The color green has always been a difficult color for me to handle in my paintings. I have also noticed that many people seem to face the same challenge. I think that the cause of this is that our minds have trained our perception to follow rules such as grass is green, sky is blue, water is blue to extent that we do not see or recognize the fantastic variations in color that actually occur in a field of reeds or a lawn of grass. The result of this is that, until we over come this rule set and learn to truly see what is before us, we often paint fields, lawns, and trees with a uniform and somewhat unexciting green tone.
There are two key aspects to this problem. First, we must learn to ignore our mind's rule of what the color should be and to learn to see the actual color before us. Second we must learn how to use our paints to achieve the color that we are actually seeing. Both aspects of the problem will be discussed in this post.
Let me digress briefly to give a recent personal example of how the mind can trick us in seeing the actual colors that are before us. I was taking a portrait class with Scott Nickerson, where I paintied the following portrait of Bre.
There are two key aspects to this problem. First, we must learn to ignore our mind's rule of what the color should be and to learn to see the actual color before us. Second we must learn how to use our paints to achieve the color that we are actually seeing. Both aspects of the problem will be discussed in this post.
Let me digress briefly to give a recent personal example of how the mind can trick us in seeing the actual colors that are before us. I was taking a portrait class with Scott Nickerson, where I paintied the following portrait of Bre.
In the class we work directly from life without the use of any photographs Bre was wearing a standard light gray hoodie, which I recognized and painted in a gray tone. She was sitting under a very warm light. Suddenly, Scott came by and said you have the color of the hoodie all wrong. It is not gray, but a warm tan color under the very warm light!!! I made the change but could hardly believe it.
At the end of the series of sittings we were allowed to take a photo of the model. Below is my photo. I was shocked when I looked at my photo, as I was inwardly still believing that her hoodies was "really" a somewhat cool light gray. As you can see, my mind had really been playing a game with my perception!
At the end of the series of sittings we were allowed to take a photo of the model. Below is my photo. I was shocked when I looked at my photo, as I was inwardly still believing that her hoodies was "really" a somewhat cool light gray. As you can see, my mind had really been playing a game with my perception!
Another key lesson to learn from this is that the color of the light greatly impacts how we see any local color. Bre's jacket would look entirely different under a cool blue light! This same rule applies to the greens that we paint. The same lawn will look quite different under a warm afternoon sun, as opposed to a cool overcast day or in a shadow area.
Greens have been a good example of this type of problem for me, and i have also observed it widely in others. Recently, I have been working on a large landscape with many types of greens in trees, bushes and a large extensive tailored lawn. One of the source photos for this painting is pictured below.
I decided that once and for all I would use this exercise to fully explore the use of greens and the capabilities of my augmented modern color palette to achieve an exciting use of the color green!
I began by studying how master painters of the past handled the color green in their paintings. I particularly found the paintings of William merit Chase a wonderful example of how to handle the greens found in nature. Pictured are two examples of fields of tall grasses in the beach areas of Long Island.
I began by studying how master painters of the past handled the color green in their paintings. I particularly found the paintings of William merit Chase a wonderful example of how to handle the greens found in nature. Pictured are two examples of fields of tall grasses in the beach areas of Long Island.
More to come on this post, as it is still in preparation! But from what has been posted so far, you can see where it is going. Please check back as I continue to add details! Thanks!
Notice the fascinating variations of green including warm yellow and brown greens to cool red and blue greens of various values and intensities.
One can just see all the variety of shrubs and grasses with various lighting conditions that can be found is a seaside meadow.
On the other hand lets consider a grass lawn. One might be tempted to think that a cut grass lawn would be uniform. However lets look at four examples of Chase's lawn paintings.
One can just see all the variety of shrubs and grasses with various lighting conditions that can be found is a seaside meadow.
On the other hand lets consider a grass lawn. One might be tempted to think that a cut grass lawn would be uniform. However lets look at four examples of Chase's lawn paintings.
Look carefully in detail at each small area of the four lawns above. You will find warm yellow and red greens, and cool red and blue Greens as well as blue reflections of the sky and cloud colors. These variations are the result of factors such as the bumps and gents in the ground surface, the health of the grass is each spot and the lighting on the area. Again, it is these variations that makes these depictions of the lawns so real and identifiable.
The challenge is how can we use our augmented modern color pallet of paints to realistically represent the exciting variations of green that are found in nature.
The challenge is how can we use our augmented modern color pallet of paints to realistically represent the exciting variations of green that are found in nature.
Four Ways of Varying Green
In the following sections I will describe four ways to achieve a variety of greens. These will include:
- Color Mixing
- Layering
- Glazing
- Fan Brush Magic
Color Mixing
Augmented Modern Color Pallet
The color mixing that I will be describing uses my augmented modern color pallet, pictured below. It consists of seven mixing colors, two tinting colors and two shading colors. The mixing colors consist of a warm and a cool version of red, yellow and blue, along with a green.
The color mixing that I will be describing uses my augmented modern color pallet, pictured below. It consists of seven mixing colors, two tinting colors and two shading colors. The mixing colors consist of a warm and a cool version of red, yellow and blue, along with a green.
The diagram depicts the color components of each of the paints. Note that both yellows have color components of yellow, orange and green. However the warm yellow, Hansa Yellow Medium, has more orange and a small amount of green. Whereas the cool yellow, Hansa Yellow Light, has more green and very little orange.
Similarly, the two blues have components of blue, green and violet. However the cool blue, Phthalo Blue/Green Shade, has more green and less violate. Whereas, the warmer blue, Anthraquinone Blue has more vile and less green.
As described in the Color Mixing section of the My Painting Methodology tab of this website, when two colors are mixed they take on the characteristic of the color compost that they share while the others tend to cancel each other out.
Therefore if you want to mix a strong green color you would choose the yellow and blue that have the largest component of green, Hansa Yellow Light and Phthalo Blue. A significantly less brilliant green will result if you mix the yellow and blue that have the smallest component of green, Hansa Yellow Medium and Anthraquinone Blue. You will see examples of this in the color mixing exercises pictured and described below.
Similarly, the two blues have components of blue, green and violet. However the cool blue, Phthalo Blue/Green Shade, has more green and less violate. Whereas, the warmer blue, Anthraquinone Blue has more vile and less green.
As described in the Color Mixing section of the My Painting Methodology tab of this website, when two colors are mixed they take on the characteristic of the color compost that they share while the others tend to cancel each other out.
Therefore if you want to mix a strong green color you would choose the yellow and blue that have the largest component of green, Hansa Yellow Light and Phthalo Blue. A significantly less brilliant green will result if you mix the yellow and blue that have the smallest component of green, Hansa Yellow Medium and Anthraquinone Blue. You will see examples of this in the color mixing exercises pictured and described below.
Color Gamut of the Augmented Modern Color Set
The Color Gamut of a set of paints describes the color pool of all of the possible colors that can be obtained by mixing combinations of the original set of paints. In order to understand the use of the color gamut, we must first define the color wheel depicted below.
The hues, or colors, are represented as spokes of the wheel. You can see that the wheel has been broken into segments of six hues, yellow, orange, red, violet, blue and green. There is a variation in the colors within each segment. For example, in the yellow segment will be a yellow green, moving toward a pure yellow in the middle of the segment, and becoming progressively more of an orange yellow as they move toward the orange segment.
Each spoke of the wheel therefore represents a specific hue or color. In addition there is a change in the chroma or intensity of the hue as you travel along any specific spoke of the wheel. The chroma of a color is a measure of the intensity or brightness/brilliance of a color. A high chroma color is a brilliant/ bright color and a low chroma color is a dull color.
The outside of the color wheel pictured above represents high chroma and the center of the wheel is low chroma. For example, on a red spoke of the wheel, the outer edge would be a brilliant red and as you move down the spoke toward the middle the hue would be come more an more dull with a lower chroma. in the case of the red spoke we would go from a bright red to a duller red to a red brown to a near black at the center.
The chroma of the colors in the augmented modern color pallet are shown in the diagram below.
Each spoke of the wheel therefore represents a specific hue or color. In addition there is a change in the chroma or intensity of the hue as you travel along any specific spoke of the wheel. The chroma of a color is a measure of the intensity or brightness/brilliance of a color. A high chroma color is a brilliant/ bright color and a low chroma color is a dull color.
The outside of the color wheel pictured above represents high chroma and the center of the wheel is low chroma. For example, on a red spoke of the wheel, the outer edge would be a brilliant red and as you move down the spoke toward the middle the hue would be come more an more dull with a lower chroma. in the case of the red spoke we would go from a bright red to a duller red to a red brown to a near black at the center.
The chroma of the colors in the augmented modern color pallet are shown in the diagram below.
The following figure plots each of the mixing colors in the augmented modern color pallet according to its hue and chroma. For example, the Hansa Yellow Medium is an orange yellow so its spoke is near the orange side of the yellow segment. And since Hansa Yellow Medium has a high chroma, aa shown in the chart above, it reside near the outer edge of the color wheel.
Similarly each of the seven colors of the augmented modern color pallet have been positioned on the color wheel above. The four tinting and shading coors have not been shown, but as indicated in the chroma chart, they are all of very low chroma and would reside near the center of the wheel.
The color gamut for this set of seven colors is defined by connecting the points for each of the outermost colors of the set, as has been done in the figure above. Once you have done this, any color that lies inside of this boundary can be mixed by our set of paints. Since our paints have relatively high chroma, our pallet covers a large area of the color wheel, and we can mix a very wide range of colors. For example, all of the earth tones, such as the burnt sienna or raw sienna have a low chroma and reside near the center of the color wheel. and these colors can be easily mixed with our modern color pallet.
This color wheel provides a unique understanding of color mixing. For any two colors positioned on the color wheel by their hue and chroma, mixtures of these two colors will fall on the line that connects the two mixing colors, as depicted on the color wheel below.
This color wheel provides a unique understanding of color mixing. For any two colors positioned on the color wheel by their hue and chroma, mixtures of these two colors will fall on the line that connects the two mixing colors, as depicted on the color wheel below.
In this case we are mixing our warm orange yellow, indicated by O/Y point on the above color wheel, with the warm orange red, indicated by the O/R point on the wheel. All of the possible mixtures will form colors that will fall on the line that connects the points of our two mixing colors. For example as we mix more and more red with our yellow, the resulting colors will move across the line, first a yellow orange through a pure orange and turning into red orange as more red is added.
Below is an example of the mixtures on the lines connecting five external colors defining the boundary of the color gamut for the augmented modern color pallet.
Below is an example of the mixtures on the lines connecting five external colors defining the boundary of the color gamut for the augmented modern color pallet.
Let's now apply this to mixing various greens!
Mixing Greens with the Augmented Modern Color Pallet
Phthalo Blue Mixtures
The chart below depicts mixtures based on the use of the Phthalo Blue and our two yellows.
Mixing Greens with the Augmented Modern Color Pallet
Phthalo Blue Mixtures
The chart below depicts mixtures based on the use of the Phthalo Blue and our two yellows.
The string of mixtures in the left hand column was created from mixtures of Phthalo Blue and Hansa Yellow Medium (O/Y), and represent by the line depicted in the color wheel below.
As you go up the string more yellow was added to the blue.
As indicated in the above chart of paint mixtures, each of the mixtures has been tinted on the left hand side with titanium white and on the right hand side with zinc white. This is to provide examples of how tinting can raise the value of the mixed color. Note that the opaque titanium white tends to give the paint a somewhat chalky pastel characteristic. Whereas the transparent zinc white raises the value without a major impact on the hue.
As indicated in the above chart of paint mixtures, each of the mixtures has been tinted on the left hand side with titanium white and on the right hand side with zinc white. This is to provide examples of how tinting can raise the value of the mixed color. Note that the opaque titanium white tends to give the paint a somewhat chalky pastel characteristic. Whereas the transparent zinc white raises the value without a major impact on the hue.
In the next two columns of the mixture chart, the green mixtures have been mixed with a small amount of the orange red Naphthol Red Light (O/R) and the violet red Quinacridone Magenta (V/R) respectively. The color wheel below shows how these mixtures move the initial green mixtures to the right. As you can see in the chart below the resulting mixtures will reduce the chroma of the initial mixtures since they move the resulting mixture toward the center of the wheel, The violet red mixtures will be duller than the orange red mixtures, since the V/R line is closer to the center of the wheel.. If enough of the reds are added, the initial mixtures will be moved into the brown, gray or back range, as depicted in the chart below.
The fourth column in the mixture chart depicts the mixtures on the Phthalo Blue and the cool green/yellow, Hansa Yellow Light (G/Y). These mixtures involve the yellow and blue paints from the augmented modern color pallet that have the highest content of green. Therefore, the resulting mixed greens are a more pure green, as can be seen by comparing the fourth and first columns of the above mixture chart. The line on the color chart that represents these mixtures is depicted on the color wheel below.
The two right hand columns depict the addition of the O/R and V/R reds to the Phthalo Blue and Hansa Yellow Light mixtures. As discussed above, the addition of the reds will move the mixtures in color space as shown in the following chart.
Anthraquinone Blue Mixtures
The following mixture chart presents mixtures of the warm violet blue, Anthraquinone Blue (V/B), with the warm yellow orange, Hansa Yellow Medium (Y/O) in the first column, and with the cool green yellow, Hansa Yellow Light (G/Y) in the fourth column. As with the previous discussion, these mixtures are then dulled down with the two reds.
Anthraquinone blue has a lower green content that the Phthalo Blue discussed above. Therefore, the resulting mixtures will result in duller greens with less green content. This can be seen by comparing the Anthraquinone Blue mixture chart with the Phthalo blue chart above.
Similarly, when the reds are added to the mixtures the resulting colors are also duller. This can be seen by studying the color weeks for the Anthraquione Blue mixtures shown below and comparing them with the charts for Phthalo Blue above.
Similarly, when the reds are added to the mixtures the resulting colors are also duller. This can be seen by studying the color weeks for the Anthraquione Blue mixtures shown below and comparing them with the charts for Phthalo Blue above.
Phthalo Green/Blue Shade Mixtures
The following mixture chart presents mixtures of the cool blue green, Phthalo Green Blue Shade (G/B), with the warm yellow orange, Hansa Yellow Medium (Y/O) in the first column, and with the cool green yellow, Hansa Yellow Light (G/Y) in the fourth column. As with the previous discussions, these mixtures are then dulled down with the two reds.
Phthalo Green has the greatest content of green of the colors in the pallet. Its mixtures relult in the purest and strongest greens. To see this you can compare the G/Y columns in the above three mixture charts.
Similar results are obtained when the mixtures are dulled with the two reds, as can be seen in the mixture chart above.
These mixtures are plotted in the color space of the four color wheels below.
Similar results are obtained when the mixtures are dulled with the two reds, as can be seen in the mixture chart above.
These mixtures are plotted in the color space of the four color wheels below.
Color Mixing Summary
The above examples demonstrate the ability of the Augmented Modern Color Pallet to produce a wide variety of greens. The examples above are only a small sample of the possibilities. Remember the whole color gamut of the pallet colors is available to be mixed, yielding an infinite number of possibilities. A very important property of these modern is that due to their purity in pigment content and lack of complete opacity they can be mixed without creating mud! So feel free and mix to your hearts content!
The image below is my painting that set me off on this detailed study of "greens" which had always been problematic for me. The painting done in response to the source image presented at the beginning of this post and the customer's request for a different flower arrangement. As you can see the image contains a tremendous variety of greens. It is after all a motif in Ireland!
Studying the image below, you can find each of the families of greens in the above mixing charts. These mixtures were painted directly wet in wet on the canvas in many cases. However, some of the most exciting and delicate effects were achieved using the layering, glazing and fan brush techniques discussed below. This is particularly true in the optical effects achieved in the expansive "green" lawn. This will be discussed in detail.
The image below is my painting that set me off on this detailed study of "greens" which had always been problematic for me. The painting done in response to the source image presented at the beginning of this post and the customer's request for a different flower arrangement. As you can see the image contains a tremendous variety of greens. It is after all a motif in Ireland!
Studying the image below, you can find each of the families of greens in the above mixing charts. These mixtures were painted directly wet in wet on the canvas in many cases. However, some of the most exciting and delicate effects were achieved using the layering, glazing and fan brush techniques discussed below. This is particularly true in the optical effects achieved in the expansive "green" lawn. This will be discussed in detail.
More to come! This post is still in preparation. Please check back!
Layering and Glazing
Fan Brush Magic
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