by Will Kemp with Will Kemp Art School

Let’s be honest, colour mixing can be frustrating.

You’ve mastered the colour wheel, you understand complementary colours and may have either dabbled with a few different colour schemes but why do you paintings still not work?

Why don’t they balance and create harmony to your eye?

What are you doing wrong?

In this series of guest posts for ArtInstructionBlog.com,  I want to address some of the common stumbling blocks of colour and analyze some master pieces to try and see how past masters have managed to balance seemingly impossible colour mixtures – so you can help to find your own unique palette

The clue staring you in the face

To understand colour you have to think like a detective, look for the clues and piece sections together. And sometimes the clues can be right under your nose, literally.

Have you looked in the mirror this morning?

Not for a self portrait, or pencil study but to try to understand your personal relationship with colours. We are often subconsciously drawn towards colours that match and compliment our skin tone.

I’m cool. You know, like the Fonz! I also have cool skin tones, pale skin and am drawn to colours that balance with that and are quite muted. I very rarely wear bright red and only use it in a minimal amount in my landscape paintings.

Now, of course, this isn’t a exact science, but have a look through the colours in your wardrobe and start to see if any of the colours that pop up in your clothes, pop up in your paintings.

The self expression of colour

Colour is such a personal thing.

Artists often go through different periods depending on their emotional state, or sometimes you’ve just tried a new colour for a change and it starts a whole new area of interest.

Colour is all about relationships, either warm and cool, harmony and contrast, balance or conflict.

Sometimes you will read a recommended palette of colours by an artist, try it yourself at home yet something just doesn’t sit right. It doesn’t ring true for you.

You have to experiment to weed out the colours you don’t like and keep the colours you have an affinity with close to hand.

Create a mood board

A mood board is often used in the design industry to develop a brand, you can use the same techniques on a voyage of self discovery to discover your own colour palette.

Step 1. Tear out pictures magazines, copy from a google search, upload photos from your camera. What you need to do is to amass a collection of images ( they don’t have to all be paintings) to start to try and see some common trends.

Step 2. layout a collection of your images to create a ‘mood board’  to start to try and see a theme. Some artists favour a sombre palette, so earth colours would be a natural choice, others prefer bright, vivid colours so maybe try some man made quinacridones.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/11/moodboard-interior-design

Step 3. Try and identify the palettes that you are drawn towards.

Palettes change

When painting things are in a state of flux, it really is a matter of personal taste.

The palette of colours that you come to use will be like your personal identity, a thumbprint that is uniquely yours, and as Picasso’s palette changed throughout his career, so will yours.

At the moment I’m slightly obsessed with Indian red, I love how much it changes when you add white, compared to using it in thin glazes. But I don’t recommend it to my students who are just starting out because the colour jumps can be too much and too unpredictable.

An emotional response

Colour is often steeped in emotion, and causes emotional responses in us. Red can be danger or passion and heightens the senses, blue can be calm to some and make others feel restless.

Often, when you start painting you are searching for a ‘style’ yet this style can seem obvious to outsiders looking in but allude you for a lot longer.

The first artist we are going to look at is Claude Monet.

“Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.”

Claude Monet

Waterlilies: Green Reflections, 1914-…

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I first really fell in love with Monet on a trip to Paris when I was at art college. I’d always thought his work was ‘nice’ but I didn’t truly appreciate it until I saw it in the flesh, particularly the Water Lilies in the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris.

It was a chilly morning on the street of Paris and I’d just had my morning croissant and expresso and was ticking off the gallery list. I wandered into the next gallery on my list and wasn’t expecting much…. and then I turned the corner into the room.

The first thing that hits you is the scale.

They are huge.

I sat down and became fully immersed in the picture.

When viewing the paintings up close you notice the rapid brushstrokes and array of colours yet step back, take a seat and relax and you melt into them.

The view encompasses you and you have a real feeling of inner calm. You feel as if you are sitting next to Monet painting the scene.

But how do you create this deep connection in your own works?

Now the atmosphere of the gallery and the aura of the piece certainly helps but what about the colours he used. How did they effect my emotional reaction?

And how can you adapt his techniques to help in your own paintings.

The first thing that Monet uses is the effect of broken colour.

The broken colours are very close in tone, so there isn’t a very big visual shift for your eye.

In fact, he has created a haze of colour. There isn’t really an inch of canvas that doesn’t have a brushstroke containing all 4 of the key colours, light purple, muted blue, green and yellow

It is this technique that makes it so harmonious as a painting.

So next time you’re half way through a painting and you’ve just added a stroke of colour in the sky, try to use that exact same colour somewhere in the foreground and visa versa.

This will help the viewers eye to dance around the painting.

Monet also draws our focus to the front of the painting both by the use of contrast and the use of the strong bright blue.

Notice how he uses what I call the ‘trickle effect,’ imagine pouring some water from the top of your canvas and the water flows wherever the light falls.

Monet has used strokes of a darker blue to ‘trickle’ light towards the foreground, again creating movement.

Look carefully on the lefthand side to see a subtle triangle of darker blue.

This is another method of adding harmony by distributing the same colour, dark blue throughout the piece.

If you ever get the chance to visit Paris, I highly recommend a Monet moment and don’t forget the croissant!

Over to you.

Have you got any tips for creating the Monet effect?

What’s your colour palette at the moment?

About the Author Will Kemp can teach you how to draw & paint. He is shortly starting a new online drawing course for absolute beginners.

Learn how to mix a bright pink using acrylic paint with this free acrylic painting tutorial from award winning Artist and teacher Will Kemp from Will Kemp Art School.  This is the second video lesson that I have featured here from Will as I simply love his teaching style.  Check out his other lesson on my site on mixing greens with acrylic paint here.

For this particular lesson, Will is using the following acrylic colors from  Golden &
Winsor & Newton: Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red Medium, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Alizarin Crimson Permanent, Quinacridone Red and  Titanium White.

In order to mix a true pink, you need red and white, but as this video will demonstrate, not all reds on your palette will make a nice bright pink and you really won’t be able to tell when looking at a color straight out of the tube.  You need to add white to a color to determine the best red for the job.

Will begins the lesson using Cadmium Red Light.  This will not produce a bright pink as Cadmium Red Light has an orange bias to it and as you will see, the addition of white will dull this mixture considerably.

The Cadmium Red Medium is also not a very good choice as it will also dull considerably when mixed with white.

The Permanent Alizarin Crimson is  better than the first two.  You wouldn’t think it would be when you compare these colors straight from the tube.  The Permanent Alizarin maintains its intensity better with the addition of white.

The Alizarin Crimson Hue appears to lean more towards a purple with the addition of white, especially when you compare it to the Cadmium Red.

Finally we arrive at our last color, Quinacridone Red.  This color appears to be the best choice when you want a bright pink on your palette as it stays the brightest with the addition of titanium white.   Enjoy the lesson!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGRRj8Wn_5w

A big thanks to Will Kemp for sharing this wonderful video demo.  Check out his YouTube Channel Here for more free videos like the one above.  You can also visit his Website Here for more great resources from Will

Here is a wonderful video created by Artist and Instructor Will Kemp from Will Kemp Art School.  In this video, he will teach you how to create a variety of beautiful greens using acrylic paints.

If you spend any time outdoors observing nature, then you must already know the variety of greens that are there.  There are warm yellow greens, cool blue greens, bright greens and dull greens.  So you may find it rather challenging when it comes time to mix your own greens out of acrylic paint.  There are some beautiful tubed greens on the market, but to really match the vast amount of greens that appear in nature, you must learn how to mix your own.

By the way, this video will work just as well with Oil Paints.  While we are on the topic , you may want to also check out another post I put together a while back on mixing greens here.  You may also want to check out a fantastic DVD created by my good friend Richard Robinson called Mastering Color.  Back to the lesson at hand.

For this particular demonstration, Will is using Golden Heavy Body Acrylics, which are fantastic paints.  If you haven’t tried them out yet, you can buy them online here at a great price.

The colors you will need if you will be following along are Burnt Umber, Cadmium Yellow Light, Carbon Black, Ultramarine Blue and Pthalo Blue (Green Shade).  These 5 colors alone will produce a wonderful variety of greens.

After you have gone through this exercise, try the exercise again only try using different colors.  You could use a different yellow for instance or perhaps a different blue.  Try adding oranges like Burnt Sienna or Cadmium Orange.  You will be amazed at the endless amount of greens you can create.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiH3k41YY_E

A big thanks to Will Kemp for sharing this wonderful video demo.  Check out his YouTube Channel Here for more free videos like the one above.  You can also visit his Website Here for more great resources from Will.

About Karin

Karin Wells is an artist of amazing versatility. She graduated with honors from both the New England School of Art and Design, Boston, 1965, and the Butera School of Art, Boston, 1986. Karin has enjoyed a career as an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and sign painter. She also taught Life Drawing and Painting for many years. She has most recently studied for three years at The New England School of Classical Painting in Greenfield, New Hampshire, under the direction of Numael Pulido.

To expand her craft, Karin has traveled throughout Europe studying the Old Masters. Her art reflects the deep influence of these great works. Karin demonstrates a remarkable facility for likeness and for the use of light.

The artist is a member of The American Society of Portrait Artists, Portrait Society of America, The Portrait Society of Atlanta, and The Copley Society of Boston.

To learn more about Karin and to view more of her amazing work, be sure to visit her website and blog by following the links below:

Website: http://www.karinwells.com/

Blog: http://karinwells.blogspot.com/

If you would like to be notified when Karin updates her blog, be sure to click the “Follow” link in the upper left hand corner of her blog.

How Ivory Black + White = Blue

With the “Earth Palette” I can use a mixture of Ivory Black and Titanium White to make what appears to be the color blue. When using an earth palette, this mixture does NOT make gray, really! All of the so-called “blue” in my paintings are made from this and you can see it in the examples below.

In fact the blue from an Ivory Black and White mixture is so “electric” I often need to tone it down by adding some reds and/or yellows.

If I wish to deepen and enrich an area of this mixture of “blue,” I could glaze a little French Ultramarine or Prussian Blue over it….but rarely, if ever, need to do this.

None of the examples below have any glazed colors to make the blues look bluer – they are all a black/white mixture – and most have yellow or red added to calm it down.

The drapery behind the figure is purely black + white. The black/white mixture in the sky is cut with raw umber and raw sienna.

I added a little red into these black and white mixtures to get a blue that is a bit on the purple side.

The sky is basically black and white with some reds added for warmth near the horizon line. I darkened and slightly neutralized the blue at the top of the canvas so as not to draw the eye upwards.

Again, the black/white mixture needed to be cut with raw sienna because it was much too bright for a background.

I began the blue checkered tablecloth by mixing a thin glaze of French Ultramarine + Ivory Black to sketch in a pattern of checks over a plain white painted cloth underneath.

When it was dry, I matched the paint value with the black/white mixture and covered it up in order to create the ilusion of a blue checkered tablecloth.

Of course, the shadow areas were a darker black/white mixture with raw sienna added for warmth (shadows are supposed to be warm).

Take a peek at my black & white sky at:

http://karinwells.blogspot.com/2008/03/cliff-landscapes.html

With this particular earth palette, I cannot paint a landscape and make a sky look “natural” if I use any blue paint on my canvas.

When I was learning to paint, I copied the Old Masters – I especially learned most of what I know from Vermeer. I quickly learned that I was unable to duplicate the colors unless I eliminated the blues.

About The Artist

Carol Santora, PSA, has loved animals of all kinds since she was a child, and remembers always wanting to be an artist. She had numerous well-used Jon Gnagy drawing kits and would copy pictures from magazines and sketch things around her home.

Santora (BFA, summa cum laude, Framingham State University) began her formal art training in 1983, while working as a registered nurse. One thing she wanted to learn to paint desperately was her dog, Flossie. After that first successful portrait, Santora realized she had a special talent and passion for animal and wildlife portraiture. Over the next 20 years, Santora would explore oil and watercolor painting before settling on soft pastel as her perfect medium. She painted landscapes and still-lifes, studied human portraiture and the figure, but the animals kept calling to her and appearing in her work.

Santora’s intimate portraits are insightful interpretations that express her passion for animals with excitement and energy by pushing the boundaries of color. She visits farms, rescues and wildlife areas in New England and out West to study and photograph her subjects. She takes hundreds of photographs and spends countless hours watching the animals that inspire her paintings. Her work is grounded in representation, but she is not bound by that. As she works, a completely realistic depiction gives way to a more artistic, contemporary rendering that serves her colorist and expressive purposes….

Learn more about Carol and see more of her work at her Website:

http://carolsantora.com/

Pastel Painting Demo of a Snow Leopard

The following step by step pastel demonstration of a snow leopard in soft (dry) pastel by Carol Santora, PSA, includes completing a Drawing and Sketch, the underpainting, the actual painting in pastel and final adjustments.

Carol Santora, PSA, is an award-winning, contemporary animal artist living in Kennebunk, Maine, specializing in animal and wildlife paintings and pet portraits of cows, horses, sheep, farm and domestic animals, dogs and cats, the big cats, moose, bear in pastel and acrylic.

Step 1 – Drawing/Sketch

I observed and photographed this female snow leopard, Cloe, during my recent photo shoot at Big Cat Rescue in Florida. The snow leopard is one of the most elegant and elusive of all the great cats. It is very rare to encounter one in the wild. There are only an estimated 4,500 to 7,000 of these big cats left in the wild.

“The snow leopard is an endangered big cat that inhabits the rugged and mountainous terrain of Central Asia and the Himalayan region. It is currently threatened by hunting for the illegal wildlife trade and revenge killings by herders; habitat loss; and diminished food supply.” WorldWildlife.org

This leopard shyly, inch by inch, crept from her cave and intently stared at me, to check me out.

"Step 1 - Drawing" graphite on paper, 24"x18"

Step 2 – Underpainting

I transferred my drawing onto Wallis museum grade sanded pastel paper with a 3H graphite pencil. Working upright on an easel, I blocked in the darks with a dark blue hard pastel, then sprayed the sheet while laying it flat, with water. Once the image is dry, I can begin adding color.

As you can see, I have blocked in my middle tone areas with NuPastels, a harder soft pastel stick. I work back and forth from one area to another, from mid-tone darks to mid-tone lights building up the image in my preliminary base colors. I usually wait until closer tot he end of the painting to put in the eyes, however for demonstartion purposes, I have painted them sooner.

Another note… I routinely tint my Wallis paper with cadmium red light or cadmium orange acrylic ink before beginning a wildlife pastel painting, however, with Cloe, I wanted to her on the white background.

"Step 2 - Underpainting"

Step 3 – Painting

I finished blocking in the background darks very loosely and then layered lighter colors on top in various shades over selected areas to create the rock colors and texture. I did not want to overwork the rock den.

I also varied the pressure of my pastel stick and used softer pastels. I stepped back often to see my work. Lastly, I added the darkest darks and the lightest lights very sparingly to make the cat pop.

I will look at this now in my studio for several days to make adjustments if necessary.

"Step 3 - painting"

Step 4 – Adjustments

I left this painting hanging in my studio for a few days and made some adjustments including darkening the body at it recedes into the cave, refining the paws and rocks. I will continue to make minor changes if necessary, but at this point am very happy with it and can settle down to titling it!

"On Alert" soft pastel, 24"x18"