Week 1 - Color Matching

First week is all about color mixing! To improve my color-mixing skills, I chose to paint this picture.  Why? ... it has lots of colors.

I had originally planned for this first "week", or I should actually call it "lesson", on color mixing to be about four days… but after the first day, I realized that I would have to wait until the painting had dried until I could add more layers on top.  So I waited…
And waited…
And waited…

For two whole days straight… and I didn't touch it (my mom actually suggested I put it next to the heater to help it dry faster... I think parts of my painting started melting from the heat because it started dripping.... or maybe I just used too much oil... probably the latter)

Finally, I just accepted that this painting was not going to dry, so I asked Stephanie about how I could finish this painting, and she looked at me like I was an idiot.  Her advice to me was: "Use more paint and less oil."  Alright, I guess I'll try it. 

So I did.  And it was, ehhh, it was ok.  It did take me an hour longer to paint, and I didn't even get as much done as I did on day 1, and some of my colors (especially for the smoky areas) were completely inaccurate, but there was some progress. 

Until I finally finished! :D

Not the most accurate shapes... but I didn't really care as much since this lesson was on color-mixing... and I think I did pretty well with getting the hues, intensities, and values correct.  I definitely got a lot of practice for color-mixing with this painting, which was what I was going for.

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Before I started any painting, I did some research on color theory and found a video (shown below if you want to watch it) on color theory.  The most important piece of information I got from the video was that adding white is not how you brighten up colors.  Typically, you'd think, "Hmm, gotta make this brighter. Oh! Guess I just need some white," but no, there's actually this whole "add white AND the colors going up the color wheel," as well as the fact that yellow is the only color that brightens up by itself when you add white. 

I already knew about primary, secondary, tertiary, and complementary colors, but color theory has so much more than these basic definitions.  (Well, actually, my research is still just a very basic level of knowledge on the color wheel, but my previous knowledge on color theory was minuscule; it was practically nonexistent.)

So anyway, on several of the websites I visited, they all classified colors using three categories: hue, purity/intensity, and value.  I will briefly define them for you below:

1. Hue: the basic color of your color
2. Purity (or some artists like Bill Martin call this Intensity): the saturation of your color
3. Value: the brightness of your color

This website (Oil Painting Techniques: Color Theory- Harmony in Paintings) also suggested five color schemes to follow that have been used by famous painters. 

1. Monochrome: using one hue
• Although Titian did not use just one hue for the entire Diane and Callisto, Titian did paint with just orange hues for one of the boys in his painting.
2. Complementary: using one hue and its complementary
• Monet used orange and blue to paint a woman on the beach in his Beach at Trouville.
3. Analogous: using three hues next to each other on the color wheel
• Eugene Delacroix's Death of Sardanapolis uses red, red-orange, and orange.
4. Split Complementary: using two colors adjacent to complementary color
• In Mary Cassatt's painting, The Bath, she creates a feeling of warmth and coolness using red, green, and blue.
5. Triadic: using colors evenly spaced on the color wheel
• Vermeer painted The Music Lesson using green, blue, and yellow. 

With this knowledge, I have a much better understanding of how to accurately (and efficiently, meaning I won't have to waste as much paint anymore) mix colors.  I realize now that colors really are so much more complex than just "green is yellow and blue" because you also have to factor in "do I have to add brown? what kind of blue? what kind of yellow?" etc.  

When I eventually started painting myself, I found how difficult and tedious it can be trying to get exactly the color you want.  To me, color mixing was like an annoying child who doesn't want to listen to what you're telling them to do, but I still enjoy the entire process of color mixing because it's like trying to solve a puzzle, and once you get the perfect intensity and value, it's like your own little "HOLY BAGELS! You got it!"

However, the satisfaction I got from painting was diminished by my soap debacle.  I admit, I am a stickler for keeping things neat, organized, and returning things to how I had found them.  It gets to be annoying for the people around me (so, sorry about that) because, well at least from what people have told me, I become unreasonable and I "insult people in the most rudimentary and straightforward way so it feels even more insulting." Well, I like simple.  Simple works the best, in every aspect of life. 

Anyway, cleaning up after I had finished painting each day was not simple, in any way at all.  Now since I haven't painted in like, four or five years, my memories about how to clean my palette were a little fuzzy.  I definitely recall that I used some sort of green soap from my sink (either hand soap or dishwasher soap), but since both my hand soap and dishwasher soap are green, I didn't remember which one I was supposed to use, so I just decided to use my hand soap…. Yea after washing my paint brushes for over an hour (did I mention that I only used four? So that's like fifteen minutes of scrubbing each paint brush on my hands, which used up pretty much half the bottle of soap, and it really hurt my hands!) on the first day, I tried using the dishwasher soap on the second day and it was SO much more efficient.  

Moving on to washing my palette: none of the soaps worked well... both times took about an hour of scrubbing until my board looked slightly closer to how it was before I used it to paint (but now it's forever stained with faint splotches of color), so yup, when I paint, I use one hour to paint, and two hours to clean.  I think I need to do some research on how to correctly/efficiently clean my supplies. 

Although this post is titled "Week 1", it really shouldn't be because my original plan was to focus on color mixing for four days.  Well, it took longer.  So I have revised my schedule: 

Week 1: color mixing - red

Week 2: shadowing - green

Week 3: texture - blue

Week 4: individual - purple

Now, onto shadowing…

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Hope you're staying warm in this weather! I love drinking hot chocolate in the winter, and I tried to drink and paint at the same time (notice the "tried") Alas it was not meant to be... I accidentally dipped my paint brush into my hot chocolate cup.  I don't even know why, honestly, oil painting does not require a cup of water for dipping your paintbrushes in, and since Stephanie suggested less oil, I decided to leave my crummy (yes the linseed oil I have is like 12 years old) oil in the bottle.  I think it was just a habit like "ooh paintbrush... cup... must dip paintbrush in cup!" 

Anyway, try these Swirly Hot Cocoa Muffins.  I suggest adding marshmallows and/or chocolate chips as well! 

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thelonelybookaholic
meanderingwithmandarin