Exploring Color and Composition

Instructor Mary Jane Begin is an award-winning illustrator and author of children’s picture books, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and professor in the Illustration Department. Mary Jane will guide viewers through useful exercises and practices that help to solve both understanding the color they see and want to recreate, as well as exploring the art of inventing palettes that resonate with expression.

The course will be taught through showing concrete examples and a demonstration that deconstructs the “how to’s” for creating a palette that expresses a mood.

Mary Jane will cover the following topics:

• Color as meaning: subjective, regional and universal
• The power and illusion of light
• Creating color studies
• Choosing the right medium for color expression
• Deciding on the palette that works best
• Harmonizing a color palette
• Expressing meaning with color focus
• Pulling it all together to finalize an image
• Experimenting with color through media and materials

The best way to observe color is from life, but analyzing and recreating an image from a photograph can be a very practical way to learn how to effectively interpret color. Please join this class to continue developing your understanding of color, composition, meaning, mood, and expression.

• Class Introduction
• Color as Meaning
• Grounds and Their Purpose
• The Power and Illusion of Light
• Creating Color Studies
• Creating Harmony and Color Hierarchy in a Limited Palette
• How to Choose a Palette
• Pulling it All Together: Telling a Story with Color
• Critique of Audience-Submitted Illustrations