Jessie has asked me two questions:
Will you explain the tipping point when mixing complements for the shadow color. I know you talked about it when you did the color wheel but i'm still confused. My other question is will you be doing the abstract skyline in acrylics? I love it!
Shadow coloursThe tipping point is a very fine line and the best way to know if you have crossed it is to paint the colour in on the colour wheel. Your shadow colour circle should also have a natural progress in colour as well as tonal value going from the top to the bottom of the wheel. As you saw in the class even I had to adjust my shadow colours every now and again to ensure I didn't push them too far.
The shadow colour MUST still have the correct colour. In other words if you are mixing the shadow colour for yellow. The colour you mix be still look yellow. The minute it looks "brown" or purple when you paint it onto the wheel you know you have gone too far. The tonal value of the colour must also fit, so sticking to our yellow example, the shadow colour must not be darker than the two shadow colours next to it.
When it comes to mixing shadow colours in an actual painting you will find that you will be able to push the colours further than you can for a colours wheel and it will still look correct. So in a normal painting situation you can make the shadow colour as dark as you need it up to a point where it still looks correct for you.
Abstract Skyline
The abstract skyline class was actually painted mostly in acrylic (background) with only the skyline itself being in oil. As the actual painting techniques for oil and acrylic are identical you can easily follow an oil painting class using acrylic and vice versa. In the
Painting Oil Paintings using Acrylic Class I show you what the few differences are. The two main ones being:
1) You use water instead of painting medium to thin you paints
2) You need to mist you painting to keep the paint wet where the oil guys don't
