Photorealistic Color Comps

A class project where after having to paint a still life in black and white, we had to arrange and do 15 color compositions to decide what our final would look like.

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From left to right, top to bottom, they are:

Intuitive: Essentially to copy the color scheme of the photograph. Same value, hue, and saturation.

Frozen Value: Keep all of the shapes the same, but make the color choices the same exact value, though change hue.

50% Saturation: Same value and hue as the original, but decrease saturation by 50%.

Full Saturation: Same values, but choosing hues with inherit value to make a fully saturated painting (ie. white becomes yellow, black becomes violet, mid grey becomes red/green).

Complimentary: Same values, same saturation, but hues are compliments (orange and blue).

Analogous: Same values and saturation, but hues are analogous (red-orange, red, red-violet).

Split Complimentary: Same values and saturation, but hues are a split compliment (blue, violet, and yellow-orange).

Limited/Nuetral Palette: Same values and saturation, but used a palette of ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, burnt/raw sienna, burnt/raw umber, cadmium red, and titanium white.

High Key: Same hues, but values in the painting are shifted to a high value, spotlighting one area for full contrast.

Middle Key: Same hues, but values in the painting are shifted to a mid value, spotlighting one area for full contrast.

Low Key: Same hues, but values in the painting are shifted to a low value, spotlighting one area for full contrast.

Notan: A color scheme involving changing certain areas to high key, low key, and mid key.

Atmospheric Perspective: Same hues, but creating a sense of depth by lowering constrast, easing edge quality, and desaturation.

Bad Color: While keeping values the same, choosing a color pallette using the most horrible color choices possible, while keeping shapes and edges the same.

Master Pallette: Choosing a particular color scheme of another painting and applying it to your painting.

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After 15 color compositions, I decided to go with the Intuitive composition, while deciding on going with the green wall of the Master Pallette, since I felt a hospital green would fit well into the story, and that it would provide a compliment to push the red roses out and bring the viewer's eye visually back to that corner, as the green pears created a drag to the lower left without it.

4 hours a piece (60 hours total)
Acrylic on Illustration Board