Mixing Colour Watercolour · 2 MIXING COLOUR WATERCOLOUR C onTEnTS Introduction What Materials Do I...

M i x i n g C o l o u r

WatercolourAUTHOR BOB DAVIES

M I X I N G C O L O U R W A T E R C O L O U R2

C o n T E n T S

I n t r o d u c t i o n

W h a t M a t e r i a l s D o I N e e d ?

L e t ’ s G e t S t a r t e d P l a y i n g w i t h P r i m a r i e s

M i x i n g D a r k s W i t h o u t U s i n g B l a c k

M i x i n g S e c o n d a r i e s

C o m p l e m e n t a r y C o l o u r s & T h e C o l o u r W h e e l

W a r m & C o o l C o l o u r s

E x p a n d i n g Y o u r C o l o u r C h a r t s

M i x i n g M u d d y C o l o u r s

C o l o u r S h i f t

A e r i a l P e r s p e c t i v e

M i x i n g P a i n t o n t h e P a p e r

B r i n g i n g I t A l l T o g e t h e r : S t i l l L i f e

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A B o u T T H E A u T H o r

Bob Davies i s a profess ional a r t inst ruc tor and co - founder of Ar t tutor.com with h is son , Phi l . Creator of numerous pa int ing courses and e -books, Bob i s the author of the best-se l l ing DVD Ser ies ‘ Watercolour Secrets’, which has so ld in excess of 25000 copies wor ld-wide.

He i s a s taunch bel iever that you don’t have to be born with ‘spec ia l a r t i s t ic ta lent ’ in order to enjoy the wonder fu l past ime of pa int ing and drawing.

H is easy- going teaching st y le i s much apprec iated by s tudents and cuts through many of the misconcept ions and fears that beset aspi r ing ar t i s ts .

B o B D A V i E S


i n T r o D u C T i o n

T o many aspi r ing watercolour is ts , mix ing the colours so they look ‘r ight ’ on the paper can seem to be a b lack ar t , only compl iant in the hands of a

ta lented few.

So of ten , the lament i s o f be ing able to create nothing but ‘muddy ’ co lours that look dul l , f la t and unatt rac t ive, to be t ruthfu l .

The outcome seems a mi l l ion mi les away f rom v iewing the minor masterp ieces that inspi red you to t r y watercolours in the f i r s t p lace.

So I want th is to be a prac t ica l e -book for you. I don’t just want you to read i t and then go away and t r y to repl icate what I ’ve suggested.

I ’d l i k e you to e i ther pr int th is ebook out , or open i t on your iPad and then fo l low a long at your pa int ing stat ion .

I want you to p ick up your brushes, paper and pa ints and work through the exerc ises as you work through the book . Th is wi l l g ive you a f ly ing star t by ac tua l ly prac t i s ing colour-mix ing, rather than just reading about i t .

That way you’ l l learn faster than any other way I k now.

We’re going to mix a whole l ibrar y of d i f ferent co lours . And yes , that inc ludes many of those muddy ones because they ’re ex t remely usefu l - i f p laced in the r ight contex t . Cruc ia l ly, we’ l l a l so look at when, where and how you use them to get the best resul ts .

Remember th is phrase, because i t ’s re levant to ever yth ing we’ l l cover in these pages : prac t ice i s the best tutor of a l l !

“R e m e m b e r : P r a c t i c e m a k e s p e r m a n e n t .

T h e r i g h t k i n d o f p r a c t i c e m a k e s p e r f e c t !


w H A T M A T E r i A l SD o i n E E D ?

I ’ ve used s ix co lours for most of th is e -book . Two sets of three pr imar y colours . That ’s t wo reds, t wo ye l lows and t wo blues :

C a d m i u m R e d,C a d m i u m Ye l l o wU l t ra m a r i n e B l u ePe r m a n e n t R o s eLe m o n Ye l l o wP t h a l o B l u e

R o u n d b r u s h e s - a N o. 4 o r 6 a n d a N o. 1 0 o r 1 2Fl a t b r u s h e s - a 1 / 2 i n c h o r 3 / 4 i n c h a n d R i g g e r B r u s h .Wa t e r co l o u r p a d o r s e v e ra l s h e e t s o f wa t e r co l o u r p a p e r a p p r ox . 1 0i n c h e s x 8 i n c h e sO n e o r t w o l a r g e r s h e e t s o f wa t e r co l o u r p a p e r a b o u t 1 4 i n c h e s x 1 0 i n c h e sK i t c h e n p a p e rH B Pe n c i l , r u l e r a n d p u t t y e ra s e r


w H A T M A T E r i A l S D o i n E E D ?

I ’ ve p ick ed these colours for the reason that I now have a set of ‘warm’ and ‘cool ’ pr imar ies . Don’t wor r y about what that means or which i s which for now. We’ l l cover that la ter.

I f you don’t happen to have these par t icu lar co lours , use the ones you have ava i lable . What colours you use i s much less impor tant than cor rec t tonal values , as we’ l l see as we progress through the book .

I ’ve suggested a few brushes, but again , i t ’s not v i ta l you have these t ypes or s izes . Use what you have.

A pad of s tudent- qual i t y watercolour paper i s f ine, or a la rger sheet cut up into p ieces about 10 inches x 8 inches.

These sheets are going to form the bas is of your l ibrar y of co lours so they need to be b ig enough to complete the colour char ts , but not too b ig to be cumbersome.

w A r M C o o l


l E T ’ S g E T S T A r T E D :p l A y i n g w i T H p r i M A r i E S

Once you k now how to mix muddy colours , you’ l l understand when and why i t happens so you can avoid them i f you need to.

However, you can a lso produce some stunning p ic tures with many var iet ies of so - ca l led ‘mud ’, as we’ l l see shor t ly.

For now, let ’s look at th is shot of three primar y Colours , which happen to be Cadmium Red, U l t ramar ine B lue and Cadmium Yel low.

I n the c lose -up, in the centre of the colours , as they ’ve touched each other, the b lue & ye l low has formed a ragged bead of green.

S imi lar ly, the b lue and red has mixed a l i t t le to create a h int of purple .

The red and ye l low, though not qui te so obvious, has turned orange at the meet ing point of those colours .

Those mixes , the orange, the purple and the green, a re S econdar y Colours , be ing so ca l led because they ’re created f rom t wo pr imar ies .


l E T ’ S g E T S T A r T E D : p l A y i n g w i T H p r i M A r i E S

Here they are , mixed on the pa lette . Note that a l though the orange and green are re lat ive ly br ight , the purple looks a b i t dul l and dare I say - muddy. We’ l l expla in that la ter on .

I n the photo on the nex t page I ’ve put down the same pr imar y colours qui te s t rongly on the paper. Then a l l three are mixed together in the centre whi le s t i l l wet .

“‘ M u d d y ’ c o l o u r s a r e i m p o r t a n t i n m o s t p a i n t i n g s .

Y o u j u s t h a v e k n o w w h e n t o u s e t h e ma n d w h e n t o a v o i d t h e m .



Not ice how the centre , where a l l three have mixed, has turned a dark b lack / grey / brown colour.

Th is i s great because you can contro l the t ype of s t rong darks in your pa int ings f rom blue -black , to red-black to ye l lowblack by var y ing the propor t ions of each pr imar y colour you add to the mix .

I nc identa l ly, you’ l l hear a lot of watercolour is ts te l l you not to buy b lack out of the tube. The reason they say that i s because a ) i t ’s so easy to mix f rom pr imar y colours as we’ve just seen , and b) you get a subt le t int of co lour with in your darks , rather than the rather one - dimens ional b lack f rom a tube.

M I X I N G C O L O U R W A T E R C O L O U R1 0

M i x E D B l A C k

u l T r A M A r i n E

C A D M i u M r E D

C A D M i u M y E l l o w

B l u E B l A C k

M o r E B l u EA D D E D

r E D B l A C k

M o r E r E DA D D E D

y E l l o w B l A C k

M o r E y E l l o wA D D E D

Tak e a look at the char t be low.

You’ l l see four d is t inc t swatches of dark co lour mixed f rom three pr imar ies . For each colour swatch I used :

U l t ra m a r i n e B l u eC a d m i u m R e dC a d m i u m Ye l l o w

On the le f t i s a b lack mixed f rom roughly equal propor t ion of the pr imar ies , which gives a fa i r ly neutra l f in ish . As you th in th is out with water, you end up with a ser ies of neutra l greys .

Second in f rom the le f t i s the same mix but with ex t ra Ul t ramar ine B lue added. I t ’s s t i l l just as dark , but with a d is t inc t b lue t inge.

Then nex t to that I ’ ve added more Cadmium Red.

And f ina l ly, the one on the r ight has ex t ra Cadmium Yel low added.




Look at the colour s t r ip above with a mix of U l t ramar ine B lue and Burnt S ienna . I haven’t used Burnt S ienna for the exerc ises in th is ebook as we’re just concentrat ing on what we can do with the pr imar ies . However, i t ’s a ver y usefu l co lour to have in your pa let te :

I t prov ides a ver y dense a l ternat ive b lack when mixed with most b lues . You a lso get a ser ies of t inted browns and greys depending on the propor t ions of the t wo colours and how much water you add.

So hav ing seen how we can star t to manipulate the proper t ies of the pr imar y colours , we’ l l now move on to our f i r s t ver y s imple exerc ise .

I t ’s des igned to get you used to creat ing ver y dense, dark tones. As we’ l l see shor t ly, th is i s so impor tant in achiev ing great tonal contrast . Lack of tonal contrast and tones (a l so k now as va lues) that are too weak i s the number one mistak e we see f rom students . More on that la ter.

A l T E r n A T i V E B l A C k

u l T r A M A r i n E B l u E

B u r n T S i E n n A


M i x i n g D A r k S w i T H o u Tu S i n g B l A C k

The f i r s t exerc ise requi res only a p iece of scrap watercolour paper - a round 10 inches x 8 inches.

Pa int three rough c i rc les about one to t wo inches (2cm - 5cm) in d iameter, on the le f t o f the paper. Use a s t rong mix of b lue, red and ye l low, p laced c lose to each other.

I t doesn’t matter which b lue, red and ye l low you use here. I used the u l t ramar ine b lue, cadmium red & cadmium yel low mix I re fer red to ear l ie r.

When mix ing up the indiv idual co lours in the pa lette , don’t add too much water – just enough to get them to l iquefy and spread on the paper.

Now, whi le i t ’s wet , wi th a damp brush , drag the colours on the paper in the centre together and mix them unt i l they become a dark grey or a ‘b lack ’.

The s t ronger and less water y the indiv idual co lours , the dark er the ‘b lack ’ wi l l appear. K eep your brush damp - don’t load i t wi th water.

Ok th is dark or b lack i s the neutra l i f you l ik e , wi th none of the pr imar ies be ing dominant .

Now mix those three pr imar ies together the pa lette so you have a good amount of th is s t rong dark mix . Tak e some f rom your pa let te and pa int a c i rc le about 2” d iameter (5cm) on your paper. Then adding a l i t t le water, drag i t out at the bottom to get some l ighter shades. We’ l l ca l l th is Swatch 1 .

Now wash your brush in c lean water ( I won’t k eep repeat ing th is , just be sure to mix with a c lean brush each t ime) .

Now tak e some more of your neutra l b lack mix and put i t into a separate wel l in your pa let te . Th is t ime add a fur ther brushfu l or t wo of b lue pa int . Put th is on the paper to the r ight of Swatch 1 and drag th is out , aga in adding water at the base to get a gradual ly l ighter set of b lue -black shades. Th is wi l l be Swatch 2 .

E x E r C i S E 1


M i x i n g D A r k S w i T H o u T u S i n g B l A C k

Essent ia l ly what you’re doing i s what I d id on pages 9 & 10 . I t ’s f ine to watch what other people have done, but you learn much more by doing i t yourse l f !

Nex t tak e some more of your neutra l b lack mix , put i t into another c lean wel l in your pa let te then add a couple of ex t ra brushfu ls of red. Th is gives us Swatch 3 . Add th is a longs ide the others and drag out with water.

And repeat us ing ex t ra ye l low to get Swatch 4 .

So you end up with four d is t inc t swatches - neutra l , b lue -biased, red-biased and ye l low biased, as in the p ic ture below.

M i x E D B l A C k

u l T r A M A r i n E

C A D M i u M r E D

C A D M i u M y E l l o w

B l u E B l A C k

M o r E B l u EA D D E D

r E D B l A C k

M o r E r E DA D D E D

y E l l o w B l A C k

M o r E y E l l o wA D D E D

S w A T C H 1 S w A T C H 2 S w A T C H 3 S w A T C H 4



Nex t , c lean your pa let te and mak e a s t rong mix of three d i f ferent pr imar y colours f rom the ones you’ve just used. Again use what you have, rather than t r y ing to match up with the ones I used i f you don’t happen to have those colours .

I n my case I used Ptha lo B lue, Permanent Rose and Lemon Yel low for the second set , which you can see in these c lose -ups of one of the mix ing wel l s . On the le f t a re the separate pr imar ies , wi th them shown mixed on the r ight .

Th is wi l l turn to a s imi lar dark grey / b lack when mixed, but s l ight ly d i f ferent f rom the ear l ie r e f for ts as we’ve used three d i f ferent pr imar ies .

Now repeat the exerc ise you just d id for the f i r s t set of pr imar ies e i ther on the same sheet of paper or a f resh one. Ca l l each of those swatches, Swatch 5 , 6 , 7 & 8 .

The impor tant th ing to note i s that had you pa inted each of these e ight swatches in i so lat ion , each mix would have look ed pla in ‘b lack ’ in i t ia l ly.

However, when placed s ide by s ide on the paper, they a l l suddenly qui te d is t inc t .

Th is i s so much more charac ter fu l than b lack pa int squeezed st ra ight out of a bought tube, which can of ten overpower and k i l l a pa int ing i f too much i s added.

These dark tones are going to mak e a l l the d i f ference when you apply them to your future pa int ings.


However, when placed s ide by s ide on the paper they a l l suddenly appear qui te d is t inc t .

Repeat the process to the le f t on a f resh p iece of paper but th is t ime us ing the other three pr imar ies . I f you’re us ing the colours I ’m us ing they would be :

U l t ra m a r i n e B l u eC a d m i u m R e dC a d m i u m Ye l l o w

What you’ l l end up with i s t wo char ts and 8 swatches with a range of dark tones, that each have a d i f ferent t int to them.

This i s so much more charac ter fu l than b lack pa int squeezed out of a bought tube, which can of ten overpower and k i l l a pa int ing i f too much i s added.

These dark tones are going to mak e a l l the d i f ference whe you apply them to your future pa int ings.


“D o n ’ t b u y b l a c k p a i n t . M i x y o u r o w n u s i n g a

c o m b i n a t i o n o f t h e t h r e e p r i m a r i e s .



T h e t h r e e p r i m a r i e s , r e d, b l u e & y e l l o w, a r e t h e b a s i s o f a l l co l o u r s .

M i x i n g t h r e e p r i m a r i e s t o g e t h e r i n r o u g h l y e q u a l a m o u n t s t u r n s e v e r y t h i n g d a r k g r e y o r b l a c k .

Yo u ca n a v o i d h a v i n g t o b u y t u b e s o f b l a c k p a i n t i n t h e f u t u r e.

B y c r e a t i n g 8 e i g h t d i s t i n c t s wa t c h e s y o u ca n g e t a n y s o r t o f ‘ b l a c k ’ y o u wa n t , w h i c h ca n b e wa t e r e d d o w n t o a n i n f i n i t e n u m b e r o f g r e y s a n d b r o w n s.

Ad d i n g m o r e o r l e s s o f e a c h p r i m a r y co l o u r e n a b l e s y o u t o va r y t h i s ‘ b l a c k ’ t o n e a s m u c h a s y o u wa n t .

S u M M A r y


M i x i n g S E C o n D A r i E S

Now let ’s have a look at mix ing those s ix pr imar ies when we mix them in var ious combinat ions. Remember, we’re s t ick ing to s ix s tar t ing colours only !

On another sheet of paper mark out a ser ies of boxes as I have done below - s ix hor izonta l ly at the base, then f ive in a row on top of that , then four and so on .

You can use a penci l and ru ler, but roughly sk etched boxes are f ine.

Mak e each box about 1 inch (2 .5cm) square, though again , i t ’s not v i ta l as long as the char t i s b ig enough for you to see what ’s happening.

You should end up with a char t that looks l i k e th is one.

E x E r C i S E 2



I n each one of the boxes at the end of each row, pa int in a patch of one of the s ix pr imar ies . I t doesn’t matter in which order you pa int them.

Now, in the b lank box on the second row f rom the top (mark ed with an ‘X ’ above) , pa int a mix of the pr imar y colours above and to the s ide of i t . I n my case, i t ’s U l t ramar ine B lue and Cadmium Yel low. Use roughly 50-50 of each colour and qui te a s t rong mix .



I t wi l l become l ighter once dr y so er r on the s t ronger s ide when you ac tua l ly mix i t . I n my case, you can see that a love ly warm ol ive green has emerged (see the char t be low) .

Now go to the nex t row down and reading down f rom the Ul t ramar ine B lue and across f rom the Cadmium Red, mix those colours . Then mix the Cadmium Yel low and Cadmium Red to get that love ly v ibrant orange.

Car r y on doing th is a l l the way down the char t unt i l a l l the boxes are f i l led. Here’s mine :

u l T r A M A r i n EB l u E

C A D M i u My E l l o w

C A D M i u Mr E D

p T H A l oB l u E

p E r M A n E n Tr o S E

l E M o ny E l l o w



I t ’s ver y s t ra ight for ward, but i f you’re not sure which colour box i s supposed to mix with which , here’s a s imple re ference char t that wi l l he lp. The numbers te l l you which t wo colours to combine for each box .

1

1 + 2

1 + 3

1 + 4

1 + 5

1 + 6

2 + 3

2 + 4

2 + 5

2 + 6

3 + 4

3 + 5

3 + 6

4 + 5

4 + 6 5 + 6

2

3

4

5

6



I f you’ve used d i f ferent pr imar ies to mine, your mixes wi l l come out d i f ferent ly, or i f you’ve used st ronger or more water y pa int , the f ina l outcome may be s l ight ly d i f ferent as wel l .

I t doesn’t rea l ly matter, because you wi l l have created 15 new colours , a long with your s ix pr imar ies and you now have a handy l i t t le char t showing what happens when you mix those pr imar y colours together, roughly 50/50 .

As you may have rea l i sed a l ready though, there are some surpr is ing outcomes in the mixes .

For example, compare the purple mixed with Ul t ramar ine B lue and Permanent Rose. I t ’s a n ice v iv id purple .

But look at the mix bet ween Ul t ramar ine B lue and Cadmium Red. Rea l ly dul l and…. wel l , muddy. Even more s t r ik ing i s the Ptha lo B lue and Cadmium Red mix , which i s nearer b lack than purple !

The same th ing i s apparent to a lesser ex tent with the oranges and the greens too.

Why i s th is ?

Let ’s tak e a c loser look because when you understand the answer i t wi l l he lp you contro l your co lour mix ing regardless of what co lours you’re us ing.

I ’ve put the s ix pr imar ies s ide -by-s ide below. Star t ing with Permanent Rose and Cadmium Red, then Ptha lo B lue and Ul t ramar ine B lue and f ina l ly, Cadmium Yel low and Lemon Yel low.


+p E r M A n E n T

r o S E


+C A D M i u M

r E D

p T H A l oB l u E

+C A D M i u M

r E D



Permanent Rose has a s l ight ly b lu ish h int to i t , whereas Cadmium Red i s ver y much a f lame red, wi th a s l ight b ias towards ye l low.

Ptha lo b lue, when compared to Ul t ramar ine, looks s l ight ly greener. U l t ramar ine on the other hand can look more purple , especia l ly in cer ta in brands, because there’s a l i t t le h int of red in i t s mak e up.

Cadmium Yel low is warm with a touch of red in i t , whereas Lemon Yel low has that t iny h int of b lue, mak ing i t cooler and s l ight ly greener look ing.

I t ’s a l l ver y subt le , but bas ica l ly each of the pr imar ies above has a s l ight b ias towards one of the other pr imar ies

Nex t , I ’ ve i so lated s ix of the mixed colours f rom the char t in Exerc ise 2 .

Top - le f t we have the Cadmium Red + Cadmium Yel low. Look ing above, you can see that ne i ther of these colour conta in any h int of b lue. You’re only mix ing T WO of the three pr imar ies ( red and ye l low) .

p E r M A n E n T r o S E( r E D w i T H A

H i n T o f B l u E )

p T H A l o B l u E( B l u E w i T H A

H i n T o f y E l l o w )

C A D M i u M y E l l o w( y E l l o w w i T H A

H i n T o f r E D )

C A D M i u M r E D( r E D w i T H A

H i n T o f y E l l o w )

u l T r A M A r i n E B l u E( B l u E w i T H AH i n T o f r E D )

l E M o n y E l l o w( y E l l o w w i T H A

H i n T o f B l u E )



You can see how br ight and ‘pure’ the orange i s in that top le f t because as a mix i t only conta ins red and ye l low.

Bottom-lef t i s an orange f rom Permanent Rose and Lemon Yel low. Both of these colours have a s l ight ly b lue t inge, thus adding the th i rd pr imar y colour into the mix .

And what happens when you mix the three pr imar ies? Yep, you get a b lack / brown / red. I t ’s no wonder th is orange i s dark er and less v ibrant .

The same appl ies for the greens. Top row is Ptha lo B lue and Lemon Yel low (both conta in just b lue and ye l low and no red) . Beneath that , we have the red-t inted Ul t ramar ine B lue mixed with Cadmium Yel low.

Both have touches of red, so the green i s much more muted.

The top purple f rom Ult ramar ine B lue and Permanent rose conta ins only b lue and red with no ye l low to be seen anywhere.

The lower combinat ion of Cadmium Red and Ptha lo B lue, both of which have a leaning towards ye l low, c reates a near b lack .

Now, one row isn’ t better than the other ! Each t ype of mix i s ver y benef ic ia l in the r ight p lace. For example, the lower row green i s excel lent for fo l iage. The upper row purple would be idea l for pa int ing pans ies .

The k ey i s that you need to be able to mix v ibrant co lours when you need them and more muted muddier co lours when they are ca l led for. Hopeful ly you can star t to do that now.

o r A n g E M A D E f r o MC A D M i u M r E D +

C A D M i u M y E l l o w( n o B l u E T o B E S E E n )

o r A n g E M A D E f r o Mp E r M A n E n T r o S E +

l E M o n y E l l o w( B o T H C o n T A i n H i n T S o f B l u E )



A l l p r i m a r y wa t e r co l o u r p a i n t s ‘ l e a n’ t o wa r d s a n o t h e r p r i m a r y co l o u r.

Tw o p r i m a r i e s m i xe d t o g e t h e r p r o d u ce a s e co n d a r y co l o u r.

Yo u ca n g e t d u l l o r v i b ra n t s e co n d a r i e s d e p e n d i n g o n w h i c h t w o p r i m a r i e s y o u m i x t o g e t h e r.

B y m i x i n g s i x p r i m a r i e s i n j u s t 5 0 - 5 0 p r o p o r t i o n s w e ca n p r o d u ce a t l e a s t f i f t e e n n e w s e co n d a r y co l o u r s .

S u M M A r y


C o M p l E M E n T A r y C o l o u r S& T H E C o l o u r w H E E l

People’s eyes usual ly g laze over when you ment ion complementar y colours and something being oppos i te i t s complementar y on the colour wheel .

Whole books have been wr i t ten about i t !

Yet i t i sn’ t compl icated and understanding the colour wheel wi l l he lp you mix the r ight co lours you need at d i f ferent points in your pa int ing.

You don’t need to become a master in co lour theor y - you just a need a bas ic grounding in how cer ta in colours work together.

We’ l l cover what ’s necessar y in just a few pages, inc luding another s imple exerc ise .

Star t by drawing a colour wheel template on your watercolour paper with 12 segments l i k e the one on the nex t page.

I t doesn’t have to be neat , i t just has to have the same number of segments in the same place. You can draw around a pot or smal l p late i f you want .

E x E r C i S E 3

“P l a c e d s i d e - b y - s i d e , c o m p l e m e n t a r y

c o l o u r s w i l l m a k e e a c h o t h e r g l o w .M i x e d t o g e t h e r t h e y w i l l m a k e m u d !


C o M p l E M E n T A r y C o l o u r S & T H E C o l o u r w H E E l

Paint in the pr imar y colours of b lue, ye l low and red as I have done, wi th three b lank segments in bet ween each colour.

I t doesn’t matter which b lue or ye l low or red but label the colour you use nex t to the segment , as a reminder.

On your pa let te , mix the b lue and ye l low in roughly equal par ts to mak e green.

Add th is bet ween the b lue and ye l low segments on your wheel wi th a segment gap bet ween each one.

Repeat by mix ing the ye l low and red in equal par ts , and then the red and blue, and adding these mixes to your wheel in the pos i t ions shown on the nex t page.

These are your secondar y colours . They are a lso Complementar y Colours . Red i s the complementar y of green, b lue i s the complementar y of orange and ye l low of purple .

Draw an ar row bet ween each complementar y as a reminder to yourse l f .



See how those colours are d i rec t ly oppos i te each other?

That ’s what i s meant by a co lour be ing ‘oppos i te to i t s complementar y on the colour wheel ’.

So what do we mean by a ‘complementar y ’ co lour?

The d ic t ionar y def in i t ion i s :

“C o m p l e m e n t a r y - t w o f e a t u r e s co m b i n i n g i n s u c h a wa y a s t o e n h a n ce o r e m p h a s i s e t h e q u a l i t i e s o f e a c h o t h e r… .”

And that i s exac t ly what complementar y colours do. Have a look at the photos of the colours in the pa lettes below – f i r s t the unmixed vers ions.

See how br ight they appear nex t to each other. Ar t i s ts have used th is phenomenon for centur ies to enhance thei r appl icat ion of co lour. P laced s ide -by-s ide and the colours s ing out just that b i t more.

T ime and again in p ic tures you’ l l see red sur rounded by green, or b lue p laced nex t to an orange, purple with ye l low and so on .



However, complementar ies p lay an even more impor tant func t ion because ar t i s ts rout ine ly use them to tone down colours as wel l .

S i t t ing nex t to each other they mak e the each other pop. However, mixed together, they dul l themselves down. Why i s th is?

Because, as we’ve seen, mix three pr imar ies together and you get a range of greys or b lack - mud i f you l ik e .

Each pr imar y ( red, ye l low and blue) mixed with the secondar y made f rom the other t wo pr imar ies



This i s a fa r more ef fec t ive way of toning down or dark ening a colour than just adding b lack out of a tube, where you have to accept whatever t ype of b lack the manufac turer packs in i t .

With a complementar y you are in charge of just how much you add to the pr imar y and in what propor t ions of the other t wo pr imar ies your mix i s - contro l led mud i f you l ik e .

Tr y th is quick doodle…

1. Pa int a 1 inch (2 .5cm) rough square of the b lue.2 . Whi le i t ’s s t i l l wet , add some orange to the bottom quar ter of i t . Note how

i t dul l s down the b lue to a b lue/brown.3 . Drag the orange into a b i t more of the b lue so i t ’s not qui te as s t rong. The

b lue wi l l s t i l l be dul l but not qui te as much as the bottom quar ter.

Now do the same with red and green and then ye l low and purple . Note how the complementar y colour each t ime dul l s down the pr imar y colour.

I n the photo below you can see the orange and blue mix ( le f t ) , and then the purple and ye l low mix (centre) . They both mak e greys . The green and red mixed are your route to var ious browns.



To f in ish of f, we’ l l have a quick look at Ter t ia r y Colours . Ter t ia r ies f i l l in those f ina l gaps on the colour wheel that I ment ioned ear l ie r.

S imply put , they are a 50-50 mix of one of the pr imar ies and a secondar y colour c lose to i t on that wheel (but not oppos i te i t , as that i s the complementar y) .

So for example, mix ing the b lue and green gives a b lue - green as shown by the white ar rows in the char t be low. Red and orange wi l l g ive a red- orange, Red and purple a red-v io let and so on .

These Ter t ia r y mixes s tay re lat ive ly ‘c lean’ because only t wo pr imar ies aremixed together.

The b lue - green has no red in i t , for instance, whi le the ye l low/orange has no b lue in i t .

So to complete your co lour wheel , mix the t wo colours that are e i ther s ide of the remain ing b lank segments and pa int what you mix into the gaps.



I n prac t ice, the t rans i t ion f rom one colour to another i s seamless , as be low, rather than in segments , l i k e the wheel .

L ik e hands on a c lock , you can mak e your mixes anywhere around the wheel by t weak ing the propor t ions to give an inf in i te var iet y of co lours .

Fina l ly, i t ’s impor tant to point out that you may a lso see a co lour wheel where the term ‘ Ter t ia r y Colour ’ i s used to descr ibe the creat ion of browns and greys .

Here of course, you’re mix ing a l l three pr imar ies together, the resul ts of which we have a l ready d iscussed in an ear l ie r Sec t ion .

I ment ion th is only to help you avoid confus ion with the d i f ferent ways the word Ter t ia r y i s somet imes used in pa int ing.



T h e co m p l e m e n t a r y co l o u r o f a p r i m a r y co l o u r i s a m i x o f t h e t w o o t h e r p r i m a r i e s

A c o m p l e m e n t a r y a n d a p r i m a r y i n a p i c t u r e a d j a ce n t t o e a c h o t h e r w i l l e n h a n ce e a c h o t h e r ’s v i b ra n c y

M i xe d t o g e t h e r, t h e y w i l l m a ke a g r e y o r b r o w n

C o m p l e m e n t a r i e s a r e b e t t e r f o r d u l l i n g t h e r e l e va n t p r i m a r y d o w n , ra t h e r t h a n u s i n g b l a c k

Te r t i a r y co l o u r s a r e a m i x o f a p r i m a r y a n d a s e co n d a r y t h a t i s n o t i t s co m p l e m e n t a r y co l o u r

S u M M A r y


w A r M & C o o l C o l o u r S

We’ve seen the var iat ion that occurs by mix ing d i f ferent pr imar ies together to mak e supposedly the same colour. Wel l , th is leads us n ice ly on to ‘warm’ and ‘cool ’ co lours .

Be low are the colour swatches f rom above, o f the s ix pr imar y colours I recommended r ight at the s tar t ,

S i t t ing them nex t to each other h ighl ights the d i f ferences. You can quick ly gauge how each pr imar y looks warmer or cooler than i ts ne ighbour.

The fur ther away an objec t or e lement i s in a p ic ture , the cooler, b luer and less d is t inc t i t wi l l a l so appear. The c loser i t i s , the warmer and br ighter i t tends to be. Cool co lours l i k e b lues , mauves, greys and greens recede ; warm colours l i k e reds, oranges and ye l lows jump for ward.

That ’s why d is tant mounta ins invar iably appear pa le b lue/grey or mauve. Th is i s due to the natura l haz iness in the ear th’s atmosphere, which a lso mak es d is tant i tems appear less sharp and less deta i led.

This a l so touches upon something ca l led aer ia l perspec t ive, which we’ l l d iscuss in more deta i l a l i t t le la ter.

p E r M A n E n T r o S E( C o o l )

p T H A l o B l u E( C o o l )

C A D M i u M y E l l o w( w A r M )

C A D M i u M r E D( w A r M )

u l T r A M A r i n E B l u E( w A r M )

l E M o n y E l l o w( C o o l )

E x E r C i S E 4



I f you wanted to create f l ick er ing f lames depic t ing a f i re in the foreground of th is landscape lesson by Rob Dudley, you’d get a better outcome with Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yel low versus Permanent Rose and Lemon Yel low.

But p laced in the middle d is tance, the cooler Permanent Rose and Lemon Yel low would work better, as they wouldn’t jump for ward as much as the warmer colours .

Note too how Rob has used pa le , cool b lue - grey to tak e the mounta ins back in h is p ic ture .

I t ’s not just landscapes where cool and warm colour combinat ions are apparent . Tak e th is wonder fu l c lose -up study of a rh inoceros , by one of our tutors , G lynis Barnes-Mel l i sh .

Glynis used just f ive colours for th is s tudy. A l izar in Cr imson and Cerulean B lue (a cool red and a cool b lue) and Yel low Ochre, BurntUmber and Ul t ramar ine B lue (a l l warm colours ) .

You can see how a combinat ion of var ious warm and cool tones a longs ide each other have been used to maximum ef fec t to depic t the contours and shadows in the h ide of the animal .



The warm yel low br ings that fearsome - look ing horn r ight at you.

Even though the length f rom the f ront to rear of the animal i s only about f i f teen feet , the use of warm and cool tones, as wel l as both sharply def ined and paler, less d is t inc t brushst rok es , have prov ided rea l depth .

Cooler co lours would a lso be ent i re ly appropr iate in a por t ra i t for shadow areas on the face, thus a l lowing the warmer reds and oranges etc . to form the bas is of sk in tones l i t by the sun .

“R u l e o f t h u m b : u s e c o o l e r c o l o u r s i n t h e

d i s t a n c e a n d w a r m e r c o l o u r si n t h e f o r e g r o u n d .



See how in one of Glynis ’s f igure s tudies , cool mauve shadows in the dress and a Cerulean B lue parasol sur round the warm, suntanned sk in-tones of the l i t t le gi r l on the beach.

The back ground too, even though i t ’s o f a sunny beach, has been k ept pa le and l ight to fur ther emphas ise the warmth of her sk in .

I t doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever use Lemon Yel low for foreground grasses or perhaps a mix of Ptha lo B lue and Permanent Rose or other cool co lours i f you were pa int ing grapes in a s t i l l l i fe for instance.

But i t ’s a subt le but impor tant fac tor that you can tak e into account when planning your pa int ings and especia l ly, what co lours you’re going to se lec t .

Understanding th is s imple fac t i s an essent ia l sk i l l in creat ing ‘depth’ in your p ic ture , not just in landscapes, but f lora l p ic tures , s t i l l l i fe works , f igure s tudies as we’ve seen here and even in por t ra i ts .



M o s t co l o u r s h a v e a l e a n i n g t o wa r d s a ‘ wa r m’ o r ‘co o l ’ ca s t .

C o o l co l o u r s s u c h a s b l u e s, g r e y s a n d p u r p l e s h a v e a r e ce d i n g e f f e c t .

Wa r m co l o u r s s u c h a s r e d s, y e l l o w s a n d o ra n g e s b r i n g t h i n g s f o r wa r d. G r e a t d e p t h ca n b e a c h i e v e d i n a p a i n t i n g b y e x p l o i t i n g t h i s f a c t .

C o o l e r co l o u r s ca n e n h a n ce a d j a ce n t wa r m co l o u r s a n d v i ce v e r s a .

S u M M A r y


E x p A n D i n g y o u rC o l o u r C H A r T S

I n th is nex t exerc ise , you’re going to create a number of smal l but h ighly usefu l co lour char ts that you can k eep as a permanent re ference whenever you want to mix a co lour.

You’ l l need severa l sheets of watercolour paper around 10 inches x 8 inches (25cm x 20cm) , though the ac tua l s ize you use i sn’ t c r i t ica l . Mak e them big enough to put on p lent y of v i sua l in format ion but smal l enough to s tore eas i ly.

Th is t ime, draw f ive boxes across and four down, so you have 20 boxes in tota l . L ik e the one here.

Mak e each box about 1 inch (2 .5cm) square but leave suf f ic ient space around each one so you can jot down a br ie f note or code for each colour mix .

We’re going to s tar t wi th a ser ies of greens, mixed with a l l the combinat ions of U l t ramar ine B lue, Ptha lo B lue, Lemon Yel low and Cadmium Yel low.

E x E r C i S E 5


E x p A n D i n g y o u r C o l o u r C H A r T S

You can see f rom the colour char t be low, that I ’ ve put a square of each ye l low and each b lue at e i ther end of the char t .

The mixes in bet ween are then the same colours mixed in d i f ferent propor t ions.

So the top row has Lemon Yel low on the le f t and Ptha lo B lue on the r ight as the pure colours .

I ’ ve then added a brushfu l o f the Ptha lo B lue to the ye l low to create box A . Then a fur ther brushfu l o f b lue for box B and so on .

Cont inue th is t i l l a l l the boxes have been f i l led. Mak e a smal l note a longs ide each one what the prec ise colour mix i s .

Al E M o n

y E l l o wp T H A l o

B l u E



p T H A l oB l u E




B C D E



You could use a code of say, LY1/UB3 to denote that that par t icu lar square has one brushfu l o f Lemon Yel low (LY1) and three of Ul t ramar ine B lue (UB3) .

You now have a ser ies of 12 greens to work with .

You can mak e up many more var iat ions by creat ing addit ional boxes and mix ing one brushfu l o f one colour say, to seven or e ight of another.

Repeat the exerc ise for purples (us ing your t wo reds and t wo blues) . And then for oranges (us ing your t wo reds and t wo ye l lows) . I ’ ve added re levant char ts on th is page and the nex t to guide you through these colours .

C A D M i u Mr E D

p T H A l oB l u E



p T H A l oB l u E


C A D M i u Mr E D




You probably won’t get prec ise ly the same colour as on your char t ever y t ime you use the mixes . D i f ferent amounts of water in the mixes , s l ight ly d i f ferent propor t ions of pa int – and even d i f ferent brands of pa int – wi l l see to that . However, they ’ l l be as c lose as you wi l l get by any other means.

Once you’ve ga ined a l i t t le exper ience in colour mix ing th is way, you’ l l f ind yourse l f re fer r ing to the char ts less and less as you become more conf ident in your abi l i t y to memor ise the mixes .

So by the t ime you’ve f in ished those three char ts , and the ones below that ’ l l be at least 36 new colours , p lus your s ix pr imar ies .

p r C y

C r C y

p r l y

C r l y



Now how much would that cost i f you bought ever y one of those in a tube?

But we’re not qui te f in ished yet…

We’re now going to look at what happens when you add var y ing amounts of water to produce a whole ser ies of t ints . I t ’ l l add at least another 36 colours in your armour y !

So far, we’ve look ed at mix ing fa i r ly bold colours at a prett y robust tonal s t rength . Th is i s good, because as we’ l l see over the nex t few pages, achiev ing good st rong tonal va lues are perhaps THE most impor tant s ingle fac tor in achiev ing good watercolours .

I t ’s surpr i s ing how many newcomers to watercolour never get past the s tage of dabbl ing with weak water y washes that leave the i r pa int ing look ing dul l and l i fe less .

Hav ing sa id that , i t i s impor tant to k now how to create pa ler washes, or t ints .

You create t ints in most pa int media when you add var y ing amounts of white to a co lour. Watercolour is ts don’t t ypica l ly use white , opt ing instead to use water, a l lowing more of the white paper to show through.

I ’ve tak en a ser ies of secondar y colours f rom the or igina l pr imar y mix ing char t and added increas ing amounts of water to them. The undi luted colours are on the top row and I ’ve added one, t wo and then three brushfu ls of c lean water to the mix as we move down each row.

“Y o u c a n m i x u n l i m i t e d c o l o u r s f r o m a v e r y

l i m i t e d p a l e t t e . A n d i t w i l l s a v e y o ua f o r t u n e o n p a i n t !



Star t ing with the orange t ints , the colours range f rom v ibrant oranges on the top row, idea l for so many f lowers and, wel l , pa int ing oranges in a s t i l l l i fe !

With the t ints though, we have a love ly se lec t ion of warm sa lmons and beiges , idea l for many Caucas ian sk in tones, for example.

C A D M i u Mr E D

+l E M o n

y E l l o w

C A D M i u Mr E D

+C A D M i u M

y E l l o w


+l E M o n

y E l l o w


+C A D M i u M

y E l l o w

1 B r u S HA D D E D w A T E r

2 B r u S H E SA D D E D w A T E r

3 B r u S H E SA D D E D w A T E r



The nex t char t shows the purple mixes . From le f t to r ight we have Ul t ramar ine B lue and Permanent Rose. No ye l lows in that mix , so lovely v ibrant co lours .

Nex t to that i s U l t ramar ine B lue and Cadmium Red. Both warm colours , but the cadmium red with a ye l low t inge has dul led the purple somewhat .

Ptha lo B lue and Permanent Rose nex t .

Fina l ly, on the r ight , the Ptha lo B lue and Cadmium Red wipe each other out , wi th both br inging a h int of ye l low to the proceedings.

See though how a range of at t rac t ive greys s tar t to emerge as increas ing amounts of water are added to the mixes on the top l ine.



Moving on to the green t ints , we’ve now expanded our f ie ld and fo l iage col lec t ion by at least another dozen colours . I t ’s a l so given us the tools to produce middle d is tant t rees in the landscape v ia the l ighter tonal t ints .

Natura l ly, these colours aren’ t conf ined to the landscape. Leaves and var ious p ieces of f ru i t and vegetables in a s t i l l l i fe beck on and anyone th ink ing of pa int ing por t ra i ts wi l l f ind a surpr i s ing amount and var iet y of green in many sk in tones.


+l E M o n

y E l l o w


+C A D M i u M

y E l l o w

p T H A l oB l u E

+l E M o n

y E l l o w

p T H A l oB l u E

+C A D M i u M

y E l l o w



C o l o u r c h a r t s h e l p y o u t o r e p l i ca t e a n y co l o u r s i n t h e f u t u r e.

Yo u’ v e c r e a t e d a t l e a s t 7 2 a d d i t i o n a l co l o u r s , t i n t s a n d t o n e s.

A s y o u g a i n co n f i d e n ce, y o u’ l l n e e d t h e c h a r t s l e s s a n d l e s s .

T h e y w i l l h o w e v e r a l wa y s b e a va i l a b l e a s a r e f e r e n ce l i b ra r y.

S u M M A r y


M i x i n g M u D D y C o l o u r S

I f you l imit yourse l f to pa int ings with pr imar y colours s t ra ight f rom the tube, your ar t work wi l l cons is t only of v iv id , gar i sh colours . Occas ional ly that wi l l work , more of ten than not , i t won’t .

You need a range of more muted colours that a l low carefu l ly p laced v ibrant co lours to s tand out .

Most of the t ime most co lours you need wi l l be re lat ive ly muted or d i luted, so what you’re mix ing at present and gett ing f rust rated with , may wel l not be so bad. I t ’s just that they ’re probably not be ing put down in the r ight areas .

There’s one more char t I want you to create, s imi lar to the ones you’ve just completed.

I t ’s the 5 x 4 box char t aga in and th is t ime we’re going to produce some more tones f rom a range of ‘muddy ’ greens, greys and browns.

A l l a re mixed with one par t of each colour.

They ’ve been t inted in the same manner as the prev ious char ts , i .e . progress ive ly adding one, t wo and three brushfu ls of water to the or igina l mix .

E x E r C i S E 6

“I f m o s t o f y o u r p a i n t i n g i s c o v e r e d w i t h

m u t e d t o n e s , t h e c a r e f u l l y p l a c e d v i b r a n t c o l o u r s w i l l r e a l l y z i n g !



Even s i t t ing together l i k e th is , there’s a cer ta in appeal about them because there i s a good range of tonal va lues , f rom the st rongest at the top to the pa lest at the bottom.

Which br ings us neat ly on to perhaps the most impor tant lesson on colour mix ing…

E stablishing go o d tonal values.

C A D M i u Mr E D

+C A D M i u M

y E l l o w+

p T H A l oB l u E


+p E r M A n E n T

r o S E+


C A D M i u Mr E D

+C A D M i u M

y E l l o w+

p T H A l oB l u E

C A D M i u Mr E D

+C A D M i u M

y E l l o w+



+p E r M A n E n T

r o S E+



A g r e a t w a y t o e m p h a s i s e a f o c a l p o i n ti n a p a i n t i n g i s t o g i v e i t t h e d a r k e s t

d a r k a n d t h e l i g h t e s t l i g h t .


Gett ing the cor rec t tonal va lues in your p ic ture i s no more compl icated than understanding that three pr imar ies mixed together s t rongly enough mak e b lack .

I t ’s about hav ing l ights , darks and mid-tones s i t t ing in such a way that they mak e the p ic ture s ing. For example, the l ightest l ight nex t to the dark est dark in a p ic ture wi l l a lways draw a lot of at tent ion .

Look at the pa lette of another one of our popular tutors , Geof f K ersey, as he s tar ts a demonstrat ion pa int ing.

He’s pre -mixed seven colours here and they ’re a l l less than v ibrant . Even the b lue, orange and purple he’s mixed have been toned down to mak e them a l i t t le more sombre.

But now look what he does with them…

“



There’s not a br ight pr imar y colour in s ight . Just a lot of muted colours . Probably not too far removed f rom the ones you mix regular ly but become so f rust rated with .

But because the tonal va lues are spot on here, those potent ia l ly muddy colours s ing out .

The p ic ture i s a de l ight to the eye.

Let ’s have a peek at some st i l l s f rom Geof f ’s lesson on Ar tTutor.com to see how he star ts the process of work ing up the back ground t rees and sk y.

https://www.arttutor.com/classes?f%5B0%5D=field_artist%3A14922



After dampening the paper with a sponge in the sk y and t ree area , he appl ies a fast , loose wash of cobal t b lue and rose madder.

Th is i s fo l lowed by the ceru lean b lue – both colours be ing pre -mixed in the pa lette .



Whi le ever yth ing i s s t i l l damp, he fo l lows th is up with the dark er purple/grey wash to def ine the d is tant t ree l ine. I n th is p ic ture , the orange, autumn wash and a l i t t le of the green are swi f t ly la id in , to warm up the middle d is tance a touch.

Nex t , Geof f l i f t s th ings with some r ich tones of b lue - green and dark green. Not ice how those darks he’s appl ied, even though they ’re s t i l l qu i te damp, push back the other, more d i f fused t ree shapes into the middle and far d is tance where they belong.



Having put in th is at t rac t ive but muted and sof t back ground, the scene i s set for Geof f to s tar t adding more sharply def ined i tems such as the t rees and stone wal l s , gradual ly ‘coming for ward ’ into the immediate foreground.

I n the f ina l pa int ing, ever ywhere you look there are potent ia l ly muddy colours , just l i k e the ones we a l l f ret about .

Yet the outcome is s tunning because throughout the p ic ture, Geof f was mindful o f tonal va lues - l ighter va lues in the back ground with l i t t le contrast , and then st rong punchy darks in the foreground.

Almost universa l ly, the b iggest problem I see when a newcomer asks why thei r pa int ing looks f la t and dul l , especia l ly in watercolours , i s the lack of s t rong va lues .

These are so essent ia l for the p ic ture to have the necessar y punch and to l i f t i t f rom the mediocre – and probably the waste b in – to the s tatus of your la test minor masterp iece.

Put another way, you could rush out and spend hard- earned cash , buy ing exac t ly the same colours that a tutor has used in a lesson - and st i l l mak e a p ig’s ear of i t .

Get the tonal va lues r ight and you’ l l end up with a great pa int ing, in sp i te of co lour choice. Get them wrong and colour choice becomes a lmost i r re levant .

Have a look at the photo on the nex t page. I t ’s f rom a lesson by Joanne B o on-Thomas .

G o o d t o n a l v a l u e s , m o r e t h a n c o l o u r c h o i c e ,i s t h e k e y t o g r e a t p a i n t i n g s .

“





Joanne’s love ly loose rendi t ion of a lak e land farmhouse i s f rom herLo osening Up Your Watercolours course. Only four co lours are used:Al izar in Cr imson, U l t ramar ine b lue, Ye l low Ochre and Burnt S ienna .

See how her use of f lu id, wet t ints has been balanced by mid-toned shadowed areas and then st rong, deta i led accents , a l l resu l t ing in a v ibrant , s tunning outcome.

Now look at my vers ion of Joanne’s lesson, where I ’ve del iberate ly shown ver y l i t t le regard to var y ing the tonal va lues .

I t looks rea l ly f la t and wishy-washy - qui te anaemic rea l ly. Yet I used exac t ly the same colours and brand that Joanne d id.

https://www.arttutor.com/class/loosening-your-watercolours



Look at the second vers ion I produced…

I changed the or igina l four co lours for four complete ly d i f ferent ones. They are : Vermi l l ion , Ceru lean B lue, Lemon Yel low & Burnt Umber.

These pa ints were ac tua l ly f rom a cheap set that cost about £2 .00 (about $3 .00) f rom a budget s tore .

The whole set of 12 cost less than the pr ice of one standard tube of branded student qual i t y pa ints , or about ha l f the cost of a smal l tube of the cheapest ser ies in ar t i s t qual i t y.

Ac tua l ly, I rea l ly s t ruggled to get suf f ic ient ly s t rong colours with these pa ints . Be ing so cheap, they ’re runny and thei r p igment s t rength i s nothing l ik e as intense as you get with s tudent or a r t i s t qual i t y watercolours .

So I f iddled more than I should to get the darks I wanted. As a resul t , some of the passages have become over work ed and rea l ly a re muddy.



Never theless , I th ink i t shows what can be done i f you concentrate on the bas ics of tonal s t rength and don’t get hung up about not hav ing the ‘r ight ’ co lours .

I want to ment ion one other point to encourage you. I found the utmost d i f f icu l t y in del iberate ly pa int ing the f i r s t copy with poor tonal va lue.

Ever yth ing in me f rom my bra in to my f ingers hold ing the brush shouted out ‘ Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! and i t was d i f f icu l t to hold back f rom adjust ing the va lues as I progressed.

I t ’s because over the years and with prac t ice, the concept of good tonal va lue becomes second nature. I ’m not say ing that e i ther mysel f or any of the other tutors don’t get va lues wrong. We do a l l the t ime, but usual ly we see th is ear ly and are able to resolve i t before we get beyond the point of no return .

And with a l i t t le prac t ice, so wi l l you!

f i D D l i n g w i T H p o o r q u A l i T yp A i n T S p r o D u C E S M u D !



C o r r e c t t o n a l va l u e s a r e t h e ke y t o s u cce s s f u l p a i n t i n g s

T h e m o m e n t y o u m i x t w o p r i m a r i e s , y o u s t a r t t o c r e a t e m u d

M u t e d co l o u r s a r e e s s e n t i a l s o m e w h e r e i n m o s t p a i n t i n g s

U s e t h e b e s t q u a l i t y p a i n t s y o u ca n a f f o r d

M a s t e r g o o d t o n a l va l u e s a n d i t b e co m e s a h a r d h a b i t t o b r e a k

S u M M A r y


C o l o u r S H i f T

A common er ror that he lps contr ibutes to those wishy-washy pa int ings budding watercolour is ts hate, re lates to something ca l led colour-sh i f t .

Colour sh i f t i s s imply a term to descr ibe the d i f ference bet ween the apparent dens i t y of a co lour when i t ’s f i r s t appl ied as a wet wash and how much i t l ightens when dr y. A l l watercolours are subjec t to colour-sh i f t , some s l ight ly more than others .

For the nex t exerc ise , you need some Ult ramar ine B lue for a landscape sk y.

M ix a good amount on your pa let te to a s t rength that looks about r ight and then use a l i t t le of i t to pa int a square on your paper about 3 inches x 2 inches (7 .5cm x 5 .0cm) .

Let i t dr y complete ly.

Now paint another patch nex t to or be low i t wi th the remain ing pa int . Whi le i t ’s s t i l l wet , note the d i f ference in the s t rength of tone or co lour.

E x E r C i S E 7

i n i T i A l w E T w A S H T H A T l o o k S r i g H T

S A M E w A S Hw H E n D r y

S T r o n g E r w A S HA p p l i E D w H E n w E T

S T r o n g E r w A S H D r i E D i S S A M E S T r E n g T H A S

w E T w A S H i n n o . 1

1

3

2

4



You may be qui te d isappointed that your or igina l wet mix that look ed ‘r ight ’ before i s now look ing a b i t anaemic s ince i t dr ied.

Now, add some more b lue pa int to that mix on your pa let te (but no more water ) and pa int a th i rd patch nex t to the others .

Again , let i t dr y.

I t should now be much c loser to the tonal s t rength that you look ed for wi th the f i r s t wet wash . Have a look at the four boxes above to c lar i fy th ings.

This i s co lour sh i f t tak ing p lace.

What I ’ve seen t ime and t ime again , i s fear in newcomer watercolour is ts that they ’re us ing colours that are too st rong - a lmost car toon l ik e . I th ink there’s an under ly ing bel ie f that they ’ l l ru in the pa int ing with s t rong colours that can’ t be undone. The rea l i t y i s you’re much more l i k e ly to ru in a pa int ing by not be ing bold enough.

Maybe you’ve heard of co lour sh i f t before and you’re wel l aware that watercolours can dr y up to 50% l ighter. But i f you’re unhappy with your pa int ings I bet the chances are h igh that you’re not mix ing st rong enough colours .

A good ru le of thumb is that i f a wash mix mix looks ‘ just r ight ’ when you f i r s t put i t on the paper, i t ’s probably going to be too l ight when i tdr ies .

B e b o l d ! I t ’ s t h e r e a l l y s t r o n g c o l o u r m i x e s t h a t s e p a r a t e a g r e a t p a i n t i n g f r o m a w e a k ,

i n s i p i d o n e .

“



C o l o u r s h i f t i s h o w m u c h a co l o u r l i g h t e n s o n ce i t ’s d r y.

I f i t l o o k s r i g h t w h e n i t g o e s o n w e t , i t ’s p r o b a b l y t o o w e a k .

Le a r n t o b e b o l d e r w i t h t h e s t r e n g t h o f y o u r i n i t i a l wa s h e s.

Wa s h e s w i l l l o o k s t r o n g e r w h e n n o t h i n g e l s e h a s b e e n p a i n t e d.

S u M M A r y


A E r i A l p E r S p E C T i V E

E x E r C i S E 8

We’ve touched on aer ia l perspec t ive a l ready, when we look ed at warm and cool co lours .

Remember, the cooler co lours - b lues , greys , mauves and greens - recede into the d is tance ; whi le the warmer colours - reds , oranges, ye l lows and browns tend to come for ward more.

This can be fur ther emphas ised by mak ing more d is tant objec ts pa ler and less deta i led, or foreground i tems sharply def ined, wi th s t rong tonal va lues .

I n i t s own way, aer ia l perspec t ive i s as impor tant as l inear perspec t ive, where objec ts appear to be smal ler the fur ther away they are .

Just for completeness , let ’s look at one or t wo other examples of aer ia l perspec t ive in ac t ion .

A e r i a l p e r s p e c t i v e : a c h i e v e a g o o d s e n s eo f d e p t h b y m a k i n g d i s t a n t o b j e c t s p a l e r

a n d b l u e r .

“



This sunf lower pa inted by Joanne Boon-Thomas i s a great example of loose watercolour pa int ing that rea l ly z ings of f the paper.

You can see that the br ight ye l low and brown f lower head jumps out at you at the foref ront of the scene. The peta ls a re v ibrant and sharply def ined.

The back ground though, i s loose and wet- in-wet , wi th most ly greens and blues tak ing i t back behind the f lower head, as i t should be.

I t becomes less and less d is t inc t as the eye dr i f t s towards the edges of the p ic ture.

I t ’s what I would ca l l lots of something and nothing - but absolute ly v i ta l to the composi t ion .

Not ice inc identa l ly, the way Joanne has used a lmost neat u l t ramar ine b lue in severa l a reas , as the complementar y colour of the orange peta ls .

Th is explo i ts that enhanced v ibranc y I ment ioned ear l ie r, when complementar ies are p laced s ide by s ide.



The nex t work , by Rob Dudley, however, appears to break a l l the ru les I ’ve just ment ioned. He’s got warmer, sharper co lours and the main objec ts a l i t t le way back into th is s t i l l - l i fe p ic ture .

He’s a l so used a warm beige as the back ground, whi le he’s p laced a pa le b lue c loth and a green apple in the foreground.

But i t s t i l l works . I t ’s ev idence that once you understand the pr inc ip les of i ssues l i k e aer ia l perspec t ive, you can explo i t them, or even manipulate them as he has done here.

What happens i s that the eye sk ates over the pa le b lue c loth and the apple , because they ’re pa inted in re lat ive ly cool and l ight tones.

I nstead, the eye i s drawn immediate ly to the warmth of the red apple and the c lear, br ight re f lec t ions in the pot .

The c loth and green apple add interest and lead the eye in at the f ront of the scene whi l s t a l so prov id ing a cool contrast aga inst the warmer objec ts and the sharply def ined ref lec t ions.



Tr y th is l i t t le exerc ise to ga in an apprec iat ion of the ef fec t of aer ia l perspec t ive. I t ’s a l so a usefu l l i t t le b i t o f prac t ice in pa int ing s imple f igures in your p ic tures…

Star t by mix ing a wash of orange f rom one of the mixes in your char ts . Then add a b lob of th is for a head and imagin ing where the lady ’s dress would be, pa int t wo th in l ines for her arms.

Then pa int an e longated t r iangle below for the legs . Absolute ly no deta i l for faces , hands or feet requi red. I f you fo l low what I ’ve done you should have a convinc ing- look ing f igure.

With a l i t t le purple / grey f rom another of your char ts , drag out a s imple shadow.

I f you touch th is into the feet whi le they ’re s t i l l damp, i t wi l l b lend ver y e f fec t ive ly and ‘anchor ’ a f igure to the ground.

Nex t , pa int t wo s imi lar f igures but smal ler, as in the image below. Note how I ’ve l ightened the tones as they get progress ive ly fur ther away. The f igures look qui te crude in these cruel c lose -ups, but they ’ l l be f ine f rom a normal v iewing d is tance in your pa int ing.



Nex t , I ’ ve f i l led in the c lothes with colour ( lower le f t ) but see how the tones have been l ightened, inc luding the shadows, as each f igure i s fur ther away.

I ’ve a lso used cool Lemon Yel low and Permanent Rose for the dresses . Th is accentuates the aer ia l perspec t ive and stops them jumping for wards.

I ’ ve del iberate ly chosen a mauve dress for the leading lady, even though that ’s supposed to be a co lour that recedes.

However, here i t i s pa inted st rongly enough to s tay in the foreground.

I n the lower r ight photo, I ’ ve pa inted a l l three f igures , dresses and shadows at the same tonal s t rength , us ing Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yel low.

You can see the confus ion r ight away.

The eye determines that the smal ler f igures should be in the d is tance, but the br ight , v ibrant tones of red and ye l low jump out at you and br ing them for ward to compete with the nearest lady for at tent ion .



Ae r i a l p e r s p e c t i v e ca n b r i n g a d d e d d e p t h t o y o u r p a i n t i n g s.

Wa r m a n d co o l co l o u r s a r e o n e wa y o f c r e a t i n g d e p t h .

U s e p a l e r, l e s s d e t a i l e d t o n e s t o s u g g e s t d i s t a n ce.

U s e s t r o n g, m o r e d e t a i l e d t o n e s t o wa r d s t h e f o r e g r o u n d.

Ae r i a l p e r s p e c t i v e w o r k s i n p o r t ra i t s a n d s t i l l - l i f e , a s m u c h a s i n l a n d s ca p e s.

S u M M A r y


M i x i n g p A i n T i n T H Ep A l E T T E o r o n T H E p A p E r

E x E r C i S E 9

For most par ts of a p ic ture , you’ l l be mix ing your co lours beforehand in the pa lette . Then you apply them to the paper. That ’s f ine and for a la rge par t of the p ic ture i t ’s the r ight th ing to do.

However, i f you want to l i f t your pa int ings up a leve l , le t t ing colours mix f ree ly on the paper in cer ta in passages br ings a l l sor ts of added benef i ts .

Fi r s t , you’ l l f ind that watercolour pa int wi l l b lend beaut i fu l ly i f le f t to i t s own devices .

I t can produce ef fec ts that you s imply can’t repl icate i f you t r ied pushing the pa int around yourse l f.

Second, the colours wi l l dr y with a greater f reshness and c lar i t y because you’re not t r y ing to mix them with the brush on the paper.


M i x i n g p A i n T i n T H E p A l E T T E o r o n T H E p A p E r

Thi rd, the var iat ion in colour and tone can of fer a counterbalance to the scene against those par ts of i t which , qui te proper ly, need a re lat ive ly f la t p la in wash to proper ly descr ibe i t .

Look at the pa int ing of the v io l in on the prev ious page and the one of the pheasant above.

These are f rom t wo v ideo lessons by another of our tutors , Andrew Geeson whose f lu id s t y le has proved such a h i t wi th our members .

The ef fec t on the v io l in needs no explanat ion . A l l o f the colours have been dropped into a pre -wetted sur face and a l lowed to b lend in the i r own way.

B y ‘dropping in’ pa int , we mean that the t ip of a brush , loaded with p igment , i s just touched into the wet sur face. Capi l la r y ac t ion then drags the pa int onto the paper and i t f lows across the dampened area .

The resul t i s a v ibrant , unique resul t , where the wet- in-wet colours have created the ef fec t of sh iny, pol i shed wood.

I n h is watercolour sk etch of the pheasant , the loose appl icat ion of co lour, par t icu lar ly in the wing feathers , g ives an unmistak eable sense of movement .




The more sharply def ined, s t ronger features in the face and body are now emphas ised by the loose way he a l lowed the pa int to run amok in the wings and in the grassy areas beneath the b i rd ’s feet .

S ian Dudley ’s pa int ing st y le i s more deta i led than Andrew ’s but i f you look past the mult i tude of summer da is ies that she’s c reated, you can see that the back ground i s composed in a ver y s imi lar fash ion .

The pa le b lues and golds at the top of the p ic ture have been a l lowed to b lend gent ly together to form a wonder fu l summer sk y.

Remember, that with these t wo colours , i f S ian had t r ied to mix them with the brush , she would have produced shades of green – or a seas ick- look ing green- grey sk y at best .

I nstead, she’s le f t the pa int to go i ts own way and once dr y, th is has been over la id with one or t wo wispy c louds – again by gent ly adding damp washes and a l lowing them to b lend.

Now i t ’s your turn . On the nex t page, we’ l l use one of Andrew ’s other lessons as the bas is for th is exerc ise – a s imple pear.

I ’ ve inc luded a number of screenshots f rom the lesson, so you’ l l get a better idea of the process…




1. 2.


1 . Here’s the photo to copy below.

2 . Star t by sk etching a s imple out l ine and dabbing in c lean water across the whole pear. Don’t t r y to cover ever y par t of i t . Smal l patches le f t dr y wi l l add good random highl ights .

1. 2.



3 . Nex t , se lec t some Lemon Yel low and mix a fa i r ly s t rong wash but with p lent y of water. Dab th is on down the le f t ( l i t ) s ide of the pear. Just let the brush touch l ight ly so the pa int i s drawn onto the wet paper.

4 . M ix some Cadmium Yel low and do the same, more into the centre , just a l lowing the Cadmium Yel low to touch the edges of the Lemon Yel low.

3. 4.



5 . Repeat with a mix of one of the mid- greens f rom your char t , down the centre of the pear. K eep the brushst rok es to the minimum and don’t at th is s tage be tempted to f i l l in any areas of white paper that have remained dr y and repel led the pa int .

6 . Now add a mix of s t ronger, dark er green on the r ight hand s ide - the shadow s ide. You should now be able to see the ‘roundness’ o f the pear emerging because of the l ight and shade you’ve created with your co lours .

5. 6.



7 . Use a p iece of torn- of f k i tchen towel to l i f t o f f any excess pa int that looks l i k e i t might f lood or run .

8 . Don’t dab i t , just let the rough edge touch thepaint and suck i t up!

9 . Whi le th ings are s t i l l qu i te damp, add a few more s t ronger tones i f i t looks l i k e the f i r s t ones are d i lut ing and l ightening of f too much.

8. 9.

7.



10 . With a r igger, pa int the s ta lk with an orange mix f rom your char ts , then just touch the r ight s ide with a su i table purple mix for the shadow. Let th is just b leed into the top of the pear.

11 . With the same colour, drag out a h int of shadow at the base.

12 . The leaf i s pa inted the same way as the pear, just touching pa int mixes in here and there and then adding a few l ines when the the base colour i s near ly dr y, to represent ve ins .

10. 11.

12.




13 . Fina l ly, add a few spots of orange and purple for the ‘ f reck les’ on the sk in of the pear. I f you’ve done th is quick ly enough, the pa int wi l l be s t i l l ver y s l ight ly damp and the f reck les wi l l spread ver y s l ight ly.

I f the base colours have dr ied, t r y dott ing the f reck les and leave them for a minute or so.

I f you then blot them gent ly, some of the pa int wi l l be le f t behind, giv ing a s imi lar d i f fused look to them.

Here’s what the completed image looks l i k e .

Don’t wor r y i f the spread of pa int on your vers ion i s d i f ferent .

The beaut y of let t ing pa int mix on the paper i s that no t wo attempts wi l l ever be ident ica l !

13.



Pa i n t i s m i xe d b y d r o p p i n g i t i n t o t h e p r e - d a m p e n e d p a p e r s u r f a ce.

D r o p p i n g i n s i m p l y m e a n s t o u c h i n g t h e p a i n t - f i l l e d b r u s h o n t o t h e p a p e r.

M i x i n g p a i n t o n t h e p a p e r b r i n g s r e a l v i b ra n c y a n d e n e r g y t o y o u r w o r k . C o l o u r s w i l l d r y w i t h e n h a n ce d f r e s h n e s s a n d c l a r i t y.

I t e n co u ra g e s s o f t e r, l o o s e r e d g e s i n a p a i n t i n g

T h i s i s a n i m p o r t a n t co u n t e r b a l a n ce w h e n h a r d e d g e s a r e n e e d e d e l s e w h e r e.

S u M M A r y


B r i n g i n g i T A l l T o g E T H E r :S T i l l l i f E

E x E r C i S E 1 0

For the f ina l exerc ise , we’re going to produce a s imple s t i l l l i fe wi th three vegetables . (See re ference photo and the l ine drawing)

The advantage of us ing these i tems i s that they ’re bas ica l ly s imple shapes, but even i f you don’t draw them exac t ly as in the photo they wi l l s t i l l look l i k e the vegetables they ’re supposed to be.

A la rge par t of th is exerc ise wi l l involve pre -wett ing areas of the paper, before we drop in the pa int . As we saw in the prev ious Sec t ion , th is rea l ly he lps to create smoother washes and a l lows the pa int to do much of the the work for you.

You wi l l f ind that you wi l l have less chance of avoid ing hard brush marks and unwanted t ide marks . That ’s especia l ly impor tant with the aubergine, where we are a iming for a smooth , sh iny sk in .

However, th is technique i s a l so good for the car rot and turn ip, as we can create hard and sof t edges as we cont inue to brush over areas that are s tar t ing to dr y.

C l ick here to see la rger vers ions of these t wo images for re ference.


B r i n g i n g i T A l l T o g E T H E r : S T i l l l i f E

Using the l ine drawing, you can copy i t or download and t race f rom i t , i f you prefer.

I ’ ve used the s ix co lours we ment ioned at the beginning of the book , but you use the nearest co lours you have in your own paint ing k i t . I t ’s about how you mix the colours , rather than which ones you use.

Hav ing drawn the out l ines , I mix a la rge amount of a pa le wash of the cadmium yel low and cadmium red, wi th just a t iny touch of u l t ramar ine to reduce the v ibranc y. I could have used something l ik e ye l low ochre or raw s ienna instead.

Us ing a la rge round brush , I quick ly covered a l l o f the pa int ing, except what wi l l be the sk in of the aubergine. The pa le wash wi l l c reate a subt le uni t y throughout the p ic ture.

I ’ve le f t the main par t of the aubergine unpainted as I wi l l want to l i f t out some br ight h ighl ights at the end.

1.



Once th is i s dr y, a s t ronger mix of the pa le ye l low underpaint ing i s now created, wi th a l i t t le more b lue added to produce a ye l low/brown. Fi rs t though, I tak e a f la t brush and gent ly dampen the t i le area at the back of the scene.

I ’m carefu l to leave unpainted some nar row l ines where the grout ing wi l l be.

These nar row st r ips don’t need to be ru ler s t ra ight . I n fac t , the odd wobble wi l l add a rust ic fee l to the back ground.

2.



Now add the ye l low/brown mix to the damp paper with a f la t brush , work ing ver t ica l ly. You wi l l see the pa int d isperse rapid ly into the damp paper but the f la t brush wi l l ensure that the brush st rok es s tay in a reasonably geometr ica l pattern .

Mak e sure you pa int r ight up to the ‘grout l ines’ you have le f t dr y. Again , you don’t need to be too prec ise , but by leav ing them dr y when you dampened the paper, the pa int won’t b leed into these areas and the l ines wi l l s tar t to s tand out .

Note how white they look even though you pa inted that pa le ye l low wash over them prev ious ly.

3.



We now move on to the turn ip. Th is t ime, you wi l l need to pre -mix a smal l amount of green. I used lemon ye l low and a touch of u l t ramar ine and not too st rong. A lso mix a medium st rength pool of purple .

I used Ul t ramar ine and permanent rose, wi th a touch of cadmium red. The cadmium red, hav ing a l i t t le ye l low in i t s mak e -up, ca lmed th ings down s l ight ly and ensured the purple wasn’t too v ibrant .

Th is t ime the turn ip i s dampened with a round brush and the brushst rok es genera l ly fo l low the round contours of the vegetable . What th is does i s to ensure that any gaps le f t un- dampened wi l l show up when the pa int i s added and give some usefu l cur ved h ighl ight and tex ture to re - inforce the shape and form of the turn ip.

4.



We now add a pa le s t r ip of green pa int near the r ight hand s ide of the turn ip, leav ing a smal l a rea of pa le ye l low showing at the ex t reme r ight . Whi le th is i s s t i l l damp, add the purples , mak ing sure again the you fo l low the round contours .

I f any h ighl ights of un- dampened paper show up, leave some of them, as prev ious ly descr ibed.

As you add the purple , add a l i t t le more b lue to the wet mix at the bottom le f t a rea , where the turn ip i s in shadow. K eep moving qui te quick ly so the pa int doesn’t s tar t to dr y.

However, i f i t does then prov id ing you k eep fo l lowing the roundness of the turn ip with your brush st rok es , you wi l l f ind that any s t reak iness wi l l add to the rea l i sm of the vegetable . Use the bel ly of the brush s ide on as wel l as the t ip to create th is e f fec t .

5.



Here’s where dampening the paper rea l ly he lps . For the aubergine, we need a s t rong dark , even colour to represent a sh iny sk in . Idea l ly, we need i t in one coat as wel l . Two coats or more would s tar t l i f t ing and become blotchy.

So the aubergine (apar t f rom the top sta lks ) was pa inted in a ver y s t rong, dark mix , where I ac tua l ly used f ive colours . These were u l t ramar ine, ptha lo b lue, cadmium red and permanent rose. Fina l ly, I added a touch of cadmium yel low to ensure i t d idn’t end up too purple .

The st rong mix spread across the damp paper, but I was able to k eep my brush st rok es to a minimum, th is t ime pul l ing the pa int f rom the base of the vegetable to the s ta lk , aga in repl icat ing i ts shape. The c lose up of the photo shows th is qui te c lear ly.

6.



Nex t comes the car rot , wi th a somewhat rougher, brok en tex ture. Lots of l i t t le f i ssures and bumps. The f i r s t s tage i s to mak e a ver y pa le wash of cadmium red and cadmium yel low, with a touch of u l t ramar ine to tak e the br ightness of f i t .

I ’ ve added a few dark s t reaks to represent some of the cracks . Note that they fo l low the shape of the car rot . They wi l l b lur and d i f fuse s l ight ly when we add st ronger tones, which i s just what we want .

7.

8.

A second, s l ight ly s t ronger layer i s added once the f i r s t one has fu l ly dr ied. Note the brush i s be ing dragged s ideways and a lso the d i rec t ion of the brush st rok es .

This wi l l ac tua l ly give us the l ighter areas in the car rot .



Now with a much st ronger mix of the same colours , wi th perhaps a l i t t le more red added, comes the top layer of the car rot .

Note how rounded l ight s t reaks have been le f t to conf i rm the shape. A l i t t le water has been added here and there to prov ide an at t rac t ive mix of hard and sof tened edges.

Back to the top of the turn ip. Here, a l ight mix of that used for the t i les has been used and sof tened of f here and there to produce var iet y in tex ture.

Some random spots of the same colour have been added around the neck of the vegetable .

9.

10.



A st ronger green mix made for the turn ip now prov ides the colour for the s ta lk of both the car rot and the aubergine.

Not ice the long, unpainted st reak on the lat ter ’s s ta lk to add a h ighl ight . Both have had dark er, s t ronger pa int touched in to the dampened areas to create added tex ture.

11.

P r o t i p : w h e n a d d i n g s h a d o w s , l o o k f o r w h e t h e r i t h a s a h a r d o f s o f t e d g e .

“



A shadow has been added us ing the t i le co lour underneath the car rot . Again , the area i s pre - dampened to reta in a reasonably even tex ture.

A subt le addi t ion to the car rot has been the inc lus ion of a shadow beneath the s ta lk of the aubergine. I t was pa inted with the main car rot co lour, wi th a touch more b lue added. The edges were a lso sof tened with a smal l brush dampened with c lean water.

12.

The same t reatment for the shadow has been given to the aubergine, but a l i t t le more b lue has been added to p ick up on the b lue re f lec t ion of the vegetable on the worktop.

The shadow is ver y s l ight ly l ighter at the outer edge as more re f lec ted l ight i s ev ident f rom the work top.

13.



Simi lar ly, the turn ip has had a shadow added.

A smal l brush has a lso touched in a second, s t ronger layer near the base of the turn ip whi le the f i r s t layer was s t i l l damp to emphas ise how the l ight hasn’ t reached there.

We’re now going to use the t wo brushes i l lust rated to create addi t ional tex ture in the turn ip.

I ’ve l i f ted out some dul l h ighl ights on top of the turn ip, wi th the f la t brush .

I ’ve a lso p ick ed out a ser ies of shor t-l ine h ighl ights around the neck of the turn ip with the f la t brush .

Then I ’m us ing the r igger to add st ronger purple colour nex t to each one to emphas ise the tex ture.

14.

15.

16.



Here. you can see how the f la t brush has been used to scrub out h ighl ights on the turn ip.

Let th is fu l ly dr y.

I ’ ve now added a touch of ye l low and green to these areas to repl icate the subt le co lour changes in the turn ip’s tex ture.

I ’ve del iberate ly over-work ed th is a rea a l i t t le to demonstrate the point that you can spend too much t ime on th is , but at least you can learn f rom my mistak es !

Moving back to the aubergine, I ’ ve now added some dark green areas to the s ta lk .

Th is i s most ly let t ing the brush h i t and miss the paper but I ’ve been carefu l to ensure that a dark area created the shadow s ide of the s ta lk immediate ly above the car rot . The white one has remained though, to prov ide essent ia l spark le in the top of the s ta lk .

17.

18.

19.



Now for the braver y test ! I ’ ve used the t wo brushes i l lust rated at the top of the photo to l i f t out the main h ighl ights in the aubergine. Th is wi l l mak e or break your p ic ture !

Note how there i s a main h ighl ight , a secondar y, less obvious one and the re f lec ted l ight underneath the vegetable . Each one requi res a d i f ferent brush and s l ight ly d i f ferent techniques. Note that another k ey implement i s the dr y k i tchen towel .

20.

P r a c t i c e m a k e s p e r m a n e n t .T h e r i g h t k i n d o f p r a c t i c e m a k e s p e r f e c t !

“



Fi rs t , we deal wi th the secondar y h ighl ight on the s ide of the objec t . Th is wi l l g ive you conf idence when attack ing the main h ighl ight .

I ’ ve used a Number 8 round brush , dampened with c lean water and dragged a long the aubergine. Once or t wice only ! Then I ’ve pressed the k i tchen towel on top and l i f ted of f some of the p igment . Some, but by no means a l l has been removed because I ’ve only dampened the paper.

21.



Nex t , I ’ ve used the same brush at the base of the aubergine, though th is t ime, dragged once only a long f rom f ront to back .

Then I ’ve mopped th is wi th c lean k i tchen towel . I t l i f t s just suf f ic ient p igment to create a l ighter area , wi thout i t becoming too stark .

Fina l ly, I ’ ve produced the main , br ight h ighl ight . Remember that we d idn’t pa int th is a rea at the outset , so the h ighl ights would sh ine out . Now you can see the va lue of th is .

Fi r s t , I ’ ve used the f la t brush to gent ly scrub s ideways to create an e longated h ighl ight . Then I l i f ted out the p igment with the k i tchen towel . I t may tak e t wo or three at tempts to get th is as white as you can .

22.

23.



K eep turn ing the towel to present a c lean area , or you’re in danger of putt ing back p igment you’ve l i f ted out .

Before th is has a chance to dr y I ’ve a lso gone back in with the round brush above and below the main h ighl ight to produce the sof ter h ighl ights in Steps 21 and 22 .

This widens out the h ighl ight and i s a more accurate re f lec t ion of the sk in of the aubergine. A harder h ighl ight would mak e i t appear meta l l ic .

24.



The f in ished st i l l l i fe . Each vegetable has d is t inc t and d i f ferent tex tures , most ly produced by f i r s t dampening the paper, to let pa int f low eas ier.

The main point of course, i s that we’ve mixed some rea l muddy colours to achieve th is . Somet imes, as I ment ioned, we ac tua l ly dul led down colours so they wouldn’t be too br ight ( the f ina l coat in the car rot , for instance) .

So I hope you apprec iate now that so - ca l led muddy colours , i f used in the r ight way and at the r ight s t rength , can produce sat i s fy ing and att rac t ive pa int ings.

I nc identa l ly, i f you fee l that c reat ing the pa int ing with a l l three i tems might be too much of a cha l lenge at f i r s t , t r y drawing each i tem and pa int i t as a separate exerc ise .

A l though the vegetables are a l l over lapped in the photo to produce a p leas ing composi t ion , the par ts that are out of s ight in each one can eas i ly be f i l led in i f drawn indiv idual ly.

I hope you l ik e i t - but more impor tant ly, I hope you l ik e your vers ion even better !

Above a l l , en joy the process !

25.



B r i n g i n g a l l t h e t e c h n i q u e s t o g e t h e r i s n’ t d i f f i c u l t , o n e s t e p a t a t i m e.

Wa t c h y o u r t o n a l va l u e s a n d b e b o l d w i t h y o u r co l o u r m i xe s.

O n ce y o u’ v e f i n i s h e d, p u t d o w n y o u r b r u s h a n d s t o p. D o n’ t g o l o o k i n g f o r t h i n g s t o a d j u s t - o n l y d o s o i f i t j u m p s o u t a t y o u.

U s e t h e p a i n t s y o u h a v e i n s t e a d o f r u s h i n g o u t t o b u y w h a t I u s e d.

A l i m i t e d p a l e t t e o f co l o u r s w i l l b r i n g g r e a t e r u n i t y t o y o u r p a i n t i n g s.

S u M M A r y


C o n C l u S i o n

I hope you’ve enjoyed the lessons and exerc ises I ’ve shared with you and that you found them of va lue. The main th ing I want you to rea l i se i s that muddy colours do not necessar i ly mean bad pa int ings.

P laced in the r ight contex t , a t the r ight tonal s t rength , they ’ l l c reate many l i t t le masterp ieces for you throughout the t ime you pa int .

Don’t forget , there’s much, much more to d iscover and enjoy as a member of Ar tTutor. I hope to share i t wi th you somet ime, ver y soon!

Cheers ,

Bob Davies

https://www.arttutor.com/


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