Lie to tell a truth. A painting answers only to itself, not the world that inspired it

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2 Lie to tell a truth A painting answers only to itself, not the world that inspired it The light in front of you lasts but a few moments but the painting remains Mitchell Albala

3 The color wheel is good in theory, but has only limited value to the working artist. When you start mixing paints you realize there is a lot of important stuff that it does not handle very well

4 Colors shift all over the place when mixed together, in ways the wheel does not predict Some colors have two or more mixing complements Other colors that should theoretically be complementary do not mix to be a neutral White and Black cause colors to become chalky or dull so how to you make colors lighter or darker?

5 The problem is: artist pigments do not match the standard color wheel in any coherent way

6 Is there a better system than the color wheel?

7 Munsell color system Munsell uses three properties to manage color (value, chroma, hue) It is not a wheel but a 3 dimensional color space The space takes the shape of an irregular cylinder

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9 Example Munsell space

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13 Color Value If you are having trouble mixing a color with exactly the right hue, chroma and value, concentrate on at least getting the value right Value at two levels Value structure of the painting as a whole Value of shapes in the subject There is no such thing as painting what you see

14 Hobbema Monet

15 How to make colors lighter Use white Adding white does raise the value but usually at the expense of chroma Dull chroma is hard to fix If you want to add white and minimize chroma loss, use Flake white or Zinc white Use glazing rather than mixing to adjust hue and chroma

16 Adding Black Did I really just say that? Some people say black is a deadening color and there is no black in nature, and excessive use of it puts a hole in your painting. Hogwash! Rembrant, Caravaggio, da Vinci, Velazquez, etc. relied heavily on black That being said, black does reduce chroma, and causes color shifts and it should be used with care. It is best used the way it was in the 17 th century, to darken earth colors and other low chroma colors

17 Chromatic Black (Gamblin) Chromatic black is black, but it has no black pigment in it. It is made from two perfect complements: Quinacridone Red and Phthalo Emerald. So in essence, Chromatic Black is the perfect complement to all colors. Which means, when it is mixed into any color that mixture moves directly towards neutral, it is grayed without any shift in its hue.

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19 Chroma

20 Identifying Chroma After value, the human visual system emphasizes chroma Always get the chroma right before you worry about hue As with value and hue the simplest way to identify chroma is often in terms of relationships Chroma cluelessness (bias toward brighter colors)

21 Reducing Chroma This is relatively easy since most mixes reduce chroma automatically Mix with a complement Because of peculiarities of colors, mixtures often follow a curved path across the color wheel

22 Increasing Chroma Surround with visual complements Yellow < > purple blue Green yellow < > purple Green < > red purple Blue green < > red Blue < > yellow red Adding a white to dark pigments Glazing over white

23 Hue

24 Before mixing for hue, you must determine what hue you are observing That is often difficult, especially with the dull low chroma colors that predominate in the natural world Tip: when you are waiting for something, practice identifying colors you see around you and decide how you would mix them

25 Richard Schmid s Color Carts

26 Color bias in the primaries The primary colors available to the artist are not pure primaries, all of them have some amount of other colors in them This is why the color wheel can mislead the artist unless they understand the color bias of the primaries they use If you don t know the bias of a particular primary, you can easily test for the bias

27 Testing for Red bias Quinacridone Red / Rose Madder / Cad Red / Cad Red Deep Start with a violet-blue (Ult. Blue) Mix your red samples with it If the result is a bright clear violet, the red is a violet-red If the result is a dull grayed violet, the red is an orange red

28 Testing for Yellow bias Cad Yellow Lt / Naples Yellow / Indian Yellow / Yellow Ochre Start with a green-blue (Cerulean Blue) Mix your yellow samples with it If the result is a bright clear green, the yellow is a green-yellow If the result is a dull grayed green, the yellow is an orange yellow

29 Testing for blue bias Ult. blue / Cobalt blue / Prussian blue / Manganese blue Start with a green-yellow (Cad Lemon) Mix your blue samples with it If the result is a bright clear green, the blue is a green-blue If the result is a dull grayed green, the blue is a violet-blue

30 acknowledgements All the strange hours David Rourke s Blog Blue and Yellow Don t Make Green Michael Wilcox Landscape Painting - Mitchell Albala Traditional Oil Painting Virgil Elliot Alla Prima Richard Schmid Color Choices Steven Quiller Gamblin website:

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