>>4903290By working with color. Start with the basics - blue sky, red ball, etc. Move up into lighting, and how it impacts color. Learn to render something in color using value and hue. Then work on integrating color into depth, and volume. Then move into using color for narrative, and emotion, and working on an overall color composition, for color and unity.
Baby steps, bigs steps, running. It's no different than anything else in art.
Get Gurney's book on color. That's an excellent place to start.
My first oil painting class started us off this way:
Take a canvas panel or primed page. Divide it into quarters. Get a brown sandwich bag, crumple it up, place on table. Sketch 4 times. Then paint it, 4 different ways:
Black and white
One color and white.
Two complementary colors, like green/red
Real colors
The point was to introduce us to color, hue, value, and thinking in different terms than what it actually looks like. The hardest part for most of us was translating the values and hues into two colors, but it was a good way to force us to see color differently. There was no right/wrong to the exercise, and accuracy wasn't a goal either, it was diving in and focusing on color. The object didn't matter, it can be anything, he told us he chose a brown paper bag because they're common, simple, and cheap, and one solid color.
Just use color. It's that simple. It's how you learn - every art student ever plows through piles of paper and ink and paint and whatever learning how, by simply trying. It's painting a red ball, and saying okay, it's a flat red circle, how do I give this volume, texture and lighting so it looks like a real red ball? And not getting mired in "omgthishastobeperfectthefirstimeanxietyimafraidtotry" nonsense that fills /ic.
Just try it. So how far you can get with simple objects. When you get stuck, ask more questions.
