Tips on Oil Painting – Know Your Paints
By Remi Engels
In this discussion we assume that you use a basic 6-color. The 6-color palette could consist of the following colors:
1. Lemon Yellow
2. Cadmium Yellow
3. Cadmium Red
4. Permanent Rose (Alizarin Crimson)
5. French Ultramarine Blue
6. Phthalo Blue
7. Titanium White
8. Ivory Black
You could use a no. 10 filbert.
Lemon Yellow is, of course, yellow, but can you also see the green undertone or bias? Stare at it for a while and see if you can discern the underlying green. Do the same for:
- Cadmium Yellow (orange bias)
- Cadmium Red (orange bias)
- Permanent Rose (violet bias)
- French Ultramarine Blue (violet bias)
- Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) (green bias)
Memorize and visualize the bias of the six colors on your palette.
Next, you can color 2″ x 2″ squares with mixtures. Start with Lemon Yellow and Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) which both have a green bias. You should get a clean green. Then:
* Mix French Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Rose (both have a violet bias) which yields a clean violet.
* Mix Cadmium red with Cadmium Yellow (both have a violet bias) which yields a clean orange.
Again make an effort to remember the colors of these new mixtures.
Now you can cross mix your tube colors two at a time. For example, mix Lemon Yellow with French Ultramarine Blue. This should give you a green but because Lemon Yellow has a green bias while French Ultramarine Blue has a violet bias it will be different from the one you got before. Compare the two greens and try to remember the difference. Then:
* Mix Cadmium Yellow with Phthalo Blue (Red Shade)
* Mix Cadmium Yellow with French Ultramarine Blue
This will give you all together 4 different greens. Look at them and judge them regarding hue, value, and intensity.
You can do the same with the two blues and the two reds which will you give four different violets. Finally, repeat the process with the two yellows and the two reds which will give you four different oranges.
Next, use different amounts of Titanium White to create tints of, say, French Ultramarine Blue. Mixtures of a tube color with white are called tints. Study a number of French Ultramarine Blue tints to see how Titanium White lightens the mixture and if the tints become chalky or not.
You can also mix each of the six tube colors with black. These mixtures are called shades. And finally, you can mix any tube color with any other tube color or with blank and white (i.e., with varying degrees of grays) to get what are called tones.
What is important here is to create a habit of observing and remembering the mixtures you produce. By now, you can probably guess the potential diversity of color a 6-color palette can produce. We haven’t even added the tertiary colors, i.e., the mixtures of three colors.
Make sure you save your painted squares and that you duly record the colors involved as well as the approximate amounts of each of the colors that make up the mixture. In other words, save your color charts and study them at regular intervals.
The ultimate objective is to accumulate enough active knowledge about mixtures that you can reproduce just about any color without having to think too much.
At that point all your attention can be directed towards artistic expression. Although it is a rather tedious job, it is nevertheless a necessary one. So do a little bit of it every day.
Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter. Samples of Remi’s work can be found at Remi’s Pencil Portraits and Remi’s Oil Paintings. You are also cordially invited to subscribe to his Free Portrait Drawing Course and his popular Art Tip Newsletter.
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How to Paint Shadows in Your Landscape and Still Life Paintings
My favorite type of shadow is a simple cast shadow. If an object is blocking the sun or light source, a shadow will be cast. Cast shadows should be painted with colors that are similar to the object itself with some warm colors added. You use warm colors, red, yellow and orange because the sun is warm. So if the sun is the light source and the object is a blue vase you would take the blue and warm it a bit with one of the warm colors mentioned to dry-brush in the shadow
For landscape paintings, the value of shadows depends on the time of day. Early morning shadows are longer and darker while afternoon shadows shorter are lighter. Following the rule that the shadow is nearly 50 percent darker than the portion of the object that is in the light will generally work well.
The direction and size of the shadow should also be carefully thought out. In the example of the blue vase, lets’ say the light is coming from a window above the vase and on the left. Since the light source is higher than the object the shadow will be cast at an angle. So a shadow on the right side of the vase and extending lower than the vase would make a realistic shadow.
The length of the shadow is also important. Using the vase example again, you certainly wouldn’t create a shadow that is twice as long as the vase itself. This would not look realistic. A short or the same size as the vase shadow would be more realistic. Try to imagine in real life situations what would happen. For landscape paintings the length of a shadow also depends on the time of day. If the sun is high in the sky, sometimes, there is little to almost no shadow cast. Imagine its’ six o’clock in the evening, and there will be a quite long shadow. Sometimes the shadows are twice as long as the subjects are.
To actually paint in the shadow you must start the shadow directly beneath or to the side of the subject. There can be a highlight on the subject but not the shadow. The shadow usually fades as you work away from the subject. So decide where it will be and paint it in, dark near the subject and using a scrubbing technique and less paint, fade as you work outward.
The last thing to remember about shadows is consistency. For example, if you are working on a landscape and there are several trees, they should all have similar shadows. Buildings should all have similar shadows. Don’t forget the chimneys.
Shadows really do create drama and add realism to landscape and still life alike. Don’t be afraid to use them, but do so carefully and thoughtfully.
Julie Shoemaker is an avid painter and hobbyist who regularly gives paintings as gifts to family and friends. To read more articles like the one here, and to see more free art tips, tricks and techniques and free step by step lessons Learn Painting Techniques or visit http://www.IamPainting.org.
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Artist Spotlite – Catherine Coleman
Artist: Catherine Coleman
Location: Millgrove, Ontario
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 21″ x 14″
Support: 140lb Cold Press Paper
Artist Spotlite – John Zoerb
Artist: John Zoerb
Location: Discovery Bay, California
Medium: Acrylics on White Gesso
Dimensions: 9 “x 12 ”
Support: Fiberboard
“Pastels for Life” – Pastels Demonstration By Pauline Adair
“Pastels for Life”
Author: Pauline Adair – Australian Artist
Note: This painting won the Pastel Award at the 2006 Gympie Gold Rush Annual Art Exhibition.
For this Soft Pastel Demonstration I am using a double sheet of Canson Mi Tientes pastel paper, in a warm grey colour. I prefer to work on the smooth side of this, but I know many pastelists who choose the textured side. The smooth side still has a good tooth which suits my application.
The model is Sophie…. a favourite of mine, and I am working from a photo as it will probably take me several days to complete this to my satisfaction.
Here is the reference photo, which I cropped to achieve a more close up and intimate feel in the
painting.
(The photograph below contains tasteful nudity. Click image to reveal)
I’m starting with a willow charcoal drawing…. I like the willow because I can just manipulate it with the heel of my hand… wiping it off easily if I want to adjust the drawing. After each couple of strokes I step back to view it as a whole, trying not to get bogged down to much in the detail of any one area.
I’m happy with the start now, I can begin to add some colour.
I’m adding some shading here, using a deep purple….. I really want to just colour the paper at this stage and to mark where the accents will be…. bones beneath the skin, the darkest shadows, etc. This is still at the drawing stage…. not the painting stage.
Just getting a feel for the lights now, finding where the light falls on her body from the one light source. All those planes must be facing the light to create the illusion.
The shadows need warming up…..I’m putting a couple of warm skin tones in over the purple, still working loosely.
I call them ‘hot spots’….where I see the warmest of the skin colours…. in the creases, on the elbows, lips, cheeks. Nothing is set in concrete at this stage…. I’m still feeling my way around…..tentatively!
Sophie has red hair…. so while I have the red in my hand….in that goes too!
I’m strongly leaning toward a dark background.
Yes…. I’ve made the decision to go really dark in the background, as Sophie is obviously sleeping so a night scene seems to make sense….. it is all part of the story.
I have this vision in my mind of a kind of glow behind Sophie….I need to make it richer. As an experiment I’ll try to bring it to life with a bright orange over top of the dark purple. The first few strokes are a bit of a shock so I’ll just leave that there for a while and do some work on the foreground…tucking the background away into the recesses of my mind for now!
Just as I put some of the foreground colour into the skin, I need to also put some of the skin colour into the sheets. This will unify the whole painting.
Back to the background! Will I…. won’t I….I will! I carry the orange through. I must now include some of this colour elsewhere in the painting as well as in the background. I check to see how it will look with the mat around it.
Close up of Sophie’s face at this stage.
These are all the pastels I selected as the work progressed. Included are some Schminkes, Windsor & Newton, Art spectrum, Holbein and some contes. I find the contes great for blending over the very soft pastels, rather than using my fingers or a stump.
I’m finishing off the skin tones using some pink variations, and lightening the highlights. The purple sheets go in, and I add some variation to the background using the same purples and blues from the sheets.
I’ve almost put Sophie ‘to bed’ now, and I’ve a feeling this painting just might work out. (I never really know until the end!) Final details go in, and I use the lightest colours in my chosen palette to bring the skin to life.
Finally, Sophie is done and popped into a frame I already have. I had a few tense moments with this painting, but afterall…. that is why I paint….I love the challenge, the nervous start, the frustration, the exaspiration…. and the thrill at the end of having gained a little more experience and knowledge along the way.
B i o g r a p h y
Born in New Zealand, Pauline moved to Sydney, Australia where she worked as the Advertising Manager of a national retail chain. A relocation to Queensland meant that her long postponed passion for art could be given some attention, nurtured, and brought to life.
“I have many, many people to thank for encouraging me and assisting in my neverending quest to create one masterpiece during my lifetime…. one piece that may be considered special and everlasting! I’m having so much fun trying to achieve that.
“The whole of creation is the greatest masterpiece of all……….I see the beauty of each and every individual……… I paint people because that is how I celebrate humankind and each person’s uniqueness…… and I paint them as a tribute to our creator.
“I paint in oils, pastels, watercolours, acrylics, and I use many drawing mediums…. sometiimes in various combinations to make my marks.
“I endeavour to paint every day….. if I don’t I feel as though I have waisted the entire day. I just don’t want to go to my grave with my paintings still inside me…. and I mustn’t have any paint left over! ”
Pauline Adair’s ‘BodyWorks’ Blog
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