Try a few, or all, of these exercises, and you'll be "seeing red" -- in a good way, I hope.
For these first 6 RED exercises, you'll need your sketchbook, a pencil, a black pen, some watercolor pencils or colored pencils, your watercolor paints, some magazines (you know you have some old ones lying around), a glue stick or "Yes" paste, and a pair of scissors.
1) Draw a part of a Red motorcycle, bicycle, tricycle, or wagon -- Draw a contour line drawing with a black pen. Don't worry about proportions, or whether you've drawn it correctly. This is your sketchbook -- it doesn't have to be perfect. "Perfect" is boring, anyway, don't you think? Then, add some color, with a little Red watercolor. Add some shadows with cross-hatching in pen and a simple gray wash. (You can touch the edge of the black pen line with water to make a gray wash).
2) Take a hike, or walk around a garden with your sketchbook, a black pen, and a small watercolor kit or some colored pencils. Draw contour lines of the Red flowers you find and some of the environment. Add some color, and then write a sentence or two about where you are, and then date it.
3) Draw & paint some RED apples, still on the tree. First, draw 2 or 3 skinny rectangles on your page, and within that format, draw some apples on a branch, with a few leaves. Draw this is pencil first. Then, color the apples Red, the branch dark Brown, and the leaves Green. Now, fill in the background with a Gold. You can use watercolor pencils, so you can use a wet brush over the pencil. This is helpful for covering large areas, like the background. When this is dry, go over all the lines, including the rectangle, with a black pen . . .
Design these little rectangles, so that the apples and leaves are cropped, making interesting negative shapes.
4) Draw the insides of your pantry. Collect all the bottles/jars/containers from your cupboard or pantry, that contain the color Red (not on the inside, by the outside). Arrange them on a shelf or two. Do a contour line drawing with a black pen, adding some cross-hatching. Then, add a little color, with paint or colored pencils. Add a few other colors, besides Red, for contrast . . .
(Now, put everything back the way it was . . . or not.)
5) Make 2 Red color collages. Gather some old magazines, and tear out some examples of Red. After you have a big pile of all different shades and values of Red, cut them into strips . . .
Make three piles of these strips: one pile of DARK REDS, one pile of MID-TONE REDS (this will be your brightest pile), and one pile of LIGHT REDS (pinks).
From the middle pile of MID-TONE REDS, arrange them from Red-Violet, to Cool Red, to Warm Red, to Red-Orange. (This process is more important than the end result -- this is not an exact science). Now, glue down these strips onto a page of your sketchbook.
Next, using some strips from each of the 3 piles, make an arrangement where you go from Darkest Dark Red to Lightest Light Pink, and glue those down.
This is a good exercise to do, to train your eyes to see temperature changes within a color family, and to see value changes within that same color family.
6) With a black pen, draw some Red fruit, and whatever container you brought it home in. Add a little color, with watercolor or colored pencils. Then, write in pen, where the fruit came from and what day it is -- and maybe even how it tasted or smelled. Make your words part of the composition.
For these next 4 color studies, use a watercolor sketchbook, if you have one; or, use scraps of good watercolor paper -- or even a pad of cheap watercolor paper, like 90 lb. You'll also need a pencil and your paints and brushes.
7) Red Minglings -- On a few small scraps of watercolor paper, do some wet-in-wet minglings, using all the Reds on your palette. Wet each paper first, and while it's still wet, drop in the colors.
Now, try another mingling. But, this time, spritz the paper first, with clear water, then spatter on the Red paints -- all the different shades of Red that you have. Spritz it again with water, and then spatter on a few other colors.
8) Red Peppers -- Draw and paint 1 or 2 Red pepper studies, using both Warm and Cool Reds within each pepper. Leave some white highlights, and you can even paint the green stems for contrast. Arrange your peppers on a white sheet of paper or in a black bowl.
9) Imaginary Bouquets (no drawing allowed) -- Paint these bouquets very quickly and very small, so you won't worry about details. In the first one, paint a few Red tulip shapes, a Blue flower shape, and a few Green shapes to indicate some stems and leaves. Paint this onto dry paper.
In the 2nd little painting, paint the shape of a bouquet with clear water, and then drop in Red for the flowers, and some Yellow and Blue for the leaves. When that is dry, paint a Red pot.
10) Close-up of a Red Flower -- Either looking at a real flower, or at a photo of one, draw it in pencil first. Then, paint it, petal by petal, wetting it with clear water first, and then using both Cool and Warm Reds in the petals.
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