So our new project in Color Theory is about working with desaturated hues. You can lessen the saturation (or amount of pure pigment) of a hue in various ways.
1) By mixing multiple colors together, forming chromatic greys.
2) By mixing it with its complimentary color to make it darker, or with white to make it lighter, forming muted
hues.
3) I don't know, haven't gotten there yet.
These first two paintings were made by the first method, and the last by the second. For each method, we have to make one painting with a broad value range and one with a narrow value range, either dark, medium, or light. So far, I'm not sure if these paintings are naturally suppose to be ugly, or if I'm just really bad at mixing these colors together (probably the latter), but either way I'm not a huge fan of this project... And mixing with gouache doesn't make it any better.
 |
| Chromatic greys (broad range) of a Parasitoid Wasp |
 |
| Chromatic greys (light range) of a Bald-Faced Wasp |
 |
| Muted Hues (broad range) of a Mud Dauber Wasp |
If you haven't noticed yet, the theme I chose for this project was "wasps," and in some extra curious research, I stumbled upon this type of wasp that eats spiders - aka the most terrifying organism on the planet.
WARNING: If you have an actual fear of wasps and/or spiders, you probably shouldn't read further. If you don't, and you think they're awesome, ya gonna love this!
"Spider wasps" are part of the Pompilidae family. They come in many shapes, colors and sizes and feed on many types of spiders, from tiny jumping spiders to giant tarantulas. In general, the behavior of these wasps could be adapted into the next popular serial killer movie. Females hunt and paralyze their spider prey and drag them back to underground holes they build as nests for their offspring. Here, they lay a single egg on the spider's abdomen. When the larva hatches, it burrows into the spider's abdomen and consumes the tissues inside, avoiding vital organs so the spider stays alive as long as possible. After a few weeks, the larva pupates, emerges from the spider as an adult, and continues the horrific life cycle again. The most frightening part about them - wasps that hunt tarantulas (referred to as "Tarantula Hawks") can get up to two inches long and have a 7mm long stinger!
Never thought you would feel sympathetic for a spider, right? But don't worry, sometimes the spiders get their revenge:
No comments:
Post a Comment