Dali and the Paranoiac Critical Method Salvador Dali felt that the subconscious mind fought to get out during the process of making art. It is the artists job to let that part of their brain have a hand in creating art.

Rule of Thirds and Composition The Rule of Thirds is a general guide line on how you can arrange visual elements within your composition.

The Rule of Thirds focuses on where the focal point (or center of interest) in an image rests.

Placing your focal point in the center of your composition makes it boring and predictable. Placing your focal point based (even loosely based) gives your composition energy and room for the eye to move.

Unity Unity refers to how all of the different elements of a picture fit together. A unified picture should focus on the picture as a whole, and then the separate visual parts.

Unity and Proximity The easiest way to create unity is to group similar objects close together. This allows the viewer to see see how the objects are alike.

Unity and Repetition Using Repetition of shapes, colors, textures and objects can tie a work together.

Repetition and Continuation Using the continuation of a line from one section of the picture to another, you can tie the entire picture together.

Wet on Wet is a watercolor technique where the artist gets the paper wet first, then paints wet watercolor paint on the wet surface. This causes the watercolor to spread easily. Wet on Dry is a water color technique where the artist paints on a dry piece of paper. This allows the artist to maintain tighter control over where the watercolor spreads. Gesso is painted over the top of unpainted surfaces as a primer. This prepares the surface to be painted so that you don’t have to use as much colored paint. Painting Techniques

The color wheel is a circular chart used to find color relationships. Color wheel is divided up into 3 main groups: Primary Colors (Red, Yellow, Blue): The only pure colors. Used to mix all other colors. Secondary colors (Orange, Green, Violet): Colors that you get by mixing primary colors together. Tertiary Colors (Red-Violet, Yellow-Green, Yellow-orange, etc): Majority of colors are tertiary colors. These colors are what you get when you mix primary colors with Secondary colors. Nuetral colors (Blacks, whites, Grays, browns) are not found on the color wheel.

Color wheel is also used to help artists create color schemes. A color scheme is a combination of colors that work together well in artwork. Neutral Colors (White, Gray, Black, Browns) are not on the color wheel, and do not change your color scheme.

Monochromatic Color Scheme A monochromatic color scheme is a color scheme that uses 1 color on the color wheel, mixed with black and white to get a full range of values. Blacks mixed with a color naturally makes a shade of the color. White mixed with a color naturally makes a tint of the color.

Triadic Color Scheme Triadic color scheme uses only 3 colors, generally yellow, red and blue together, or orange, violet and green.

Using a triadic color scheme will allow you to create a picture that has striking contrast in color, depending upon the intensity of the colors you are using.

While the Triadic Color Scheme creates contrast, it also allows for a unified balance of color since it uses a variety of warm and cool colors.

Neutral Colors (Blacks, Browns, and Grays) can be used and it won’t change the color scheme.