Tip of the Month - June 2001

The color gray is important! Gray can be purchased in the tube-payne's gary, Davis gray, gray of gray, neutral tint are some of the prepared grays in tubes - useful, but dull and uninteresting.

My palette contains no prepared grays.

Gray is a mix of the 3 primaries-yellow + red + blue. Among my colors, I have a variety of each of the primaries. The choice of which primaries work best together is based on their physical properties:

1. transparent & lifting: aureolin, rosemadder, cobalt blue



2. transparent & staining: Winsor yellow, Winsor red, Winsor blue



3. dull & sedimentary: gold ochre, Venetian red, indigo



4. intense & sedimentary: cadmium yellow, cadmium red, ultramarine blue



There are many different yellows, reds, & blues. Try different combinations, Use only the primaries that are being used in your current painting for that painting: do not change colors halfway through the work. To mix gray, mix yellow & red first, & then slowly add the blue.


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