I am so excited to start this next series of videos.   I will be working with a very limited palette of just 3 colours.  We have all heard that you can make every colour you need with literally one Red, one Blue and one Yellow .   But alas that doesn't always seem to work out well.  My plan for the first part of the fall/winter is to explore this notion.  This is the first video in a mini-series of 4 videos. 

The Colours:  Alizarin Crimson Hue (Liquitex), then Ultramarine Blue (Golden) and the last Cadmium Yellow Light (Golden). All the paints I use are heavy body.

Today I am working solely on mixing between the primaries to create secondary colours of Orange, Purple and Green.

Make your own pretty rainbow tessellation!  Download the image below, print it and transfer to the super inexpensive watercolour paper.  The measurements are on the image.   Remember to draw a line through the centre to create 12 sections.  :) 

Let's get going!

Here is the set up as I prepare to start mixing! Yellow to Red, Red to Blue, Blue to Yellow.

Cadmium Yellow Light (CYL) squeezes out of the tube at Value 9, but Alizarin Crimson Permanent Hue (AC) is a Value 2. To keep to the 12 segments I needed to do 3 mixtures between each of the primaries.   With the Yellow to Red  I chose to focus on mixing to actual values.  I mixed to Value 7, Value 5.5 and Value 4. 

We are now on to Red to Blue.  Here I had to adopt a different way of mixing the colours.  As we know AC is at Value 2, but Ultramarine Blue (UB) starts off at Value 1.   Trying to match a value isn't going to work when both paints start off so dark. The first mixture I  chose to do 2 parts AC + 1 part UB, the middle mixture were equal parts AC + UB, and the third mixture was 1 part AC + 2 parts UB.  Keep it simple!

Finally to close the circle  we will be mixing the Blue to Yellow.  Back to using value when mixing .  UB is Value 1, CYL is Value 9 and the mixtures are Value 3, 5 and 7.  Easy peasy.  

Here is the quick view of building the Flower Tessellation.  

The challenge very dark paints and the mixes one makes from them, is that you can't really see what the colour is.  Is the purple more red or more blue.  To fix that I simply took a bit of the dark mixtures and added white.   Below you can see that I painted those lightened values at the tip of the colour.  

This weeks video I am making a YRMBCG aka "YURMBY" Gurney Colour Wheel.  What does YRMBCG work out to you ask?  Yellow/Red/Magenta/Blue/Cyan/Green is the answer! This colour wheel is based on a 6 primary colour system of Cyan/Magenta/Yellow (CMY) and Red/Blue/Green (RBG).   Photography and printing use the CMYK (K = Black) set of colours in their processes and the RBG colour set is used in computers and lighting as their primaries. 

I found the idea of working with 6 primary colours fascinating. There is a lot of information as I move forward that I hope to explore and dabble in. I have begun a new playlist on YouTube called "Playing with Colour".  My plan this winter to just to play.  Playing with different paint combinations where I will have fun with value scales charts, complimentary combination charts and, do a range of colour studies too. 

In the ten years since I started painting full time I have not done much playing.  I have worked hard to understand a limited palette of warm/cool paint colours as quickly as I could. This allowed me to really focus on design, value, chroma, and brushwork.  I think I have gained enough skills that it is time to go back to playing for a bit and see how I can expand my skills in new directions. 

There is great learning in being playful which allows one to learn new things. It turns out if a person is just playing, there is no expectation of success. What a pleasing way to bring old ways and new ways together.  I hope you will join me in this delightful exploration.  It is going to be a lot of paint mixing which always makes my heart beat faster!   

With that in mind...let's get going.  ​

Supplies needed:  23x30cm  (9x12in) inexpensive watercolour paper
                                 Protractor
                                 Compass 
The first step is to draw the outside diameter of the circle 21cm (8 1/2in), find the centre 10.5cm (4 1/4in).  For all the other measurements download the middle image as it has all the dimensions to help create the colour wheel.  The far right is the completed Blank Colour Wheel that is ready to start working with.  

Paint the 3cm centre circle with Neutral Grey Value 5.

The paint colours I chose to use for this colour wheel are:  Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Medium, Alizarin Crimson Hue (Liquitex), Quinacridone Magenta, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Teal, Permanent Green Light.

Cyan/Magenta/Yellow - Cobalt Teal/Quinacridone Magenta/Cadmium Yellow Light. 

Red/Blue/Green -  Cadmium Red Medium /Ultramarine Blue/Permanent Green Light. 

​The vast majority of the paint I use is Golden Acrylic Heavy Body paint, unless noted. 

You will notice in the video that I am lowering the chroma of the Cadmium Yellow Light (CYL) with the neutral grey as I have done before, but this time I am stepping down the value in the neutral greys as well as the chroma until the last mixture is close to the middle circle which is nearing Value 5.  CYL starts off as Value 9, I use the corresponding value in the first chroma adjustment.  There are 9 steps in the after that I use Value 8 twice, Value 7 twice, Value 6 and then to Value 5 which matches the centre of the colour wheel.

Cadmium Orange starts at a Value 7, which is also the value that has the highest Chroma.  The first few steps are with Neutral Grey Value 7, then on to 6 and the last few are done with Value 5.  

The next two colours are Quinacridone Magenta and Dioxazine Purple.  Both these colours need to be brought up to a Value 4 which is the most chromatic point for them.  I am still using Value 5 in the Neutral Grey to change the chroma. 

 The left side is Ultramarine Blue, using white to bring it up to Value 4 from Value 1.  Continuing on with the Value 5 Neutral Grey as we go down the sections towards the centre.  

The second blue I created is a mixture of Ultramarine Blue (V-1) and Cobalt Teal (V-6) mixed to a value 4 before I began the journey to lower the chroma.  

Cobalt Teal is on the left.  Straight out of the tube is is Value 6.  I used Neutral Grey Value 6 at the start of the string but about the 4th step I moved to the Neutral Grey Value 5 to the centre of the Colour Wheel. 

Now we mix Permanent Green Light with the Cobalt Teal.  Both colours are value 5, which is why I chose the Permanent Green Light over Phthalo Green Blue (V-1), which would have worked perfectly fine.  But why do the extra mixing because I would have had to add white to bring the value up to 4.  It turns out that if there is another option that gets one to the place they want to be  faster, then take it for simplicities sake.  One goal is to keep things as simple as possible.   

Well here we are at the final two sections of our Gurney Colour Wheel.  On the left is Permanent Green Light (V-5) as we step down the chroma.  

The last segment is a combination of Permanent Green Light (V-5) and Cadmium Yellow Light (V-9).  We will mix these two together until the mixture is at Value 7.  Now we have to remember that the first two or three will be done with the Neutral Grey Value 7 to change the chroma, then move to Value 6, and finally the last three are with Value 5. 

And here is the final colour wheel.  I do have some plans for using this colour wheel in future videos...watch for it in the spring. 

In this video I will be mixing a range of different paint colour combinations to create Black. I have chosen to focus in on using 3 complimentary options: Blue/Orange, Red/Green and Purple/Yellow.  

Also as a bonus I will be sharing the two paint colours that Robert Bateman shared during his 2019 Master Class in Victoria.  :) I wrote down the colours he said but have never mixed the colours until I was making this video.  

Let's start with Blue and Orange.  I chose to do two combinations with the same Blue (Ultramarine Blue - value 1) but different Orange paints.  Paints you might not necessarily think of as orange. 

The first Orange I will be using Burnt Umber.   You can see below on the Pigment Colour Wheel that the arrow from the Cadmium Orange to Burnt Umber goes straight towards the centre of the colour wheel.  This means that Burnt Umber is indeed a very low chroma orange.  The second consideration is that Burnt Umber straight out of the tube is value 2, Chroma 1.  It helps to have a very dark value paints when trying to mix for a Black.

The second mixture is created with the same Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Sienna - (value 3 Chroma 4).  Burnt Sienna is way more chromatic (colourful) than Burnt Umber, also its value is 1 step lighter.  But it again works wonderfully well for making a very dark colour. 

The Alizarin Crimson Permanent paint I use is made of two different pigments.  The brand I prefer is Liquitex.  My goal always with paint is to have the least amount of pigments in a mixture.  Below you can see the two different pigments that went into creating the Alizarin that I use.  I put arrows to where on the pigment chart I feel the Alizarin Crimson Permanent would land.  It has more blue tendencies, so closer to the quinacridone magenta but with enough of the Quinacridone Maroon to bring the pigment away from the very purple undertones of the quin magenta.  

Now on to the Yellow/Purple.  This one was the least successful.  I got beautiful blacks out of the Blue/Oranges & Red/Greens.   I chose to use a Raw Umber, which a low chroma Yellow that is value 2, chroma 1 to mix with the Dioxazine Purple.  No matter how much Raw Umber, or how much Dioxazine Purple I mixed in I couldn't get to a grey.  Can you see what colour is underrepresented?  Below is the answer...

Blue.  There is not enough blue.  The Red/Green & Blue/Oranges are very well matched for the three primaries of Red/Blue/Yellow.  But Dioxazine Purple is surprisingly red dominated.  :) There is no way that I could get a proper Black out of the Yellow/Purple combination that I used. 

In 2019 I was so fortunate to take a Master Class with Robert Bateman.  He was on the cusp of turning 89 and he was hard to keep up with. The class started at 9am until 12 noon, 2 to 5pm and 7 to 9:30 pm.  Wow Wow Wow.  

I go back through my notes regularly.  He shares his regular paint palette and how he gets the Bateman Blue and Green.  And he shared the two colours he uses for creating a value 2 Black.  Until now I have never mixed the paints together to see how it would work!

He  uses Payne's Grey and Yellow Ochre.  What a surprising combination! And best of all, it worked out really well.  I guess after over 70 years of painting Robert Bateman knows his paint! 

This week I am sharing a simple tip that will bring acrylic paint that has become thicker, almost jelly-like to a more normal consistency for painting with. ​

The first paint is Ultramarine Violet, the second paint is a rather old tube of Quinacridone Blue Violet and the last one is Alizarin Crimson Permanent.   

I put a small amount down to incorporate it into the paint and the repeat until the paint looks as smooth as possible. 

There is  friction created by the palette knife  which also helps to smooth the paint more.  

See how much smoother the Alizarin Crimson Permanent is?  The Quinacridone Blue Violet is better than it started but I decided to toss that particular tube away...it took far to long to 'save'.  

​This is the final video for ACRYLIC PAINTING 101: Basics for Beginners. I was asked  by SassyCat over on YouTube if I do Complementary mixing or added Black to create darker colours.  I don’t generally add Black to change the value of a paint because it is a low chroma Blue.  And though Black paint will darken the colour, I find it changes the colour in ways that are not always what I want. 
 
There are times that I do use complimentary mixing but generally that is with watercolour, not acrylic.
 
In this lesson we will explore complimentary colours of Cadmium Yellow Light to Dioxazine Purple in the form of a Chroma Chart.

​Gather your chart (which you can download HERE), your Value Scale, paper palette, palette knife, a brush, and the paint…let’s get going. 

​We will begin with placing the Cadmium Yellow Light (Value 9) on the far left and Dioxazine Purple  (Value 1) on the far right.   

​Using the Value Scale begin by adding a very small amount of the Purple to the Cadmium Yellow Light to bring to Value 8, then repeat until the mixture is at a Value 7 and so on until there are 9 paint mixtures. 

Below add the same values 9 to 1 of the Neutral Grey (from Lesson 8 HERE) on the bottom of the palette. 

​The focus on this chart is to create a Chroma version of the Complimentary Colour Chart.  Taking the Neutralized Grey Value 9 and start mixing it into the pure Cadmium Yellow Light as we are not changing the value just the chroma.

Work all the way across the 9 piles until the chart has been filled.
 
Now it is time to compare the Chroma Chart from this lesson with a Value Chart using the very same two colours - Cadmium Yellow Light and Dioxazine Purple. 

As always with the Chroma Chart the value is the same from the top to the bottom...all that happens is a Neutral Grey of the same value is added which changes the chroma only.  

The Value Chart there is white added to lighten each of the colours mixed from Yellow on the left to Purple on the right. 

Below is the Chroma Chart and Value Chart for Cadmium Yellow Medium and Dioxazine Purple.  

Here is the last Yellow that I played with - Yellow Ochre with both a Chroma Chart and Value Chart

I hope that this lesson was helpful.  Below is the link to the chart measurements and the Youtube video.  

In todays video we are bringing together all that we have learned in the previous videos that are part of the ACRYLIC PAINTING 101 series.  We will be painting our final lemon.  It took me about 3 1/2 hours to do this 13x18 cm (5x7in) painting.  

I used Cadmium Yellow Medium value string for this painting as I did in the colour study!  Check out how to make the value string in Lesson 9: VIDEO/ BLOG

Draw a grid on your board of 3cm (1 1/4in) very lightly with a pencil. Using a kneaded eraser to remove enough of the graphite to ensure that the lines are faint, so that you can barely see them.  There will be just enough graphite left to be able to see but not have the lines show through the yellow paint.

​Begin to draw the elements using a very loose raw umber.  I am using my favourite brush for this: Princeton Dakota Flat 2. I put registration marks where the lemon sections intersects with the grid. 

Now we are nearing the end of the drawing. Take a few minutes to let the raw umber dry and using the kneaded eraser remove all the lines as best you can.

On to the first pass of paint.  Remember this is where we just get the information down to the best of our ability.  This  will help us when we do the next layer of painting.   When you come for the second pass then decisions about value and so forth are easier to see what is correct and what needs tweaking.

​Building up the subtle shifts of value on the lemon slice.  As the light comes through the lemon slice there is a lovely glow

On to the second pass  on the lemon where we shift the values and correct the shapes that we put down during the initial pass. 

Tweaking the edges as the painting nears completion.  

 The final highlights. And the lemon is completed!  

"A taste of Lemon", 13x18cm (5x7in) Acrylic on Masonite Board.

We are nearing the end of this particular journey.  In this lesson I want to introduce you to the idea of doing a colour study prior to starting your next painting.  It has turned out to be such an invaluable learning tool for me.  

Below is the Cadmium Yellow Medium value string that you will need to create to do this painting.  I think in the video I thought the colour I had used was Cad Yellow Light...but I was wrong.  I corrected that mistake.  

Cadmium Yellow Medium starts at a Value 8, add white to bring up the value to 9, and a 50/50 mixture of Raw Umber and Burnt Umber to bring the value down to Value 3.  Don't worry about Value 1 & 2 as I found that I didn't hardly drop down to value 4 while painting.  

Below is the colour study that I completed.  It measures 7 x 12.5 cm (2 3/4 x 5 in).  It is simple and took just 30 minutes to complete.  A small amount of extra time is so worthwhile to ensure that you will be happy with the final larger painting that will be 17.5x12.5cm (7x5in).

​I have a pdf download of the lemons for both the small colour study and the final painting.  Link is below

This weeks video has 4 parts:

Part 1 - We look at a round object with the descriptive language we will use when thinking about light.
 
Part 2 - We explore how a change of value on the ground impacts the light reflecting back into the object.  We will be using two spheres with different Local Values. Local Value just means the value of the actual sphere without bright light on it.
 
Part 3 -  We examine the Modelling Factors responsible for creating the illusion of form on a 2-dimensional board.  There will be the various values we will need to create.

Part 4 - Is where we shall draw and paint the sphere from the image you can download HERE

PART ONE - Light on a round object.

It is important to remember the sphere has two ways to graduates in two directions:  Top to Bottom and Side to Side. 
 
The sphere is a local value 8, meaning that the whole object is value 8 before there is light shining brightly on it. 
 
There is Direct Light on the left Side Plane.
 
The Top Plane there is Indirect Light
 
The right Side Plane is the Shade
 
In the right Under Plane there is Reflected Light bouncing back off the ground.
 
In the Shade area the darkest part is the Core Shadow.
 
Falling behind the sphere is the Cast Shadow
 
Finally, we have the occlusion or accent shadow directly under the sphere where the ground and the sphere meet.
 
 
PART TWO – How the ground value affects a round object.

In part two the value of the ground that the sphere is resting on will be changed.  Each value change will impact the light distribution in the under plane  and on  the right side plane that is the shade side.

​PART 3 – MODELLING FACTORS

To create the illusion of form on a 2-dimensional painting surface you will need at the very least 3 value shifts.  In this case we are doing a sphere so we will need 3 values for the light area and 3 values for the dark area. 

The Modelling terms we shall use consistently are as follows:

The LIGHT area:                   Light Light - LL
                                               Medium Light - ML
                                               Dark Light - DL
 
A transition value:               HALFTONE:  HT
 
The dark SHADOW:             Light Dark - LD
                                                Medium Dark - MD
                                                Dark Dark – DD
 
Finally the last light factor:   HIGHLIGHT - HL


PART 4 – PAINTING THE SPHERE

Now we are on to the final step....painting the sphere.  In this part of the blog there are images that take us step by step through the process. 

Step 0: make the 1/2 step neutral value paints 

Step 3: Decide the Middle Dark, Dark Dark & Light Dark Values.  Paint the full  Shade side in the Middle Dark value.

Step 4: Decide the values for the Light Light, Middle Light and Dark Light for the light area of the sphere.  Paint the three values on the light side, starting with the Light Light, then to the Dark Light along the edge of the shade side, in between paint the Middle Light value.

Step 5: Soften the edges between the Light Light, Middle Light and Dark Light paints.  You can do that by using the 1/2 step value that goes between...so if your light is Value 9 the next 1/2 step is Value 8.5 that will sandwich between Value 8 and Value 9 perfectly.  ​

Step 6:   Here we use the Winsor Newton One Stroke brush to soften between the values.  Add small amounts of paint and use the brush to move the paint around.  

Make sure that you take the time you need to until  you are happy with the modelling on the light part of the sphere 

Step 7 - Create the half tone.  In the video I used the Middle Dark and the Dark Light to create the half tone.  I think that it may have been easier to use a Value that is a 1/2 step darker than the Dark Light Value.  Give that a try. 

Step 8: Paint in the cast shadow. 

Step 9: Paint in the Dark Dark into the shadow side where you see the darkest value in the Core Shadow. 

We are nearing the end.  

Step 10: Put in the Reflected Light in the left underside of the sphere. Mine could have been just a little lighter, go with what you feel looks best. 

Step 11: Place the occlusion (accent or crevasse) shadow at the base of the sphere.  This is the darkest part of the whole painting.  

Step 12: Paint the background with a second pass focusing in on cleaning up the edges of the sphere and its cast shadow. Remember to turn the board/canvas as you work along to make it easier for yourself. 

Every time I teach this beginner acrylic painting course, I remember that there are a lot of people who want to paint landscapes.  Realistic greens can be a challenge to figure out for new painters.  This lesson is about a simple combination of colours that create a perfect green that is a great place to start working from. 
 
The chart is the same one we used in Lessons 4 and 5 to create a Colour Chart.
 
The colours we will be using for this lesson is Cadmium Yellow Light and Bone (Ivory) Black.  Black is a low chroma Blue.  If you put yellow and blue together, what do you get? Green.  Because Black is a low chroma Blue using Black to bring down the chroma/value of a paint doesn’t always work out so well as it will change the hue at the same time.
 
We will also be using the Neutral Grey paint mixtures that we created in Lesson 8. VIDEO & BLOG Post!

I would recommend caution when using photos to match your greens too.  I have found that the greens can be too chromatic (very garish) and often too blue   If you have a simple photo editing program on your computer you can lower the saturation on the image which will result in a much better image to work from.

​Cadmium Yellow Light starts at Value 9 straight out of the tube.  We will only be going to Value 2 because there are only 8 spaces across the full chart. 

There are so many beautiful colours in this chart.  I can see early spring green when the leaves are just unfurling after a very long cold winter. I can’t wait!  Soon! 
 
Then as the spring turns to summer, the leaves turn to darker greens.   
 
Now I don’t live where Silver Birches grow but I do remember them from my childhood.  If you know what the backside of the Silver Birch leaves look like…can you see that colour in this chart?
 
Can you see the colour that would be the sun shining through the leaves?
 
I would recommend making full tubes of the value paint mixtures from Value 8 to 2.  It will give you a great starting place and save a lot of mixing time.  Then you can drop the chroma by adding in the matching value of Neutral Grey paint.  
 
Here is the series of paintings that I did with this green mixtures.