Warm, cool and dark
Posted: May 19, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized 6 CommentsContinuing my series of faded tulips in the garden, today I focused on greens — warm, cool and dark. At this time of year, as the trees start to leaf out, my mind swirls with recipes for mixing greens. I try to avoid the one-dimensional Sap Green and instead combine yellows and blues to create a wider range of hues that go from yellowish to deep blue/green. When the green is too bright I add in a bit of the complementary colour (red) to dull it down, or sometimes Burnt Sienna to give it warmth. For the darkest greens, instead of using a convenience pigment like Deep Sap, I have been experimenting with a mix of Viridian, Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. One word of warning when using Viridian: this isn’t a colour you often find in nature. I usually tame it with some yellow or blue so that I don’t end up with patches of Astroturf in my sketches.
Thanks for the tips on warm and cool greens. It has always been a challenge for me to find variety while painting large patches of leaves. I always appreciate your lessons. Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad it was useful info Bernadette. Watercolour is an endless challenge, isn’t it?
Sounds like good combinations for greens. I have sap green on my palette but mix it with various colors to get varying greens. Love the pops of reds/violets in this!
I do that too Joan, and I do still have it on the palette but I try to get away from using it.
Green has always been a challenge for me. I will certainly try your suggestions-thank you!
Beautiful work, Shari! Thank you for the color mixing tips, I also find that green is a quite a challenge.