Mixing colours

1   Art to Life

2.  Malcolm Dewey

3.  Dough SWinton

4. Paul Foxton

5.  Bold School

Warm and cool colours and how to use same

Warm reds to the foreground and cool reds to the background

Markowskyart.com

RGB     2 warms and 2 cools of each

1         Art2Life Principle         Colour  workbook  by Nicholas is in Notes

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     (0)  = Opaque

     (T)   Transparent

Transparent colours - how much light is being transferred through the paint film

they delicately tint other colours and glaze very well

Opaque colours build up the body of the painting

Burnt umber a great colour for making blacks and also for changing the value of a colour. 

Dulls down a colour.

Burnt sienna 

A great colour for toning canvas excellent for Portraits ( skin tone ) and Landscape.

Yellow ochre(0)  a great colour for mixing skin tones and greens in Landscape - knock back the intensity of the green used in combination with either cobalt or ultramarine blue

Naples yellow(0) great for skin tones and skies

Titanium white (O)and lead white(T)

TW makes colours chalky

Lead W does not change the value (Cremnitz white)

Cad.Lemon(0) Cool   Intense greens  

Combine with Q Magenta or Cobalt Teal makes very clean secondaries

Hansa Yellow  (T)  Warmer    Light shining through a tree      

Cad Red Light (0)  

Permanent Crimson is Transparent /glazing.. Mix with blues for a wide range of violets. mix with other colours without shifting the  

Quin Magenta / Glazing

Plus UMB

UMB + B Umber - black

Cobalt teal cools colours - instead of cerulean blue

Chromium green

Phthalo green - landscape

Transparent yellow oxide (portraits) and transparent red oxide great for glazing and making earthy greens

Colours Layout System

Earth tones left of the whites

High chroma colours to the right

Dagger brush very useful 

This is from the Christina Kent website.

Adding white to some colours takes from the vibrancy - this would apply to cobalt yellow  and cobalt red - 

when I mix just a little white with other colours the vibrancy remains for example sap green cobalt Teal and ultramarine blue and burnt Sienna.

Analogous palette

One primary + 2 adjacent

    1. Yellow.  Orange.    Magenta.  MIX

Use sap green to desaturate

Add a brown to darken

Add white to change values

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                                                               Nancy Medina

One can never have too much purple 

Paint what you see not what do you think it should look like? 

Transparent colour is the new superpower

Transparent orange is a great colour, 

never use opaque white until near the end of a painting

She uses two transparent yellows two transparent Reds and two transparent blues, warm and cool of each

She uses transparent, heavy body and also fluid paint

Go to the manufacturers website to see if a colour is transparent or not

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            2                                      Malcolm Dewey

Impressionist colour here he looks at the colours to use and luminosity.

The emphasis here is getting colour to transmit the atmosphere of the occasion 

The impression of used broken colour as you can see in this picture 

The idea is to place complimentary colours next to each other, for example, yellow and violet and this they based on the scientific fact of how the human eye perceives colour

Complimentary colours are placed side by side, the eye perceives a visible vibration that enhances the intensity and luminosity of both colours

Shadows are not black or grey, but they include a variety of colours Including blue

In the shadows, you get a blue glow of light 

Warm and cool colours, create depth and dimension in your painting.    

On a warm sunny the shadows will appear cool and therefore cool colours must be used in the shadows to create a vibrant colour area in the shadows

The impressionist rejected, the old masters custom of using black or very dark colours in the shadows 

                                                      The impressionist palette 

Luminosity in the context of impressionist painting 

Refers to the appearance of light and the effect it has on colour 

Impressionist used broken colour and brush strokes to create the optical mixture of colour and this gave the impression of luminosity 

So it’s all done by placing small brushstrokes of contrasting colour next to each other, they created a vibrancy and luminosity  not found in traditional blending techniques, used by the old masters 

It is that glowing sense of light coming from the colour that describes direct light, full sunlight half light and shadows

3       Doug Swinton

YouTube

Colour mixing and avoiding mud

Values that are too close to each other / In other words, a bad value scale 

So you end up with a painting in the value range of five and six with no darks and no whites 

So your values are so close to each other, you are not getting a read

Also mixing warm and cool colours will create mud. 

Dirty medium, dirty brushes, dirty palette, dirty colours, values that are too close to each other, over mixing, no difference in temperature mixing warm and cool colours together -

will all contribute to creating mud.

The less colours you mix together, the fresher, your paint will be 

Broken colour happens when you don’t fully mix the colours together and apply them to the canvas. This can look really good

Warm light, cool shadows so you need to add some yellows to the snow to make it pop

Anytime you mix opposite colours together you will make mud. 

Colours

“Above is the least number of colours that you can have to get the maximum number of colours “

If we mix various yellow together, that is okay 

But as soon as I mix in a little purple into the mix, I get mud

He does not use cad yellow medium  because it has green in it (cool)

By mixing Cad Yellow  light and Cad yellow deep, you get Cad Yellow  medium but now you have lost the green

Cadium orange is on the pallet because you cannot mix cadium orange. 

Ultramarine blue plus manganese blue gives you cobalt blue 

Veridian green plus ultramarine blue will give you a lovely cool, dark green 

White, make your colours chalky - the longer you can stay away from white the better 

Some notes from Swinton Art on YouTube 

Quotation, the more value range you have the less you need colour 

The less value range you have the more you need temperature to make the painting read

MUD comes from not having enough value to exchange are not enough temperature exchange 

All of these cause problems and painting …

An unorganised palette

Dirty brushes - =+-

Dirty white paint 

Dirty thinner /water

Dirty rag 

Lay your pallete out in the same way every time, leaving plenty of room for mixing in the centre.

Milan art school

Milan art school

Portraits. YouTube

Cool colours on top of palette 

Warm at the bottom

Place warm  colours on the parts of the face that are near you - that protrude 

Teeth must be cool 

Look up the Gamblin  website to see which colours are warm and which are cool

Opaque paint v transparent paint(Glaze)

As soon as you start painting with opaque paint, put the brushstroke down and leave it do not blend

Don’t use brown paint for portraits at all

Create your fresh tones using compliments

Use a cotton rag to clean the brush

Acrylic paint does not have the warm and cool properties that watercolour and Oil have 

Under paint with look transparent Acrylics do not mix transparent and opaque together

4                         Paul  Foxton 

  You Tube

60x70cm    high chroma

Vibrant colourful roses

Paul mixes the colours with high chroma in mind and to achieve the correct desired values

Quin Rose  value 5    It’s a blue red 

Perm. orange. V 6    / red orange

For high chroma shadows Trans red oxide

Which gives a lot of chroma in an orange in a very low value 

Napthol red

If you add too much white, you will lose the chroma so to solve that problem he knocks the values down (darker) so that he can keep the chroma in the lights

Shadows at value three

Dont take your light colour and your shadow colour and mix them together to get the middle values…. V6

Mix your shadows separately in order to get good chroma

Background colour, leaves and the cloth all effect the value and chroma of the flowers

Even in the dark shadows you should be able to tell what the Hue is otherwise you may have a muddy colour

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                               5.           NOTES from BOLD SCHOOL

1   Balancing the values and Intensity of Complementary colours

2  Creating mood/feeling with values and colour choices

3    The Monochromatic palette

4    Tints Tones and Shades

5    Low and High key

6   Face proportions

When putting complementary colours  together sometimes wee need to vary either the values or the intensity

       Red and Green

  e.g. Intense red    much less intense green  More pleasing to the eye

  Using the same intensity can be too much

                                               Complementary Palette    Colour Bias       Temperature

You can have a warm YELLOW and a cool Yellow   (Below)

A warm Blue and a cool blue

Cool Purple is on the blue side

Warm purple is on the red side

In a Dominant warm colour field using a COOL Compliment gives a very pleasing effect  referred to as warm in cool or cool in warm

S Sergeant     Complimentary colours   Use of cools and warms

Far away yellows are cool

Temperature bias between the warm dominant purple water and the cool sky

CC  =  Complimentary Colours

3 ways to get CC to work together

   1   Change Value

   2   Change Intensity

   4   Separate with a neutral

Red and Green do NOT always look good together

Balancing a set of Complementary colours

Much better -  Change the VALUE

To improve how these work you can add Black or white or grey between the two colours

The neutral colour helps create a sense of Balance

To Balance   

Use a neutral colour made from mixing the two CC together

Example   Red and Teal   Not very pleasing to the eye

With variations using different intensity/Values and Neutrals  (Black and white)

MOOD / Feelings

 Red and green are very close in value

 

Warmest and coolest on the CW

Big contrast   Tension    Happy feel   

Need to play with their values

A very balanced happy colour scheme to use 

Double Split Complementary  Ideal for BOLD SCHOOL

STEPS

1    2 sets Bottom circled (above)

3    Violet

3    Subordinate     Accent colour - very little

                                      Example

Dominant Colours  are the Magenta/Orange set which mixes as Salmon

The Yellows are very desaturated and light value

Blues are also desaturated

Example    Variations and different moods

                                                                  The analogous family is Purple/Blues

                                                                              CC is Yellow

1  So choose  a Dominant colour - various values and intensities of that green

2                   Analagous family is dominant

                Same families but very different outcomes

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Primary Magenta     Sap Green     Cad Y    Phthalo  Blue     

Mixing neutrals between Red (magenta) and 2 different Greens

PURPLE  and ORANGE   

   (Uses  PHTHALO  BLUE  and CAD ORANGE)

Very warm and very cool

Your paintings should be mainly full of neutral and semi neutral colours

If you are using a lot of vibrant colours make sure to use lots of PURE NEUTRALS - GREYS  which will tone down your canvas

The mix goes from COOL blue neutrals towards the warm Yellow side - as you add more Orange

Cad Y (very bright) and Dioxine Purple (very dark)

Purple and yellow are vastly different in value and that will make mixing this pair tricky. 

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The Monochromatic palette

Monochromatic takes colour out of the equation - creates space to learn value and saturation 

                One colour - incorporate various shades, tints and tones of the main hue.

                  Tint   add white       A shade   add black          Tone   add grey(neutralise)

                                    Acromatic palette   - no Hue just Black and white

This poprtrait is done with 

an acromatic palette

Portrait using shades, tints and tones 

of a pure hue

                                                      Ways to use the Monochromatic palette

Between the 12 colours on the colour wheel - taking tints, tones and shades into account we get 216 possible paintings

High key and Low key colours

This portrait is High Key Major with one dark accent in the shadows and eyes

So use all High key values and One dark value.

Middle Major - midrange - middle third of value range - most popular range with one High and one low key accent.

 Use for more realistic result.

Low Major key with an accent of one high key

The high key should not be the highest available. That would be too much contrast.

Use a good range of darks otherwise it gets too dark.

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High Minor keys

Low contrast with no dark accent

This is the LOW minor

MIDDLE MINOR

LOW MINOR

                    High, Middle and Low Major and Minor keys

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                                                             Semineutrals

Instead of adding Grey to neutralise - make a neutral colour by mixing in the complement to create a rich variety of neutralised colours in this monochromatic palette.

4 ways to change a pure hue.   ADD >>>

 

                  VALUE is the most important factor in making a painting work.

Create studies with a certain number of values.

With more values you get more form.

Hue is ORANGE

Then Orange + Black to create a shade

Orange + white to create a tint

Orange + grey or complement  to create neutral palette

l         MOD02//Drawing a face    Lesson 2 of 7   done

Portrait of a lion       12 lessons x 25mins each      No reference photo

1     Applied gel matte medium to create texture   dry 24hrs

2    A ground of warm low key colour      Primary Magenta    Cad Orange into the centre        

Begin with darker colours    Sketch in the lion

Finished   

The Colour Playbook   Various palette

Workbook and reference downloaded   Print??

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     Reference photos    #1                                                                               #2         

      

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Prep the Canvas for a Portrait   12x16

2in cheap brush

Grounding with a selection of colours - 

Grounding is getting the canvas covered as against underpainting which is done with one colour

Grounding:  Choice of Opposing temperatures - warm face then a cool ground

Cool winter scene - warm with a warm ground

Dark or black

Sepia tones will match most colours - warm the face of a portrait

Use a midtone or dark ground

Multicoloured ground

Complementary ground - eg green tone where the red of a face will be

Dry the canvas

This is Carlas grounded canvas

                                     Draw the portrait - grid.   B&W for values.

  

                

   

Carla paints with a dry brush putting in highlights first

Big brush for loose work

Darkest shadows next

Midtones next - salmon colour

Working the midtone into forehead

A lot of value changes in the nose - use the midtone colour to cover all in between areas

Neutralise the background

Next she used Teal over parts of the highlights

Y Ochre/orange  type colour over parts of the pink

Some Yellows on top of the orange - working up to more saturation

Cools into the darks and Warms into the highlights

Module 8     Creating Depth

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Children and Likeness

Colour palette

The Tetrad Palette

4 equally spaced colours on the CW - includes two sets of CC

To create vibrant, colourful paintings

Choose the Dominant colour - so the opposite colour is the CC

e.g.  Teal and Orange - they will dominate the painting

The other CC pair Yellow and Purple - second fiddle -accents

Using warm and cools of these colours

                                       Select the paints.  Using a cool and warm of each.

Amazon.de    €20

 

<  4 inch brush for background

   2 inch brush also

The 8 colours Mixed on the right and laid out in tints on left.

The colours used are

Turquoise Phthalo  - Golden

Permanent Green Light - Matisse

Cad Yell Dark  Golden

Benzimidine Yell Light  Golden

Cad Red Light  Golden

Cad Red Medium  Golden

Permanent Violet Dark  Golden

Dioxazinee Purple   Matisse

To Mix neutrals she mixed a little of all colours to get a black

Also mixed some Cad Y Dark and Cad Red Light + White (tint)

(Where her finger is pointing - Dark neutrals to the right

Grounding on a 36x48in.   

Spray water first.   Add some neutral splotches and spread with spatula

  

  4in brush to spread the paint and allow to dry

Transfer the image with a water soluble crayon

                                        Value mapping values for likeness with mid tone TEAL

Now adding the CC of teal which is the RED

Purple and yellow next - Purple in the shadows of the face

More Purple and therefore less Yellow

Teal and Purple will dominate the piece and the Red and and yellows will be less.

When bringing in additional colours do so in proportions that do not overwhelm the eye

Check values with a BW photo

Here she begin to add brighter colours

layering them over the ground creating more 

volume and depth

This is a dry brush technique which allows you to 

see the under colours

When paint is put on it is not blended

Do sketches and studies - it helps

Value transitions depend on the light source.

Here we have more than 5 values

The transition between the values needs to be such that there is not too much of a contrast

otherwise the eyes are distracted there

Instead of blending we add a colour similar in value over them - Blending without blending!

So in the bright part of the face where we use various light colours - we need to use light values of those colours

If the colours are in the right value  - it will work

Value studies are great to see how to achieve similar values with various colours,

Doing a value study in Monochrome works very well as a learning tool

Value can be confusing because of the intensity of colours

Cool colours recede - warm colours come forward

Colours create mood - depth - meaning - impact 

Eye brows of children not dark.

Why Layering 

Like a sculpter - refining values - details - likeness. Sculpting with values,

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 Maria Woodie   How to choose the right colour schemes.

Colour your world Boldly    Patti Mollica  Book  " How to Paint Fast Loose and Bold"

Use each colours extended range ie Tint / Tone Hue and Shade.

Do colour sketches of your proposed work

ANALOGOUS colour scheme  3 or more colours beside each other on CW.

                                                            Red and Oranges.

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Triadic colour scheme    3 colours that are evenly spaced

Purple    Green    Orange

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Complementary Colours    Opposite each other 

Red   and  Green 

Split complementaries   A root colour + 2 colours on either side of the complementary colour.