How to Prepare Supports for Color Theory Exercises

Art Lesson 13, Part 2

Find out How to Prepare Supports for Color Theory Exercises

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How to Prepare Supports for Color Theory Exercises

In this video, you will learn how to prepare a support for Color Theory exercises.

In Section #1, you will find the worksheets you need to download. It is best to print these worksheets on A3 size paper. There are different types of templates for each exercise. Every worksheet is numbered in the upper left corner.

Before we start doing our Color Theory exercises, we need to transfer the template to the support. For a support, you can choose an unstretched primed canvas, size A3 (international size: 297 x 420 mm or 11.7 x 16.5 inches).

Alternatively, you can use oil painting paper instead of canvas. This is what we use for this demonstration. As you can see, the oil painting pad is in the exact same size (A3), so we do not need to cut it.

Turn over the worksheet. When you place it over a white support, you can clearly see the pattern showing through the paper. With charcoal, mark the places that you need to cover. There is no need to cover the whole sheet, just make sure the guidelines are marked.

You can do so by outlining the guides with a charcoal stick or you can use charcoal powder instead, which can be prepared by scraping the charcoal stick with a pencil knife. Fill in the marked areas by rubbing the powder onto the paper. Pour the excess powder back into a container, and wash your hands.

Fix the template to the support with masking tape. It is enough to fix just one side. Now we are ready to transfer the outlines.

Use a ruler and a sharpened pencil to go over the guidelines. By using a ruler, your lines will be more accurate. By lifting the paper on one side, you can make sure you are applying enough pressure while outlining. The lines should be visible, but not bold.

When you are done with transferring, separate the worksheet from the support and put it aside. If the support with your outlines smears a bit, you can erase all unnecessary charcoal traces with a soft kneaded eraser.

If you would like to make your exercises look neat, you can use masking tape to isolate the areas around the boxes, which you will later fill in with paint.
The gaps between the boxes are quite narrow. To mask them, you need to measure how wide the masking tape should be. If required, you can cut masking tape strips to the necessary width. Just do as you see in this example.

We cut the tape into narrow strips. Then, with accuracy, we stick them onto the support. After the exercises are finished, we remove the masking tape.

In this section, dedicated to the Color Theory, there are 12 exercises. For each exercise, there is a separate worksheet. Here, you can see what the completed exercises look like.

I strongly recommend you to do all 12 exercises; you will discover necessary information about color characteristics. Doing so, you will sharpen your sense of color, and better understand how to use colors efficiently.