It’s not often that I break out the pencil or charcoal and start to draw, but yesterday I was feeling inspired. The day before, I had set aside my paintbrushes to dry after cleaning them, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to use them anytime soon. I was feeling creative, though, so I thought, “Well! You haven’t drawn in a while.”
And that’s true! The most recent drawing I had done was some sort of a speedy drawing for Instagram. I hadn’t sat down for a good set period of time, with the intention of drawing with accuracy and artistry.
So, that day I decided to draw this sailboat that I took a picture of on my honeymoon. There are such great and fond memories I have of the time together on Orcas Island. The desire to record that memory through art really appeals to me. I went to work and soon found myself frustrated. I was rusty! The materials didn’t feel right in my hands and I had this haphazard approach to the project. It ended in shambles.
But there was still this little part of me that enjoyed getting back into using charcoal.
Yesterday, I decided to approach it again. This time, I had a plan. I was going to start with charcoal, but then dive into pencil, while also utilizing a soft brush to spread the charcoal around a bit more easily. I was already somewhat familiar with the subject, but this time I really focused in on making sure things looked right. For the ropes and lines, I used a ruler to ensure accuracy (my heart argued with my brain and was like, “That’s cheating!”)
So here it is! I’m really happy with it and hoping to ride the emotional momentum into some more inspired drawings. It’s just nice to change the pace a little bit. I’ve been so into oils lately that I want to mix it up.
Haystack Rock is a geological formation off the coast of Oregon state, near Cannon Beach. Tourists flock to visit the sea stack because of its size and how close it is to the shoreline. It’s humongous! When the tide goes out, you can walk much closer and even see starfish and other sea life on and around it. It’s just another example of the beauty of the Pacific Coast.
How I Chose My Composition
My wife, Amber, and I went to visit Haystack Rock a few years ago, which is when I snapped the pictures that would serve as my reference for this painting. The weather was clear with some high-altitude clouds masking the sun slightly, resulting in beautiful colors and lighting. I took as many pictures as possible from all sorts of different angles, hoping that at least one of them would strike me as inspired when I went back through them.
One idea was to do a painting where Haystack Rock was the primary emphasis, large and in charge, looming straight down the center of the canvas. While I didn’t go in that direction, I am still intrigued by the idea and it might see the light of day, eventually. However, it just wasn’t exactly calling to me as much as a different composition – one that felt pretty unusual.
The composition that appealed to me was one that emphasized the beach, with the rock formations sitting in the distance. First of all, I think the landscape surrounding the ocean is just as beautiful as the water itself and is often far more interesting to look at. Secondly, I thought it might lend a bit more mystery to the rocks if I placed them in the distance, a bit vaguer and more removed, but present. It gives the rocks the personality that I wanted to infuse them with.
Painting the Scene
I am about the most boring color-chooser in the world. For years, I have picked the same colors over and over again for my paintings. I think you can easily see it when you look at my paintings. Until more recently I have not been the most courageous or knowledgeable color-guy. It’s only now that I’ve been studying color and light so much more, resulting in bolder choices with my paints.
This painting was a bit different for me because I built the whole thing around one color and it’s a color that comes straight from the tube. It’s one of those oddball colors that I typically don’t go for, because I have some weird thing about being traditional with my materials. I used a color called Radiant Blue from Gamblin. I thought it was some unusual pigment that was specific in some way, but recently I found out that it is essentially a combination of Titanium White and Ultramarine Blue pigments. So, now I feel less adventurous.
In any case, by emphasizing Radiant Blue, I was able to build the entire painting around it and keep myself from using too much white everywhere (something I’m prone to do). It essentially became my highlight. The sky, of course, is lighter, but that’s how I wanted it – the land a certain range of values and the sky its own.
As usual, I roughed in the major shapes of color and built up the paint over time. It helps me get a grip on my composition and have a handle on the components that build it up and make it what it is.
Legacy
I hope you enjoy the Haystack Rock painting. It has become one of my more popular paintings. My mother-in-law really loves it and purchased it from me. While it is currently on display in a showing in Seattle, it usually hangs in her living area in her home, where it can remind her of the beach.
In the middle of a small glade, I saw this white blooming tree that stuck out like a sore thumb (but in a good way!). I decided I wanted to do a simple sketchy painting of it, hopefully capturing its prominence against the vibrant greens and ruddy browns of early Spring, before most trees have really started blooming. A painting like this is a nice reminder of the simplicity of painting and the small joys of being surprised by nature.
I wanted to take a slightly different approach to today’s blog and upload a video, instead. I’ll probably be doing some of these from time to time. It’s just a different way of communicating that is sometimes more direct and easier for me to make. Writing can be really hard! Rambling, however – easy.
I hope you enjoy the video.
But, wait! There’s more!
I do keep a regular blog here, so please visit often. I also release a newsletter that can keep you up to date on all of the latest from my website. Thanks!
Paintings very rarely do justice to the subjects they represent, but they do serve as nice reminders that we can use to go back in our minds to a special time. My wife and I went to Anacortes last year for her birthday. We stayed in a small and relaxing Airbnb, ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant (complete with accordion player), and spent the morning searching the local park beach for shells and colorful rocks. This view was down at one end of the beach, prompting me to take a snap of it for an eventual painting. With a little bit of imagination, I can feel the breeze and smell the salt water, reliving the peaceful moment.
The local historic Shell gas station looked remarkably beautiful in the snow a few years ago. I knew I wanted to capture it as a painting someday. Here is a look at my process, with notes below.
The first layer of paint. I chose to use a cool tone, to infuse the entire painting with some cold unity. This layer of paint is thinned out by introducing some odorless mineral spirits and extra oil to my paint. At this stage, I’m only concerned with getting the general shapes of value in.
Some more layers go down, with an emphasis on basic tones and colors. I am using a limited palette here, with burnt sienna, Payne’s gray, and hansa yellow. I believe I did use some raw umber and yellow ochre for a few of the areas and the general tone of the building. Of course, titanium white was also used to help lighten colors where needed.
The finished piece. With the main shapes of color in, the real challenge at this point is to introduce more detail. As I move around the canvas, I am always moving back and forth, looking for areas to improve and change. It really is when the flow of painting happens and I’m following my instincts, trying to adjust everything until my heart and eye are satisfied.
Prints and greeting cards of Snowy Shell Station are available here and here, respectively.
There is nothing quite like a new paintbrush. The bristles are springy and ready to apply paint to ground in magical ways. There’s also nothing quite like going broke from constantly buying new brushes because your old ones got caked in dried paint. It’s much less magical.
When we’ve finished a painting session, it can be really easy to slide into “relax mode” and put off cleaning brushes. Oil paint, in particular, is a bit of a tough customer. As we all know, oil and water don’t mix, which means it won’t be as easy to get that paint out of those bristles as it might be with acrylic, watercolor, or gouache.
And yet, we love oil paint. We thrive on it. So, what do we do when our brushes get consistently bent out of shape from neglect? Well, we would love to have an easy time restoring them, but if things have gone too far, we’re up a creek without a paddle.
If your brushes have become solid oil rocks, there’s really not much you can do. I’ve seen articles and forums that suggest soaking them in vinegar or solvent for hours and days, but at that point, it might not be worth the effort, as your brushes may not be usable by the end of the process. I’m speaking from experience.
With dirty brushes, you end up losing money over the long-term. New brushes aren’t exactly inexpensive, especially if you’re buying decent quality or larger sizes. So, whether you’re already in a predicament or you’re just doing some research to understand how to clean your brushes correctly, I will explain a good process and practice for extending the life of your brushes.
Seems simple. I won’t even harp on this one too much because it is probably the most obvious statement. However, if ignored, the whole process becomes so much more difficult.
Anything we do regularly and with discipline can eventually become habit, so I would just recommend that you try to schedule the time into your practice to clean your brushes. It might be easier if you think of it as part of the process of painting.
I will also add, before we get into the practical cleaning advice, that you don’t want to overload your brush with paint while working. There are different techniques to painting, but most still don’t call for paint to be at the deepest depth of your bristles.
The first thing you want to do when cleaning brushes is to remove excess paint. To do this, you will need either paper towels or newsprint. Rags can also be used, but it is important to understand that oily rags can be dangerous, becoming easily flammable in high heat.
Place the bristle end of the brush in the towel and pinch the bristles with your fingers from the outside. Then begin to pull the brush through, repeatedly. You will have to shift to clean areas of the paper towel, as the pigments will rub off on the paper. If the brush still is not clean by the time you have used the entire paper towel, you may need to get a second one.
You want to get to a point where the brush is not transferring any significant amount of residue to the paper towel. At that point, you can move on to the next step.
Safflower oil or special soaps made of oils can be very helpful for loosening the pigments from your brushes. There are specific brush soaps on the market that can significantly help with the cleaning and conditioning of your brushes. I really like the Master’s Brush Cleaner and Preserver and find that it works wonders for my bristles. It works like shaving soap, where you add a little water, rub the brush into it, and work it into a lather. Then you can use your hand under running water to remove the rest of the pigments from your brush.
Remember that at this point there shouldn’t be a whole bunch of paint on your brush, so it’s not going to be an extremely messy process. You are just removing those last amounts of pigment from the bristles.
If you don’t have the specific cleaner I mentioned above, you can still do a similar process using regular hand soap or even dish soap. You can place a little bit of soap into your hand, add water, and work the brush through your fingers, using the soap and lather to free up the pigment, then run it under warm water.
Many people do not like the idea of pigments or oils being worked by their hands, directly, and will use gloves as a protective barrier against them. While most pigments these days are safe to work with, this is a safer method for cleaning brushes.
Cleaning brushes is pretty easy, right? Now, we just dry them. You can use a clean towel or rag to dry the bristles, gently removing any leftover wetness. The bristles will most likely retain some amount of moisture and remain damp for a little while, so let them sit and dry until they are ready to be used again. If you try to paint with a damp brush, you’ll have a difficult time with the oil paint.
If, while drying, you notice that the pigment is coming off onto the towel, you will want to repeat the cleaning process, because you didn’t get the brush clean enough. Any amount of leftover paint can create problems in the future, so you want to be sure to clean thoroughly.
Solvent (turpentine, odorless mineral spirits, paint thinner) is a highly hazardous liquid that eats away at organic materials, such as oil. It is often used by oil painters to adjust the ratio of oil-to-pigment in their paints and can also be used to clean paint from bristles. Many people might use it when cleaning brushes when they don’t need to. It is of utmost importance that you understand the risks and proper handling of solvent before you ever use it.
You can never dispose of solvent into your drains or plumbing, nor can it be disposed of in the garbage. It can also not be poured out into the ground or water. All attempts to dispose of solvent in any of these ways is terrible for our environment and also illegal. Cities, counties, and states should have some way in which you can legally throw out solvent.
If you use solvent at all, it should always be in a highly ventilated area, as it has fumes and can harm you. Solvent will evaporate over time. If it does so, it is safe to dispose of the dry remnants left behind.
Now, do you need to use solvent? The short answer is no. There are alternatives that can work just as well, mentioned above. Solvent can be used to dissolve the paint from your bristles, much like water can be used with acrylic paint. It can make quick work of it. However, in my experience, solvent can also be very hard on the life of your brushes, too. You might find that your bristles aren’t exactly what they used to be if you use solvent often in cleaning brushes.
That really is all it takes to keep your brushes clean and ready to work with.
Remove excess paint and pigment with a paper towel
Make sure that there is very little, if any, pigment transferring from the brush to the towel
Use soap or oil brush cleaner along with water to loosen and remove remaining pigment
Dry the brush manually, then let it sit
I have also heard of artists using a little bit of conditioner occasionally to keep their brushes shaped nicely. I don’t know if that is necessary, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to try it and do it very rarely.
I hope this has been a helpful look at cleaning brushes that have been used to paint with oils.
If you’ve found yourself dabbling with oils and want to learn a bit about color mixing, head here.
In art, we can define the Primary Triad as a “color scheme”. There are many color schemes that an artist can use to create the impression they hope for. A color scheme is the artist’s starting selection of colors, usually based within 2-4 different hues. Many established schemes exist and are seen every day, in advertising, movies, and print. A scheme is essentially a formula to derive a set of colors from the traditional color wheel. It helps artists maintain a consistent focus of color with their designs.
Some popular color schemes are:
Monochromatic
Analogous
Complementary
Split-Complementary
Triad
Tetrad
Today, we will focus entirely on a particular type of Triad scheme: the Primary Triad. And, while the Primary Triad can be found all throughout our media world in its most pure and unblended form, we’re going to discuss how it lends itself beautifully to a painter’s palette.
Primary Triad Basics
What is a Primary Triad?
The “Triad” finds its meaning in the number 3. All Triad schemes consist of 3 colors.
The “Primary” finds its meaning in the particular selection of colors – Primary colors. Namely, red, yellow, and blue.
Putting both words together, we can understand what we are dealing with. A Primary Triad is a color scheme based solely in the colors red, yellow, and blue.
The next time you’re looking through an advertisement for children’s toys, pay special attention to the color choices. You will often find that the Primary Triad is used commonly to appeal to kids. Not only is it a very basic and consistent set of colors that can be easily identified, but the colors also operate together to create a huge amount of visual interest.
Yellow and Red are often used to grab attention, with their strong and vibrant hues. Blue is a nice counterbalance to them and offers its own intense and pleasing color. Putting these colors together, you find a large amount of visual vibration, as they play off of each other in a balanced and visually stimulating way. In fact, the Bauhaus School often revered red, yellow, and blue as being central to art and our understanding of color.
But it’s not just these three colors alone that make them so suitable to painters…
Feature #1: They Mix Well Together
When you start with a Primary Triad, it makes it much easier to mix a wide variety of colors. You probably remember being in elementary school and learning that red and yellow make orange, red and blue make violet, and yellow and blue make green. This basic formula has helped artists for centuries.
Orange, violet, and green are known as “secondary colors” and what’s magical about them is that they feel completely different from the primaries. You can see the way that they link together, but they also set themselves apart as unique hues.
Let’s look at a twelve-color wheel for a second.
You’ll notice that the primary colors and secondary colors also have colors between them with names that combine their neighbors, primary-first. So, the color between red and orange is known as red-orange. These are called tertiary colors. And if we were to create a 24-color wheel, we would see even more bridging hues. We can even break it down further if we want to.
What is remarkable about this is how fantastic our primary colors are at creating other vibrant colors and how many colors we can create when we mix them together in different ratios. This is worth exploring and I would recommend that you experiment with your primaries to see how many colors you can create!
Feature #2: But, wait! There are even more colors!
Ever wonder how you mix a brown? I remember as a kid, I asked my mom how to make brown with the crayons I had. She said to mix red and green. She was right!
However, that’s not the only way you can make brown. There are dozens of ways to do it. There are even many ways to shift the brown exactly to where you want it to go, whether it’s more of a red-brown or a green-brown. It all has to do with complementary colors.
First, let’s define what we’re talking about. We already talked about those vibrant primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries. When they are at their fullest, they are often referred to as “pure” hues. Now, we’re looking at neutral hues. These are the muddy colors, like brown or gray.
A neutral hue is created what you combine complementary colors. Complementary colors are on opposite sides of the color wheel from each other. For instance, orange and blue. Yellow and violet, too. Pick any color and trace a line directly to the opposite side of the wheel – there you will find the complement.
Now, I want you to notice something awesome. I mentioned combining orange and blue a moment ago. Well, blue is a primary color and orange is a secondary, made up of red and yellow. So, in essence, we are combining our primaries to create those neutral colors. This is incredibly insightful for artists who may have mixed a neutral color and it just isn’t coming out right.
Let’s say you mix you are painting a yellow flower. As you move into some of the shadowed areas of the petals, you see that you need to mix a neutral color. You rightly think to use violet in combination with yellow. However, as you mix them together, the neutral is coming out too green. Why is that happening?
It’s because your violet is actually bluer than it should be. Remember, when yellow and blue are mixed, you get green. If you want to tone down that green, you will have to add some red. Which makes sense, because red is the complement of green and will reduce the greenness of your mixture!
With the Primary Triad, you can create so many colors! Also, remember that you can add white to lighten any of these colors and black to darken any of them. That gives you a whole cornucopia of colors to work with.
Feature #3: Color Harmony
Do you ever go to your box of paints, not knowing which ones to choose? Maybe you’ve grabbed upwards of ten different tubes in the interest of getting a good variety of colors on your canvas. However, once it comes time to paint, you look at your palette and find yourself overwhelmed by the options. Eventually you just start choosing colors and hoping they will work. An artist who chooses colors randomly will always struggle to achieve color harmony.
Instead, let’s simplify. Using a Primary Triad will teach us how to economize and understand color relativity much better. It is vitally important to understand that colors act in relation to each other. They are often understood by the artist and viewer within their own framework. As an example, look at the painters of the renaissance. They had a very limited selection of colors to work with, mostly earthy in hue. Yet, they created masterworks of art, many of which read far more colorfully than we might expect.
This means that we, as painters, can also simplify our colors. In doing this, we will prevent ourselves from being overwhelmed with choices and we will also increase our understanding of color, as we utilize a limited palette of pigments. We will see firsthand how colors will work together to communicate exactly what you hope they will, even if you weren’t expecting them to.
A Primary Triad is a wonderful starting point for painters interested in imbuing their work with harmony. When you have fewer colors to choose from, you have far less chance that your colors will clash. Yes, a blue in real life may not be exactly the blue paint you have in front of you, but maybe you can mix one with what you have. Not only that, but it may not actually matter as much as color harmony does.
I think the most remarkable thing about using the Primary Triad as your starting palette is that it achieves that color harmony while still granting you so many color options. It’s like playing in a sandbox where every toy makes sense and works together to make the whole experience fun.
Now that you understand the simplicity and flexibility of the Primary Triad, I hope that you will use it yourself. A recommended set of colors that will get vibrant results are Pyrrole Red, Lemon Yellow, and Ultramarine Blue. However, you can experiment with different pigments in place of your primaries.
Quinacridone Red, Indian Yellow, Phthalo Blue (probably going to get some interesting greens here)
Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt Blue (pretty vibrant, with a good chance for nice violets)
These are just off the top of my head. Experiment with your own combinations. Also, remember that replacing one of the primaries with a neutral will still have a nice harmonious effect and may even spark some creativity.
Mixing colors is something that every artist has to do at some point. As an oil painter, I find it to be one of the most important elements that has to be done right to get good results with my artwork. There was a time when I was oblivious to it, then a time when I realized the significance and challenge of it. Now, I mix my colors with much more confidence, and you can, too.
I have 3 easy and strong strategies that will help you get the best results from your color mixing, whether you mix your paint before or during your painting practice. These are the most basic and effective strategies for mixing colors, so don’t be surprised if you think it sounds too simple.
You will not have to learn complicated color theory concepts. While those can be incredibly helpful in the long run, I want to help you get the most bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time. You can implement these strategies with any form of art that uses color pigment, whether it is acrylic, oil, watercolor, gouache, or any other medium that will allow for the tiny pigment particles to mingle and party together.
A quick note regarding these strategies: they can work simultaneously. However, I have divided them out into a process that prioritizes the most important elements of color. With enough practice, it won’t be long until you’re using these strategies in unison when mixing colors.
We will start by establishing the 3 central concepts that make up color. It is important to give these some good attention, because understanding them will be integral to mixing colors with confidence. Each section has tips that will expound on the simple concepts with illustrations to help guide your learning. At the end of this article, I give you a basic application of these 3 central concepts.
In art, “value” is the word that describes the lightness or darkness of a color. If I were painting a still life, the shadows would be considered darker values than the highlights, which would be lighter values. Everything we see around us can be defined by their values and there are a wide range of values that our eyes can differentiate between and identify.
Values help us recognize forms and differences between objects through “value contrast”. When one value sits next to another value, the differences are often very clear, especially if the values are widely different. Our eyes are incredibly attuned to recognizing values and the forms that they imply, as it is the main task of our rods and a secondary task of our cones to perceive those shifts in value.
Simply put, light shines into our environment, our eyes see the variations in illumination, and our brains recognize the objects around us, mostly so that we can navigate and understand our surroundings.
When we paint, it is vitally important that we first recognize the values of the subject we are painting. Many oil painters start with the darkest values and work towards the lightest over time. This technique can be very helpful for keeping our values straight and understood correctly. If we are true to the value relationships of our subject, it will become very clear what we are trying to represent. Remember, it’s those values that communicate the forms of the objects we are painting and we are trained to recognize objects through those forms. Therefore, realism relies upon those values.
Think about black and white photography. Even without any hue or color intensity, we can still understand what we are seeing. That is all thanks to value and the forms that are described by the shifts and contrasts between values.
To apply this to your painting process, you will want to practice seeing and recognizing how light or dark the color you are trying to replicate or create should be. If you are a representational painter, pay close attention to those values first, then move your mind towards the next two strategies as you are mixing colors. If you are an abstract painter and mixing colors, think about the contrasts that you will create through value.
Once the value of a color is observed, we can jump into recognizing the “hue”. Hue is just a fancy word for the basic color we are seeing. So, yellow is instantly recognized as a “yellow hue”, different from red, orange, blue, green, etc., based solely on its position in the color wheel and its essential family of hues. This is best expressed visually. Let’s look at the color wheel below.
Notice how it is divided up, with each section labeled. Those labels are the “hues”. They are defined as the family of colors that sit within a section of the color wheel or color spectrum. These labels are usually what we think of when we consider and talk about colors. I might say, “This is red and that is yellow.” You would understand what I mean without many, if any, questions.
When you are mixing colors, you will need to identify the hue that is most recognizable. A color that has no neutrality (“grayness”, “brownness”, or “muddiness”) is known to be a “pure” hue. When a color is very pure, the hue is far easier to identify. You still need to be careful and consider if the hue is between two hues or leaning in a certain direction. For instance, a red that you observe might lean towards red-orange or might lean towards red-violet. Knowing what the hue is doing will help you recognize the color of paint you should start with or what colors you should try mixing together.
Establishing a knowledge of the color wheel is indispensable. Break it down into sections. There are 3 “primary” hues: red (R), yellow (Y), and blue (B). These create the “secondary” hues: orange (R+Y), green (Y+B), and violet (R+B). “Tertiary” hues are those that reside between primaries and secondaries on the color wheel. These are yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, and yellow-green. The 12 hues make up the basic color wheel that artists and designers often use to plan their color schemes and understand the working relationships between hues.
Once you understand hues, you will have a better time choosing what paint to use when mixing colors. For instance, if you want to mix a red-violet using a red paint and a blue paint, you will be better off starting with a more violet red (such as Quinacridone Red or Alizarin Crimson) and a more violet blue (such as Ultramarine Blue). If you were to mix an orangey red with a greenish blue your results would not gain you a vibrantly pure red-violet, but something more brown.
The above graphic shows popular and common pigments placed where they would belong on the traditional color wheel. This can help inform your decisions when selecting paints for mixing colors. Know that when you are mixing colors from pure pigments, you can guess what the results may look like by drawing a straight line between them on this graphic. The middle point on the line will be the average of the resulting mixture.
Knowing your hues makes it a lot easier for mixing colors. It also helps you communicate about color and even spot differences between similar colors, especially those that are “gray” or “brown”. A gray can be “reddish” or “blueish” or “greenish”, etc. Same with a brown or other neutral color. This will bring us into the next section.
Mixing Colors with Intensity
Colors cannot be defined only by value and hue. There is an element that speaks to the vibrancy, intensity, or chroma of a color. Intensity relates to that “pure” notion I discussed earlier. A color that is high in intensity will be very vibrant and close to its pure hue. We see that in the flowers shown above, as they radiate pure hues of red, red-orange, and yellow.
Many colors we see do not fall within easily-defined hues. They are lower in intensity and, therefore, harder to associate to a pure hue that they are derived from. These kinds of colors can be known as neutral or muted colors. What do we do with those?
When confronted with a neutral color, it is important to identify what hue the color is closest to. Then we can create a plan for mixing colors. For example, if a neutral color is reddish (often described as “warm”), we want to start there, then introduce paint colors that will bring our mixture closer to the observed color.
Muted neutral colors
There are many ways to neutralize a hue, but different approaches get different results.
If you want the neutral color to retain some of its intensity (not becoming too faded, but remaining strong in color), you need to introduce its “complement”. The complement of a hue is the hue on the opposite side of the color wheel.
As an example, red would be neutralized by green. Introducing just a little green will result in a reddish-brown. The green can either be one distinctly green pigment or the combination of pigments, such as yellows and blues. The less green we introduce, the more red our brown will be, and the more we introduce, the more green it will be. We can also try to introduce more blue or yellow, depending on if we need to pull or push the color in a different direction.
Mixing colors can feel very confusing at first! I know a lot of students that I have taught who really struggled initially to understand how to achieve certain colors with their paint. It really just takes some practice.
Faded or muted neutrals can also be mixed by introducing white, black, or gray. White lightens your hue, known as “tinting”. Black darkens the hue, known as “shading”. Gray desaturates your hue, known as “toning”. All three will lower the intensity of your colors, making them less vibrant. One of the most common painting errors is to introduce white as a brightener. However, while white does lighten, it doesn’t brighten (in the sense of increasing vibrancy).
Applying These Strategies
Now we understand the three basic characteristics of color: value, hue, and intensity. Every color is going to have some element of each characteristic.
How do we use this knowledge for mixing colors? I have a little rundown of how you might approach mixing colors to match your reference.
First, note the value. Is the color dark? Is it light? Somewhere in between?
Then, note the hue. Can you recognize any? Where does it lean? Compare it to surrounding hues.
Lastly, note the intensity. Would adding white, black, or gray result in the color? Or do you need to keep things more vibrant by mixing together complementary colors?
Soon, you will be making these judgments without even thinking too much. Your color recognition and knowledge of your pigments will increase, you will grow in confidence, and your instincts will gain a more solid and sophisticated foundation. Mixing colors will become completely natural.
Finally, I would recommend that you start painting with a limited palette, if only to understand how colors can interact. A limited palette is a simple selection of colors, usually a red, yellow, and a blue, along with white. Try different combinations (Pyrrole Red, Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue; then Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ochre, Phthalo Blue, etc.). Try switching out a pure primary with a neutral color (for instance, use red, yellow, and Payne’s gray instead of blue). You will start to learn, firsthand, how these colors interact and the color wheel will become alive in your mind.
Read more great color advice with James Gurney’s book “Color and Light”, found here.
If you’re interested in oil painting, read my invitation and encouragement to you here.
Psst. Hey. All you workaholic artists out there, let me tell you about a time I had some easy artistic inspiration without burning myself out…
When was the last time you took a break from bending over your easel and decided to go outside? Believe it or not, there’s more to life than putting paint to canvas or pencil to paper and maybe it will just get you excited to share it -visually! – with the world.
A good friend invited me on his birthday trip to Suncadia, Washington a couple of years ago. We golfed (poorly) in the sun, played some fun games, and had all sorts of great conversations. Not only that, but we went down this enormous outdoor staircase that led us to a running stream where we spent too much time skipping rocks and challenging each other’s throwing accuracy.
On our way back up the hill, I saw a beautifully simple little sight. Sunlight was filtering through the branches of a small crop of trees sitting on a tiny hill. Something about it hit me in a way that I wasn’t expecting. It spoke of lazy outdoor days, enjoying the sun’s warmth when there’s still a little chill in the air. Being without paint and unprepared to set up for a painting, I snapped a quick picture for use later. Being that I had some artistic inspiration, I was determined to paint this piece.
The reference image.
Laying Down the Right Foundation
When I arrived home I decided to set to work on the painting. I selected a small canvas (10×10 inches) that would serve to display the setting with enough detail and impact, though not overwhelm the viewer in its size. I really felt the small canvas would help to serve the simple nature of the scene, not overcomplicating things with massive presence. I also just wanted to work small.
I had been working a lot with limited palettes at the time of this painting. A limited palette is an approach to painting that encourages the artist to choose as few paints as necessary for the project. Color is very relative and this creates a framework for the artist to work simply. I chose Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, and Phthalo Blue, along with a White (can’t remember if it is Titanium or Zinc) and Raw Umber. This allowed me to get a good range of colors without getting overwhelmed by a huge selection of paint options. I often use Winsor & Newton oil paint (they have a wide range of qualities that can fit any person’s budget).
Getting at it quickly was pretty important for me. I wanted to really make sure that the painting had a good amount of life to it and I truly believe that the more free a painter’s strokes are, the easier it becomes to imbue visual interest. The way we use our paintbrushes can absolutely communicate how we are feeling, in subconscious ways that even unaware viewers can perceive. It’s like talking on the phone in a good mood versus a bad mood. It can be heard in the voice, despite any of the word choice.
Using a stiff brush allowed me to get some nice textured and lively strokes on the canvas. Having that right amount of tension from the hand to the brush to the spring of the canvas imbues the painting with a personality that may not come through in just the colors and composition. I ended up being very happy with the way the preliminary layers were coming together.
Overall, I wanted to make sure that my enjoyment of the outdoors on that trip to Suncadia would come through in the painting. I always seem to work more enthusiastically when I experience the artistic inspiration that quiet and peaceful moments can provide – it would be very satisfying to communicate and share that expression with others.
Before I added more details. Maybe I could have stopped here!
Things that Did Not Work
Despite all of the early artistic successes with the piece, I didn’t know when to stop. That’s a huge learning curve for painters. Maybe it’s weird to hear an artist question their judgment on their own blog that’s part of their website where they run their business. I think it’s more important to be honest about how I was feeling regarding my work. I just didn’t know how to maintain the freshness of the painting, as I added more detail and more layers of paint.
Let this be a lesson to you! And me. I don’t think my painting is bad, by any means, but I do wonder if it could have been better if I had left it alone or been more selective with my “improvements”.
The colors were also a learning experience for me. While I am fond of the painting, I do think that some of the colors were really challenging. The thing about direct sunlight is that it can reflect off of surfaces, such as grass, and become very bright. However, in doing so, it loses a lot of the intensity of color that we hope to find in paintings. So, there’s a choice that the artist has to make, which is between adherence to realism and adherence to visual interest. I’m not sure there is a right answer, but I do wonder if I chose the correct path.
One technical thing that can add to the difficulty in painting with enough color intensity is the photo reference. Great photos are the result of a good photographer and a great edit. Cameras don’t work exactly like our eyes do, so there can often be a big difference between the way we see something in person and the way it comes to us through a photo capture. Contrast, brightness, intensity, and even perspective can be altered in a way that is just not as satisfying as what we are seeing in person.
If you are experiencing any issues like these that are getting in the way of communicating your artistic inspiration, I would recommend trying to find ways to introduce saturated and intense colors. Just try it in a few places and you might find yourself thinking entirely different about your painting. You may even be encouraged to increase the vibrancy of all your colors.
The Big Finale
The artistic inspiration came to fruition, eventually, when I put down my paint and brushes and called it. Happily, I walked away from the painting feeling like I had accomplished something decent and learned a lot along the way. That really is what I hope for most when I paint, that I will learn something. And most times, I do.
So, I added texture, color, balance, harmony, and eventually my stamp of approval. I do not think it is my greatest painting, by any means, but I do look at it occasionally and find myself studying aspects of it, with a grateful heart and a happy smile.
Here is a short series of three phases of the process. You can see how I started, began to adjust my colors, and then did some final adjustments to bring some more interest back in. Scroll back to the reference to see the changes I made, the things I de-emphasized, and the creative choices I made in a journey to simplify and economize my colors. You might also notice how my limited palette did in replicating the original colors.
While the first image in the process has a nice earthy quality to it and a good balance in the values, I do recognize the polish of the final image and how it conveys the textures and features with more crispness. I think I could balance my strokes a bit more, in hopes to keep that casual feel that is happening in the first image. I also could stand to control my use of white a bit.
So, there’s another Art Story from me, giving you a little background on one of my paintings. I’ve always enjoyed getting some behind the scenes looks at how people work and what they think of what they’ve created (warts and all). I hope you enjoyed this post and will find yourself in the midst of artistic inspiration sometimes soon.
