EXPERIMENTING WITH GREENS

EXPERIMENTING WITH GREENS

Why green? Because you can hardly paint anything without needing a good green, but it is SO easy to kill your painting with too much or too boring a green. 

Here is a way to discover the world of greens without making boring color swatches.

Start out with an abstract drawing as in my April 13 blog.

Use triangles, circles, squares, of all sizes overlapping them until they make an interesting drawing.

Instead of using primary colors, as in the April blog, use three blues and three yellows. Try phthalo, French ultramarine, cobalt, Cerulean, or manganese for blues; hansa, new gamboge, cadmium yellow, quinacridone gold, or even raw sienna for yellows. (as long as there is a variety of warms and cools of both colors)

STEP ONE

Wet one of the larger shapes and paint it wet into wet with pthalo.

While wet, drop (“charge”) one yellow into one corner, another yellow into another corner, and a third yellow into another area. Allow the center to remain blue.

Repeat this in two other shapes, using a different blue for each base.

You should be able to see what kind of greens each combination will make.

STEP TWO

Wet a shape with one of the yellows. Then drop each of the three blues into

the yellow to see the reactions.  Allow the center to remain yellow. Repeat for the other yellow shades.

You should now have six shapes colored in.

STEP THREE

Wet a shape. Drop a blue in one area, and yellow into another. Then add

either a red, orange, burnt sienna, or purple to see what happens to your green.

Experiment with other shapes.

STEP FOUR

Hopefully you have at least six shapes left. Leave at least three small shapes

to the end.

In at least three shapes, choose to make three or more different greens and mix them

On your palette instead of “charging” wet-into-wet.  This will give a very flat appearance

Compared to those done wet-into-wet, but it makes for a good comparison. Sometimes you want a flat effect.

STEP FIVE

Finish up your painting leaving some white spaces and using reds or oranges to fill

in some small spaces. This will accent your greens. Use these complimentary colors to make your design have some “pop.”

(I think my example looks like a cubistic monkey~!)

LAST STEP:

Top it off by glazing over areas with a stripe of red, orange, or violet. Notice how much it neutralizes the greens.