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.
