Lesson #6 - Exploring colour mixing

[Leana]

Dennis and Nolan might be able to give a better example... as well as confirm if I am doing it correctly...

Looking at the basic colour wheel... with yellow at the top, red on the right and blue on the left... when dividing the colour wheel... right is warm, left is cold... now you have mixed your secondaries and your tertiaries... however... then you get your warm and cold shades of each colour...

The way I normally look at the color and judge its warmness or coolness is by doing this...
If I look at the colors on the right hand side of the color wheel... but it's a red I have not incorporated in the colour wheel... does this color contain more yellow or more blue in it to the one I am comparing it to... if its more yellow... then it is warm...if it contains more blue... it's cool
Mauve/purple... does it contain more red = warm purple or does it contain more blue = cool purple.
Blue... does the blue contain more red or green... if more red... its warm, if more blue...it's cool...
Green... does it contain more yellow or blue... yellow = warm green, more blue = cooler green. For eg. Sap Green (more yellow = warm) and Viridian (more blue = cool)
Yellow... Cad yellow I see as a warm yellow compared to Lemon yellow which I see as a cool yellow...

I hope this helps...

[NHC50]

Leana,
Thank you for your help. I think you explained it yourself very well. I will try this. I am sure if Dennis or Nolan have more ideas they will let us know. It is always nice to have people who care that will help.
Nina

[C.Bodine]

  Leana. Good job explaining!

[Val]

Good explanation Leana. I understand the division of the colour wheel. Its when I look at a specific colour, I don't see whether it leans more red or more blue, if its more blue or more yellow, etc. 
I can see a diesel can, its yellow. Honestly can't tell if it is a cool or warm yellow. Its yellow.   

[dennis]

It is not always easy to tell which of the tube colours are warm or cold colours without going into a long explanation. I don't want to add too many confusing data specially when there are a lot of beginners struggling with enough other issues.

Too much in the beginning can be very overwhelming and I certainly don't want to cause confusion.

At this stage don't worry too much about the warm and cold colours. It is more important to play around with various colour mixing and documenting your mixes for visual comparison. Get the practical now and the theoretical will fall into place later in an understandable way.

Because I work with very few colours I myself only care about the primary cold and warm colours which are shown in the 6-colour wheel video

[Lillian]

Great video Dennis!     I've got this one in my bookmarks.   

[Val]

So happy you said that Dennis!    The six colour wheel is plenty for me for now. 

[Leana]

Dennis Oh, I love it when a plan comes together    That's probably where the saying comes from "Less is more"... I prefer a limited palette... less to remember 

[NHC50]

Thanks Dennis for the video.
Yes I agree that less is better. I just had some watercolours [colors] That I was not sure if they were warm or cool.
Its no big deal. I will just use them to paint my house. 
Nina

[dennis]

In my teaching studio we use only 8 colours +white.
Cad Red, Crimson Red (Alizarin), French Ultramarine, Cad Yellow, Cad Orange, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Viridian and Titanium White.
NEVER all in one painting. One should be able to do many paintings with only 4-5 colours at the most.

It all boils down to learning to colour mix.

[NHC50]

Dennis I agree with you. I have seen artist [that teach on the web] use 3 different green, 2 reds, 2 blues, 2 browns, and paynes gray and white. And that was on one painting. So I guess they don't know how to mix colors. 
 I would much rather use few colors and learn to mix what I want. That is why I am here Dennis, to learn. Thanks
Nina

[Lillian]

Here is my attempt to mix greens as taught by Dennis in Lesson 6.

The field behind the fence dried lighter than I expected.  I always find that a watercolor painting can look very different the next day.

I had fun doing this and I'm looking forward to today's class.   

I'm not using the best grade of paper for these exercises.  If I work too long in an area, the paper begins to lift, kind of roll off.  Thus, the fancy clouds in the sky.     I kept trying to fix it.  That's a no-no with this paper!  The sizing goes ka-poot so even if I let it dry and come back in, it keeps doing that.  That's ok with me, I'm just practicing and trying to get the points Dennis is getting across. 

                                               

[C.Bodine]

Lillian, I looked at your picture before I read your comments.  I had to laugh afterwards, because the first thing I thought was, "I really like that cloud."  I guess that just proves (I think it was) Tony's point.  Don't point out what you think are mistakes!!! Lovely painting!

[Leana]

  Well done Lillian... looks great 

[eftpower1]

I agree with "C:

nice job!!