Tip of the Month - December 2002

This tetrad contains the four remaining colors on the twelve color chromatic color wheel. In the visual, you can see the two complementary pairs: vermilion, Winsor blue, magenta, and sap green. You can also see the wet mixes of these colors on my butcher tray palette.

BYGONE DAYS is a work produced with this palette. I started by wetting the paper completely and laying in a wash of all the colors. I was looking for the colors that would represent the light. I had the white of the paper, but no yellow. I saw that the green and the vermilion would show light for me.

When I looked at this first wash, I saw that I had divided the paper into distinct areas that had no connection with each other. I mixed vermilion and magenta on the palette and made a wash over the entire painting.

It worked. The landscape had a rosy cast to it. This is a light and color condition that I have seen at sunset. Look at the photo on the WORKSHOP description page for Mount Sutton

I continued adding color and value to the scene, starting from the background. The number of colors acheived from this palette is amazing.

It was time to start texturing the barn and the foreground. All the while, I am thinking warm/cool and light/dark. What did I need to add to put this barn into the past? The completed painting can be see in the landscape gallery as BYGONE DAYS.