ARTISTS - PAINT WITH THREE PRIMARY COLOURS
(How to get every colour under the sun with red, yellow and blue?)

We are going to learn and go back to some basics today. As I firmly believe that to get to university level one has to master the school lessons and pass the exams first! Not the opposite way around! What I mean is that we shouldn't try to master the advanced techniques and subject matters before we know how to approach them without having a major confidence knock after finishing the painting!

So how do we get every colour under the sun with just 3 primary colours: yellow, red and blue?

Why is it so important to limit the pallet?

There are many reasons and answers to this but I believe the most important reason of all is that it enables you to blend the colours seamlessly so that all the colours throughout the picture complement each other making your painting look as one whole piece without colour clashes!

The other reason is that it enables you to achieve more realistic looking watercolour paintings by being able to know exactly what colour you used creating the first paler wash so that you can come back and add layers of darker washes of the same colour on top! As what tends to happen if you don't use limited pallet is that you mix together a tone which you like and after it's dried you think, oh it needs to be a bit darker! So then you fumble about trying to match the colour you need to make it darker, not remembering which exact colours you used in the first place and you go over the same spot with a similar tone to the original and the result will be muddy instead of crisp and clean looking painting! I've done it many times myself, and I am not afraid to admit: I still do sometimes! So you need to know what colour you put down first to be able to come back and make it darker afterwards! And if you only have 3 colours you are using, it's gonna be easy to remember!! Especially if you get really well acquainted with your colour mixes!

So the best way to limit your pallet first of all is to familiarise yourself with 3 primary colours first and then you can progress to more challenging variations afterwards which don't enable you to achieve every colour you want but gives you a very specific mood to the picture!

Different shades of green

We know that mixing together yellow and blue will result in green, but did you also know that adding a tiny bit of red will give you more natural looking greens? Good exercise here would be trying it out by painting 2 squares: one without any red and the other one with a bit of red added. You will notice a difference (according to how much red you've added of course!). Professionals commonly use two different yellows and two different blues to give them that little bit extra variety in creating cooler or warmer greens according to the time of the year! For example in early spring, the grass and all greenery looks a lot more fresh therefore a lot cooler than autumn greenery and grass as the percentage of dead grass and leaves is so small or non existent that to get that cooler green you wouldn't need to add red at all.

PAINTING EXCERSIZE 1: Greens

Choose three primary colours: cadmium yellow, cadmium red and ultramarine blue. (there are so many different combinations of limited pallets, but to start you off, lets stick with the basic one first! pg 120 example of warm limited pallet) Create 5-10 (or as many as you can the more the better!) different colour batches next to each other gradually moving from cool green (no red added) to warm green (quite a lot of red added!). Each time adding tiniest bit more red to the ready made cadmium yellow and ultramarine blue mix. You should end up with quite cool green at one end of the spectrum and warm green (which looks almost brown, like oak leaves in autumn) at the other end. Once you've done that, try to think of each colour batch you've painted and imagine what would match this particular colour in the nature! Once you've got the answer, you will know how to get that colour again! You will be successfully able to repeat the process in the actual painting!

PAINTING EXCERSIZE 2: Sky

By adding tiny amounts of yellow to the blue, you make blue a bit warmer and appear receding . Like close to the horizon the daytime blue sky always appears paler and warmer than the sky just above your head. So never use the same mixture of blue for both! You'll end up with flat and unrealistic looking blue area. these are basic techniques you really shouldn't avoid applying to your picture!
Clear skies in the evening are still paler at the horizon but the colours will be dramatically different from daytime. Try using mixes of red and yellow with tiny bit of blue added and make it really pale...

PAINTING EXCERSIZE 3: Sky - clouds

First thing to know about clouds is the fact that they are actually never white! I know they appear to be white but according to the laws of nature everything visible reflects the objects surrounding them...so the clouds also reflect what surrounds them: sky , water...air, which seems to be invisible to our eye but if you look in the distance you see it making the woods and mountains on the horizon look pale blue, so the air has colour too! According to the time of the day...if you know a thing or two about photography, you also know that the evening light produces warm pictures and the morning light fresh and cool shades. therefore if you're gonna reproduce your paintings by photographing them, do it around midday so that the colours appear most natural!

Coming back to white clouds, as we now know they are actually never white, doesn't stop us leaving them white as and when we like! As with watercolour it's always good to leave some white spaces here and there to give the eye somewhere to rest. Like in the music: without the calmer and quiet bits it would be very uneasy to the ear. Therefore the quiet bits in the music are actually equally as important as the written notes!

Clouds can appear darker or lighter than the sky. the side of the cloud that catches the sun always appears warmer as it's in the light and the shady parts therefore cooler, so you choose cooler mixes of blue and red for shadows to create cooler greys. Also you might want to add a bit of yellow to the mix in the clouds here and there as it make is more interesting and again more natural looking.

NB! Sunset! if you've ever tried to paint sunset sky in watercolour, I applaud you as it's the most difficult subject of them all, to my mind! The best way to go about it is to not do it!! No I am joking! But if you are serious then you need to practice, a lot of practice! First thing to do is to practice smooth gradient pale washes of reds and yellows...there are literally countless possibilities so all I can say is have a go!

PAINTING EXCERSIZE 4: How to get black?

Now I do realise a lot of you might already believe and act on what I am about to say but it never hurts to remind the basics. And some of you might strongly disagree with me and stick to their beliefs after hearing what I have to say...so choice is yours! So what am I talking about? Black out of the box or no black out of the box? How about this question instead: are you serious in trying to get more realistic results or are you lazy and not really bothered to develop your skills much further? Fair enough question??? So what do I think? I think black out of the box should never be used. I actually think you shouldn't even have it there! It does sound a bit radical perhaps, I do agree, but not having used it myself since 1991, I can say with 100% confidence I have never missed it either! yes I admit I have used Payne's grey and indigo blue mix to get the results when I am in a hurry and couldn't be bothered, but I actually haven't got black in my boxes at all...And even with Payne's grey, you should only use it if absolutely necessary. The best thing to do to get black is to use a dark mix of the three primary colours. Black out of the box has this uncanny characteristic to flatten and deaden all the colours you mix it with! It's a mystery how it works, but true. Try it out yourself! Also, I have yet to come across a professional artist, who uses black out of the box ...and if they do it, they must know something that works much better!

PAINTING EXCERSIZE 5: Tree trunks

I've seen a lot of people struggle with that one. They seem to be lost in what colour to choose for it! To come back to the subject of everything reflects it's surroundings, this fact should make it tiny bit easier to decide what colours to choose for painting tree trunks. If you study the bark from close-up, you will notice that every little piece points slightly to the different direction and is situated at a tiny bit different angle that the piece next to it! This in turn creates a multitude of different shades of browns, greens and blues...as one piece might reflect a little bit of sky above as it's pointing to the sky...next piece reflects green foliage above...but when looking at it from the distance, you'll have to decide what is the majority that it reflects: is it the white snow or blue water, or green lawn? Can you see that no two tree barks can ever be exactly the same colour? Due to those factors.

PAINTING EXCERSIZE 6: Suggest a subject/object you struggle with!

Any questions on how to paint something you've tried but didn't work very well? Faces, animals etc. If not, just remember that the same rules we discussed above, apply to everything we see!