COLOR WHEEL NO.14

 This artwork of mine includes a much lighter color scheme than most of my other paintings. The saturation is reduced and is closer to gray. For the top layer I used very light and very dark brush strokes so they can look clear and expressive. 

  To achieve strong longevity of my paintings I choose pigments with high staining ability. For most of the composition I use Phthalocyanine blue (PB15), Chromium Oxide Green And Ultramarine Violet which are proven to have excellent lightfastness and they preserve their appearance for many, many years. 

   In real life we observe soft and hard transitions between colors all the time. Usually the soft ones occur in distant objects. For the first layer I used gradients and less contrast so the edges of different colors appear smooth. The brush strokes at the top layer are visible and well defined. 

 People see wider than taller because of our face structure. I want my artwork to resemble real life in a way so I always choose horizontal canvases with aspect ratio similar to human vision. 

 Acrylics are soft and elastic even when they are completely dry. This makes them prone to mechanical damage. Because of that I always finish the canvas with high quality water based polyurethane varnish.

 For the violet / purple portion of the painting I use a combination of  Ultramarine Violet (PV15) and Dioxazine Violet (PV23). They have excellent lightfastness but a huge color shift when they are dry. Over time I learned what to expect from them so I can achieve the desired more subtle nuances. 

 Green and purple are opposite tints. When put together they create distress for the viewer’s perception. I use such an approach to prevent the composition of being too harmonious and predictable. 

 My brush strokes are aimed to look chaotic. On the contrary when I sign my name I try to use letters as clear as possible. I don’t want a vital part of the painting to appear less visible and lost. 

 Complementary colors, also called opposite, don|t look well when they touch each other. High amounts of titanium white reduce their saturation and increase their values. When these tints lose some of their identity and start to attract attention in a more gentle way. 

 This portion of the painting demonstrates expressive brush strokes. Their green color possesses less saturation  but over a gray base they manage to appear clear and comprehensible.