Increasing colours by decreasing colours

How to expand your colour range by using less colours!

If you have followed this blog for a while you will know that I am constantly experimenting with colour. I am also searching for the best and simplest kit to take with me when I paint en Plein Air. Now and again these two obsessions meet, and this is the subject of this post.

I have just been re-reading Kevin MacPherson’s wonderful book, Fill Your Oil Paintings With Light and Colour, and he advocates using a very limited range of colours. His choice is ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow pale and white). That’s it.

Now I thought my range was limited (ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, cadmium red, cadmium yellow light, plus two earth colours, yellow Ochre and burnt sienna, and of course titanium white.) The earth colours are a quick short cut to these neutral yellow and reds, and I use them all the time. But he suggests getting rid of these and mixing all the secondary and tertiary (muted) colours from just the primaries.

Why would you do this? When you are out painting and time is already short, why spend time mixing up a colour that you already have in a tube? It seems like madness! The only way to find out was to give it a go.

So I laid out his choice of colours (circled above in red), plus cerulean blue that I really need for the Mediterranean skies around here, and began to mix the secondary greens, oranges and violets, and then a few muted colours made from the complementaries (a spot of blue in the orange, a hint of violet in the yellow and a touch of green in the red) and suddenly my palette had become a multicoloured thing of beauty. My imagination raced as I realised the potential of making an infinite array of colours instead of relying on old favourites.

No longer was I held back by just grabbing a brush full of yellow ochre and making do with that. I now had to mix this colour and along the way I was creating all sorts of lovely modifications of it, each with it’s own living colour. Now instead of just using burnt sienna as a shorthand, I was able to mix clean variations of this earth colour that sang out because they came from bright and pure primaries.

Yes there is a bit more work involved in the mixing, but I found this to be quite a therapeutic thing to do before settling down to the concentration of the painting process.

Cabreras tank from a bygone age, oil on board 8″X 8″

So, we will see how this goes, but for now I may have found a way of increasing the colour range of my paintings whilst decreasing the number of tubes I carry with me. Win, win I say!

Please give a thumbs up if you found this post helpful and leave any comments in the box below. Thanks. Happy painting!

#enpleinair #art #painting #learningtopaint #oilpainting #colourmixing #KevinMacpherson #artist #paintingtips #colours

The mother of all colours

How to create colour harmony by using a “mother color” in all mixes.

What is colour harmony?

Some paintings thrive on a heady mix of bright saturated colours placed alongside each other. Some colours will clash and others will shout at each other, and the overall effect can be one of colour chaos. Check out the wild paintings of the highly successful Scottish artist Scott Naismith to see what I mean. Somehow in the craziness he creates stunning pictures!

But often we want to paint something that is closer to reality, more muted in colour, and harmonious. This is where the idea of colour harmony comes in. Colour harmony can seem to be a tricky thing to pull off, but there are a couple of simple ways to achieve it.

1. Use a limited colour range (try painting with just one blue, one red, and one yellow – plus white if you paint in oils, gouache or acrylics). This will reduce the number of colours in the painting, and because any secondary or tertiary colours come from just these primaries, then every colour will be in harmony with any other colour.

2. Or use a mother colour. Use one common colour in every mix you make. In my painting at the top of this post I used cadmium red in every single colour mix. This gave an atmospheric feel to the picture (the mountain does glow red some mornings as the sun goes up and I tried to portray this by making every element include a touch of red from the dawning sky). Often you don’t need to add much of the mother colour to the mix, just a tiny touch will shift the colour in that direction. I also chose the mother colour (red) for the sky colour as this also brought harmony to the painting, so don’t be afraid to change things where necessary. Any colours you use should be there to make the painting work, not because they were there in reality!

This painting also has a mother colour of red which again unifies a whole range of other colours. Even the green has a touch of red in it. This effect is great for capturing atmosphere, especially that of the morning or evening light. (Grey days can use a touch of grey in every colour mix!)

I hope you found this helpful.

#art #painting #learningtopaint #colourmixing #Colour #Scottnaismith #artist #mothercolour #paintingtips

You’ve been framed!

How the right frame creates sales

I don’t know if you have ever tried to sell your paintings, or if you give much thought to the way you frame your pictures, but recently I have discovered how the right frame can lead to more sales.

Picture framing can be very costly, and is difficult to do at home without the right equipment. I made the frames above at home using a few basic tools, but they somehow always looked a little less than professional. I sold a few paintings framed in this way, but also received some negative comments about the framing.

So for my last exhibition I splashed out and bought some ready-made frames (below).

I sold five paintings at the exhibition opening, with people commenting on how nice the frames were! A couple of collectors have even now asked me if I can re-frame a number of paintings they have bought from me previously, putting them into these new frames.

So, the expense is worth it! Paying for decent frames, whether ready-made or custom built, really can make the difference between making a sale or not. People are just as interested in the frame as in the painting inside it.

I’d love to hear your experience on this subject and any views you have about the value of a good frame. Please leave a comment below.

#Paintingexhibitions #Sellingpictures #Framingpaintings #Sellingpaintings #Pictureframes