Still More About Color
Since I wrote the first blogs on color I’ve received several requests for clarification / elaboration. Here are a few additional thoughts:
First, the world is much grayer than we think. When I first tried to paint a Fall landscape, I used bright cadmium colors straight out of the tube. I was shocked and disappointed to see the garish mess I had created. With more experience I started to see how unsaturated the colors really were.
Look at the detail and then the full painting below it.
A second problem is that we tend to over-do our values (resulting in a “spotty” painting.) At the same time the tendency is to over-simplify the color…probably a hold over from the “grass is green, skies are blue, skin is pink” phase we went through as children. We want to do exactly the opposite: keep our values tight and show all the beautiful nuance of color shifts as light dances around the form. Again look at the close up and the full painting.
An easy way to get those color variations is to mix one puddle for the flesh in the light. Part of the puddle will be greener, part will lean towards ochre, part will be redder etc. (Don't make up those colors; scan and observe the shifts in the various planes of the face). My painting improved dramatically when I disciplined myself to mix puddles.
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