Newsletter December, 2004 A Free Newsletter for Those Who Love to Paint

Color of the Month

Permanent Green

Permanent green - This is a very bright kelly green. A shade you don't find too often in nature. This is a color I seldom use, it's too brash for me. However, I do keep it around and use it on occasion. When my greenery has become too gray or muddy or just too blah, I will glaze over the area with permanent green and bring it back to life. Mixed with cadmium red it creates a nice, rich brown hue.

Certain brands of permanent green may contain hazardous materials. If they do they will have a caution label on them - read it and follow it, be careful. So keep permanent green around just don't be too quick to use it straight.

Tool of the Month

Paint Tube Wringer

Paint Tube Wringer - These handy gadgets consist of a frame holding two spools with a key that feeds a paint tube between them. It's sort of a pared down wringer washer from the past or a pasta machine.

The pressure between the rollers force the tube flat and the paint towards the opening. Make sure your lid is on tight and don't squeeze too hard, the tube may split. Paint is expensive, so it pays to be able to get all of it out of the tube.

I have never met an artist that always squeezes from the bottom, I expect most of our toothpaste tubes are low in the center as well. The wringer gives you all of the paint out of a tube. You can then roll up the empty portion of the tube so the paint stays at the top. If you cover the information make a new label so you can find your color in the future.

Treat yourself to a wringer or borrow a friend's, give your tubes a good squeeze and get painting!

Good Harmony

Good Harmony

Ever notice how some paintings have a harmonious feeling and others just don't seem to hang together? There are two ways to create a harmonious painting, one is to increase the unity of the painting and the other is to decrease the tension. Creating harmony will improve your paintings. Of course there are exceptions - if you want an edgy painting you would want to reverse these concepts and increase the tension in the painting. But most of the time harmony would be preferred.

Use your artistic license when you paint. There is something to be said about matching the colors of the you reference material - be it a photo or a live scene. However, unless you are doing a scientific illustration this really isn't a huge reason to be a slave to the colors. Be aware of the colors, values and temperature of your reference but use your artistic license to unify your painting.

There a three guidelines to consider: temperature, value and color. For temperature, the amount of cool and warm colors should be uneven. Make one temperature dominant. When it's close to half and half tension is created. So choose the temp that best evokes the mood of your painting and push most, but not all, of the color temperatures to that end of the spectrum.

The same is true for value. Choose a key for your painting - bright and high or dark and low. When its split too evenly they pulled against each other and tension is created.

Color is a bit more complicated, but not that much. The solution is as easy - when you choose a color to use, use it throughout the painting. For example, if you choose ultramarine for your sky color in a landscape, then keep using it. If you need a purple, create it by mixing ultramarine with a red and likewise if you need a green mix it by adding yellow. If you use other tube colors such as sap green - add a touch of ultramarine to it just to create harmony. Use it in your shadows, in the ground... It doesn't have to scream out of all of these places, just a hint will read to viewer's subconscious as unity throughout the painting.

Some artists limit their palette and mix most of their colors. This is one way to achieve harmony. Just by adding in a touch an existing color to others one can achieve this as well. So use your license and these guideline to improve the harmony in your paintings.

Sample Palette

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