One of the most important talents of oil painting, as I am finding out from my time in Lee Hartman’s art classes, is the ability to see the colors in a photo or live subject. The greater one can discern the variety of colors within a clump of grass or the side of a building, the more expressive one’s painting can be. This is not to say that your painting would be a masterpiece should you have a superb sense of color, however, think of it as the raw material input.
How this perception then gets translated and extended to a canvas is the second part of what an artist does.
I wanted to share this test I stumbled across online which requires you to drag and drop the various hues into their order from left to right. It test your ability to discern the intensity and nature of different hues. For those that are interested in taking up art or interested in their ability to perceive different colors, it is a nice acid test. I am sure the more you practice, the better you get as well.
Musell Hue Test – www.spectralcolor.com/game/huetest_kiosk