My own Goof Proof Color Wheel is a loose interpretation of Munsell Color Theory. By loose, I mean I take “the easy-to-understand” part and make only ten colors that work for me. Then I make hundreds of very small practice paint sketches. That’s H-U-N-D-R-E-D-S! Does the word “Automatism” sound familiar?

The painting shown above is one of my latest 20x20 inch paper series called “Ooh La La” (don’t ask...).

The dominant and overall color tone is RED. But it’s not just one flame red color, but other “reds” as well. This point is important. I start with one dominant color all over. I goof around with a bunch of reds, plus black and white.

Early on however I established a point of interest with my focal point color. And by now I’ve detemined my compositional design. The result is pure “playin’ in the tub.” I splash, drip, scrape, glue things and draw into the painting until it shows my theme - my intentions.

Then the final two pure spice colors are placed near the focal color - sparingly. As any spice color moves away from the focal point - and hence, away from its most saturated color, it is grayed down or blended until it disappears.

The spice colors should not draw too much attention to themselves. They are supposed to show off the focal point. Their “foot print” size should not visually compete with the focal point - the Star of the Show!