space. A single primary pattern can be selected from which secondary patterns of different scale, saturation, colour or style visually support. This tends to keep a room from overwhelming the viewer.

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Like colour and texture, pattern can play tricks on you're eyes. Pattern is the combination of motifs like shapes, lines, colours, textures, and relief used to form a composition. If each one of the motifs is large enough to be seen readily, the composition is known as pattern and may not be repetitive. If the motifs are too small or emphasize relief and depth that can be felt, the composition is known as a texture.


Assignment and learning activities 1. Students have to understand visual and tactile texture. 2. Make pencil rubbings of an object with tactile texture. Students may create design plates of painted visual and tactile textures. 3. On a design plate, paint a smooth and a rough surface with the same paint. Notice the colour differences on the painted surfaces. 4. Students can even explore the light reflection from various textures and how this affects the amount of light in an area.

Terminal exercises: 1. Explain the following terms: a) Motif b) Surface attribution c) Foreshortening d) Relief 2. Where all can a texture be used in a room? Give examples in each.

Intext exercise 1. What do you understand by the term ―texture‖? What is the difference between visual and tactile texture? 2. What points should you keep in mind while choosing textures for a room?

4. What is the relationship between texture and pattern?

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3. Explain with the help of examples how textures can assist in creating optical illusions.


5. What are the prominent areas in a room where you can use textures? Explain with the help of examples. 6. How does texture effect colour and vice versa. Discuss in detail.

Key words: Comparative perspective - the ability to discern and compare depth differences via foreshortening. Composition - the unity of various elements either actual or implied that can be evaluated as a whole. Foreshortening - patterns, lines and shapes becoming visibly smaller while the furthest edges of an object appear to close together toward a single vanishing point in the distance. Motif - pronounced 'moe-teef'. A stylistic visual expression or representation. Relief - surfaces having depth, dimension or varying shallow height.

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Surface attributes - differentiation, depth or variety of the surface.


Unit – V Sketching

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Lesson 14: Drawing & Sketching


Lesson 14: Drawing &

Sketching Objectives Learning to use free hand drawing as an instrument for explaining and presenting ones ideas on paper.

Introduction: Everything in the world is a subject for a drawing; yet what you draw is not important. That you enjoy drawing, and feel you are learning more about the visual world as a result, is of the utmost importance. This chapter explains simply and clearly some of the underling principles 0f drawing. It helps you to see every subject with a fresh eye and, above all, it aims to remove the mystique which, sadly, surrounds this fascinating and rewarding activity. There is nothing magical, for example, about understanding perspective, about 'measuring' the subject, or about drawing negative space. They are all 'learnable' principles which, once mastered, will help you tackle any type of subject with confidence and enthusiasm. Although such fundamentals are important, try not to treat them as 'musts', to be slavishly followed.

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Drawing is a subjective occupation. The best artist is the one who understands the principles and rules, but who interprets rather than copies them. Composition is a prime example of this. Convention dictates that a pictorial composition must be harmonious; should not contain any discordant elements, such as a figure looking toward the edge


of the picture; and should avoid absolute symmetry at all costs. Yet, we only have to look at some of the Old Masters to know that such rules can certainly be bent, if not broken. Making the first mark on a pristine sheet l)f paper is rather like being the first person to trample across a perfect patch of freshly fallen snow - it seems such a shame to spoil it! When learning to draw, the problem is even worse, because most of us have such grand and preconceived ideas of what the finished picture will look like that we are almost doomed to disappointment, even before we begin. It is therefore a good idea to regard drawing as a process, a way of thinking and recording rather than a means of producing a perfectly rendered picture at every attempt. If getting going becomes a real stumbling block, and the thought of marking the paper is actually inhibiting, then try warming up with a few quick, throw-away sketches of the subject, This is a tried and tested method for overcoming tension and inhibition, and an excellent way of getting into the right mood.

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The secret of successful drawing depends upon careful observation and the ability to put down on paper what you can see. So before starting, take a good look at what is in front of you. Decide how you are going to approach the subject, and where it will be placed on the paper.


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No two artists approach a subject in exactly the same way. The sequences on this page show two different approaches. In the first, the artist develops the whole subject concurrently, starting with a rough outline, then working across the image, gradually bringing up the whole drawing at the same pace. The second sequence shows a different approach. Having decided on the scale and position

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of the subject on the paper, the artist starts drawing in one place and works across the image, bringing


The 'Growing' Drawing 1. Here the artist starts in one place -in this case the top of the shoe, making sure this is in the correct position on the paper, and leaving plenty of space for the rest of the subject.

Developing Subject

the

1. For this traditional approach, the artist starts by establishing the main lines of the subject. At this stage, the drawing is kept fairly sketchy and loose to allow for 2. From here, the redrawing and lines are extended to correction as the show more of the shoe image develops. the finished drawing 'grows' outwards from its 2. From the initial starting point. sketchy construction lines, the artist works 3. The artist into the subject, using completes the work by the line to describe the putting in remaining form of the shop undrawn areas and details. 3. Finally, the drawing is completed with further line and detail.

Outline and Internal Contours

The first drawing contains a flat shape; the second drawing describes a three-dimensional form. By

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Unless we are familiar with an object, an outline drawing of that object will not necessarily tell us what we are looking at. In the outline drawing (below), we only recognize the subject as being a model of a hand because we know what a hand looks like, and we know that such an outline is likely to be that of a hand. But we need the added information of the second drawing to really know and understand what we are looking at.


drawing into the subject, the artist has turned a silhouette into a solid object. These internal lines are similar to the contour lines we see on maps. Just as geographical contours describe the form of a hill by mapping out the relief pattern of its surface, so an artist draws contours to describe the form of a subject. The artist, however, must look at the subject to decide where the internal lines should be; they cannot be placed scientifically, at regular intervals, as with maps and diagrams. The hand, for example, has natural contours - the finger and wrist joints, and the wood grain which runs lengthwise down the fingers, hand and arm.

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Internal lines are as important as the outline so don't automatically start by drawing the outline and then filling in the rest. Ideally, you should try to develop the two together, looking carefully at the subject to see how the inside lines and outside lines combine to describe the form. However, there is no reason why you should not try to draw from the


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inside, and leave the outline to last. Light and shade can also be exploited in a drawing to give a sense of form to an object, changing it from a flat shape into something real and solid. But remember, the areas of light and shade are not independent of the internal contours. They are directly related to them.


Lesson 15: Light & Shade Structure 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4

Tone Types of Shading Colour and surface texture Describing Forms 15.4.1 Planes 15.4.2 Planning the Picture 15.4.3 Negative Shapes 15.5 Perspective 15.5.1 Linear Perspective 15.5.2 Measured Drawing

Tone

To indicate light and shadow on an object means picking out the pale and dark areas. These darks and pales are known as 'tones'. The tonal range

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15.1

151

We are able to see three-dimensional objects because of the light which falls on them. Without light, and the shadows it creates, all objects would be seen as flat shapes. Strong, directional light casts harsh, defined shadows on and around the objects; it also creates bright highlights and reflections. The effect of diffused light is more subtle. The apple illustrated here was drawn in the artist's studio, with a strong window light falling from the top left -hand side, hence the highlights on the top, and the dark shadow across the right-hand side of the fruit.


runs from black to white, and includes all the greys in between. To pick out the tones, or values, you should ignore the local colour as much as possible, and this can be difficult- especially if the subject is complex or highly patterned. This apple was actually red and green, but the artist was concerned only with the tonal, monochrome effect of the light and shadows, and chose to illustrate this in black and white. Any other single colour could have been chosen.

15.2

Types of Shading

1. Cross-hatching. Shading built up in patches of tiny crisscross hatching. The cross-hatching becomes finer and more spaced towards the lighter areas

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These are various techniques for blocking-in shadows. Probably the most common way is to build up a shaded area with a series of parallel lines, a technique known as hatching. When the lines are drawn close together, the tone is dark; widely spaced hatching produces lighter tone. Whichever method you use, it must have this flexibility -you must be able to vary the tone.


2. Scribbled hatching. Regular parallel lines are unsuitable for the rounded form of the apple, so the artist adopted a looser type of hatching.

4. Stippling. Tiny dots can be built up to depict shadows -the denser the dots the deeper the shading.

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3. Blending. Soft shadows, blended with the finger, eraser or cloth, are only possible with soft drawing materials. These include charcoal, pastel, and soft pencil.


15.3

Colour and Surface Texture

Texture and local colour are factors to be considered when assessing the tonal values of an object: For example, a matt surface will have less tonal contrast than a shiny surface, which often contains bright reflected highlights. Local colour too, affects tone. Two identical objects, one light and one dark, will not be the same in a monochrome drawing -the lights and shades on the darker object will be tonally darker than those on the lighter.

15.4

Describing Form

When rendering shadows, you can often give a further feeling of three-dimensional form to the subject by paying close attention to the direction of the strokes as welt as to the tones which the strokes represent. In other words, be logical about the direction of the shading - draw with the form, not against it. For example, the hatched lines on the apples are taken round the curved shape of the fruit.

15.4.1 Planes Objects with gradually curving sides, such as spheres and cylinders, are simple to draw: the shapes are regular, and light and shade are evenly distributed, making it easy to both recognize and describe the form.

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Not all subjects, however, are so straightforward, Natural forms have always been favourites of the artist, but they are inevitably irregular and often complicated, Plants, flowers, animals, birds and human figures are fascinating and challenging subjects, but they are notoriously complex and irregular when it comes to drawing them, Light falls on their surface in an unpredictable way, making it difficult to see, let alone draw, the subtle areas of light and shadow.


The best approach is to find a way of simplifying what you see. Try to ignore distracting detail and small surface irregularities, and to break the subject down into basic areas of light and shade. These simplified areas are called 窶用lanes'. The illustrations here show a cylinder and a human face, simplified into planes of light and shade. The lightest planes are those areas which receive direct light; the darkest are those turned away from the light. The greys, or mid-tones, describe other planes in varying degrees of light and shade. On the face, the light is falling from the top left, catching the forehead, cheek, nose, the convex area between the nose and mouth and the lower lip. These are the lightest areas in the drawing and the artist depicted them with the bright. light tone of the paper. The darkest tones, down the right side of the head and neck are drawn in black.

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By simplifying the face in this way, the artist has tackled the problem of form and structure before attempting to create a realistic image. But, with this basic solid structure established, the artist is then free to develop detail and to blend and break up these large, rather crude planes into softer more blended areas.


The technique can be adapted to any object and will help you to draw both simple and complicated forms.

COMPOSITION 15.4.2 Planning the Picture When we talk of 'composition' we are really referring to the way the subject is arranged on the paper. This may be a single object -a vase of flowers, or a figure. Or it might be an arrangement of objects, or a complete scene. Whatever you are drawing, it is important to give some thought to the composition before you start. These still-life drawings illustrate just four possible

No subject fits conveniently into a rectangle or square -the shapes we generally work on. When we

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arrangements of the same subject, and there are an infinite number of other possibilities. Notice how the background plays an important part in each one. The basic division of the drawing into the blue and brown shapes is just as important as how the mugs and coffee pot are arranged. The artist has avoided a horizontal division, preferring a more interesting and unusual solution in this case.


look at the subject, what we actually see is an amorphous shape with an indistinct outline -and our eyes can only focus on one part of that shape at a time. The rest of the image is blurred. The most immediate problem, therefore, is defining the edges of the composition finding the most suitable shape for the subject and fitting the subject into that shape. This applies even with a figure study, an isolated drawing which does not actually touch the edges of the paper. It is still necessary to place the subject properly on the paper, leaving enough space around the figure to prevent it looking cramped, but not so much that the subject looks small and lost. An excellent way of looking at the subject through 'rectangular eyes' is to cut the shape from a piece of card. This can then be moved around until you find exactly the composition you want. In this way you can actually see the shapes of the space around your subject -the blue wall and brown table in the case of the illustrations on this page. Scale too, is an important consideration. Variation of scale within a composition is usually more interesting than one which has no contrast between distance and foreground. This is especially true of landscapes, which can be very dull if everything is small and distant.

15.4.3 Negative Shapes

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When planning a composition, remember to include in your calculations the space between the subjects. If these are not taken into account, your drawing will, at best, lack cohesion and a sense of design. At worst, it will be wrong, because if the 'negative' shapes are inaccurate, this will be reflected in the rest of the drawing.


The leafy twig illustrated here was~ done, not by drawing the shapes of the leaves, but by drawing the shapes of the spaces between the leaves - the negative shapes. By working in this way, the artist has successfully created a satisfying composition, with every area carefully considered and, brought into the overall design. Notice how the subject is extended to the edges of the paper, the straight edges of the support thus forming part of some of these outer shapes. Drawing the negative shapes forces an awareness of the composition as a whole. It also discourages a tendency to draw what we know rather than what we see. For example, we know what a leaf looks like, so why bother to check that we have drawn it right?

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However, because we have no such preconceived idea about the shape of a space, it becomes necessary to look very carefully at what we are drawing. The purpose of the exercise is not to produce a drawing in which the negative shapes are as important is the positive ones -in this case the eaves. Rather it is a device for drawing the positive


shapes correctly n relation to each other drawing, the spaces between them correctly.

by

Practice the technique. You will be surprised how much easier it is to make correct drawings once you) become aware of negative shapes. Chairs, tables and stools are ideal for this type of exercise, because their legs and crossbars create a variety of geometric patterns of empty space. Other good subjects are winter trees, with their twisted and splayed branches and spindly twigs; household objects; and groups of figures.

15.5

Perspective

15.5.1 Linear Perspective Imagine standing in the middle of a completely straight road, looking into the distance. You will notice that the edges of the road appear to come together and disappear at a spot on the horizon. The scene demonstrates perfectly the principle of linear perspective -that all such parallel lines on the same plane appear to get closer as they recede into the distance. The point at which they appear to meet is called the 'vanishing point'. The practical applications of linear perspective are important because if the perspective of a drawing is wrong, this distorts the whole composition.

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If two sides of an object are visible, two vanishing points are necessary; more rarely, three sides of an object call sometimes be seen, in which case three vanishing points are required. In the drawing below, two 'sides' of the ship are visible, and the artist has plotted the two vanishing points.

For example, hills and mountains look bluer and paler, the further away they are. This is because the

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Aerial Perspective Objects appear to get fainter as they recede into the distance.


intervening atmosphere perception of them.

interferes

with

our

For the artist, aerial perspective can provide a useful means of indicating space. By making distant objects fainter, and by drawing with finer lines, it is possible to create an illusion of recession. In the bridge drawing below, the artist used a soft pencil for the heavy foreground lines; for the distant objects, a hard pencil was chosen to create thin, pale lines.

15.5.2 Measured Drawing

For the tulip drawing below, the artist first took the measurement of one bloom, and worked out the position and size of the vase and the other flowers in relation to this chosen unit. For example, the height of the bunch of flowers was exactly six times that of the measured tulip head, and this was duly

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By holding the pencil upright at arm's length, you can use it as a measuring device to help you to establish the correct proportions of the subject. Start by choosing one 'distance' on the subject as your measuring unit. Use the top of the pencil to mark one end of this unit, and your thumb to mark the other end. Everything else can then be plotted accurately in, relation to this one measurement.


plotted in. Before drawing a single line, the composition was thus plotted out in some detail- the position of each element was indicated with a series of marks. In this particular drawing, the artist worked in coloured pencils, so each mark was plotted in an appropriate colour -red flowers, green leaves, and so on. When drawing the figure, the obvious measurement to start with the height of the head. Generally, however, it does not matter which part of the subject you choose, as long as it is consistent and easily visible.

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Of course, the literal measurement of the chosen unit has no bearing on the size it is on the paper. If this was the case, you would have no choice at all in the size of your drawing! It is the relative size which is important.


Assignments and learning activities 1. The students are required to maintain a sketchbook and sketch at least one sketch a day. The sketches could be quick or detailed sketches depending on the subject matter. 2. Students have to understand the various types of shading and make compositions describing forms, planes, negative space etc.

Review Questions 1. How important is ―Composition‖ in a drawing? What points would you keep in mind before starting a drawing? 2. What do you understand by the term ―Negative Space‖? Explain with the help of sketches. 3. This being a practical topic the students are required to maintain a sketchbook and sketch at least one sketch a day. The sketches could be quick or detailed sketches depending on the subject matter.

Stationery Requirements The following material/equipment is to be used for answering the review questions: 1. Ruled sheets of A4 size shall be used for attempting the theory questions. 2. Use cartridge or ivory sheets wherever any drawing/colouring work is to be done.

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3. Use gateway or other superior tracing sheets for rendering in pen and ink.


Reference Books

1. Colour Harmony 1 and 2 2. Rendering in Pen and Ink by Robert W. Gill 3. Interior Design: Illustrated by Francis D.K Ching

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4. Drawing: A Creative Process – Francis D K Ching


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