Variation - How to mix colors and improve your paintings skills

How to mix colors?

You get 2 colors, then you use a tool to stir them together, until the color changes.

Just kidding? Lighten up, art is suppose to be fun. Stop using the same colors, over and over.

Stop trying to get the exact color that you want. If you are real obsessive about the exact color that you want, you are going to continue to mix the same colors over and over. There are a bi- zillion colors and your mind can only conceive a few.

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Warm and cool colors

We are going to discuss greens, I think they are the toughest colors to master. Why? Because, there are so many greens in nature. In a summer landscape, the ground and all the trees are green. That can practically be the whole painting. If you don't have color Variation, your painting can quickly become one big blob of green. You need to have warm greens and cool greens.

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Warm Green

A warm green may be a green to the brown side, you can accomplish this with a touch of red.

It could be an olive green, you can get an Olive color by mixing a Blue, with an Ochre. Ochre, really is a yellow to the brown side. On a green tree, you can use pure yellow to highlight the top of the tree or a few leaves. It will be read by the brain as a green that is in light.

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Cool Green

Well, that's a piece of cake. A lot of greens are already to the cool side. Most people need to focus on getting more warm greens. In all likely hood, if you are looking at your painting and saying," There is something wrong, it's just so green", you probably don't have enough warm colors or darks.

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Darks and Lights

I can say this with confidence, you need more darks in your painting. The applies to every area of your painting, but we are talking about greens.

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Darks

Mix your green with a dark blue(Cooler), a dark brown(warmer),a black (cooler), a purple which is blue and red( cool, but warmer than blue because of the red).
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Lights

Do all of the above and add white, maybe lots of white and some yellow. If you are painting with watercolor, you do this by using less pigment and letting the white of the paper show through.

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I understand, but exactly which colors should I use?

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This is the question you want to ask, and also your biggest obstacle. Having someone tell you, 2 parts Ochre and one part Ultramarine, is keeping you stuck right where your are. You have to experiment with colors and explore all the different combinations that you can come up with. It will become part of you, only when you do, and discover on your own. Your mistakes will teach you what not to do. The more you do on your own, the more proud you'll be with the finished painting.

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The Example

Notice the painting below

The yellowish grass in the distance reads as Green, highlighted by the sun.

The dark trees in the back looks almost black, but reads as green in shadow.

None of the greens are straight out of the tube, they have all been mixed.

The grass, trees, and water are green, but are all slightly different greens.

There are a lot of dark areas of green

There are light green areas where the sun is shining.

You are not overwhelmed with any one particular green.
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Cloud Movements
24 x 36
by artist Derek Collins
Large canvas acrylic cloud painting river and trees

To see in greater detail , click the link, then click the painting twice