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MATERIAL AND EQUIPMENT FOR OIL PAINTING Color-Mixing Exercises Before working with the full range of your palette, you should familiarize yourself with the possibilities of each color. An excellent start is to take a warm and a cool color and do a complete painting limiting yourself to these two colors. A good combination is Cobalt Blue and Burnt Sienna or French Ultramarine and Burnt Umber. You can use water color or oil; for the latter, white paint must be added. Improvise a landscape or build one from an outdoor sketch that you may have on hand. With blue as the cool color and brown as the warm, begin to paint the picture. In some areas you will use the colors pure; in others, they will be combined. You will be amazed at the number of color variations that can be achieved with so simple a palette. Most important, you will discover the numerous shades of warm and cool grays that are obtainable. For the next exercise, use three colors and explore their possibilities. Cobalt Blue, Light Red, and Yellow Ochre should allow you plenty of scope compared to the two-color exercise. Again, add white paint if you use oils. By painting the same subject used before, you will more readily realize the added possibilities of a third color. Experiment along these lines by making up your own limited color combinations. Add a fourth color, and so on, until you acquire a working knowledge of all the colors you plan to use on your palette. One important point will become apparent; The fewer colors you use, the easier it is to obtain color harmony. Every time a new color is added the risk of creating discord is increased. Color-Mixing Hints < Restrict your mixtures to as few colors as possible. < Yellow is the most sensitive color on the palette. Use a knife to scoop it up when mixing it with other colors. Daubing a brush that you have been using into the yellow may stain it. < Take care when using white paint. Keep in mind that it neutralizes the color with which it is mixed. Too much white will impart a washed-out or chalky look to the color mixture. < Mix colors with the tip of the brush hairs. Never allow the paint to seep up to the metal ferrule. < Keep two jars of water handy when mixing water color. If you use one to rinse color from your bruS!l the other will remain clear for a longer time, thus assuring clean water for mixing. < Dipping a brush into two colors and not stirring the mixture on the palette but applying it directly to the canvas oEten produces an interesting broken-color effect. This can be done with water color as well, but a minimum amount of water must be used. Warm and cool contrasting colors are most effective. If you paint flowers or portraits you may have to add extra colors to your palette, because certain shades needed in such work are almost impossible to mix with a standard color palette. Permanence of Colors You should learn the permanence of your colors as soon as possible. Today's manufacturers have overcome many defects in both the mixing and the lasting qualities of paints, and many colors that for years were listed as nonpermanent or doubtful have either been eliminated or, through modern methods, made permanent. Here is a list of colors that most color manufacturers consider permanent (these apply to all media): All of the Cadmium colors All of the Mars colors All of the Ultramarines Alizarin Crimson Burnt Sienna Burnt Umber Chromium of Oxide Green Cobalt Blue, Light and Deep Cobalt Violet Manganese Violet Indian Red Venetian Red Manganese Blue Prussian Blue Cerulean Blue Ivory Black Lamp Black Lemon Yellow Light Red (English Red) Permanent Green, Light and Deep Raw Sienna Raw Umber Terra Vate (Green Earth) Thalo Blue Thalo Green Veridian Yellow Ochre, Light and Deep Titanium White Zinc White Zinc Yellow Colors that are non-permanent or doubtful are: All of the Chrome colors Madder Lake Mauve Turquoise Geranium Lake Magenta Scarlet Lake Carmine

Get all the animals listed on this site in an easily printable format. Also learn how to draw mice, monkeys, butterflies and a phoenix. Instant download. $7. Learn to draw a new animal every week. Enter your email address below and we'll send you a free drawing lesson every week. Email: AN INTRODUCTION TO OIL PAINTING Material & Equipment for Oil Painting > Introduction & Colors > Working with Canvases > More about Using Canvases > The Paint Box and Palette > The Palette Knife and Other Tools > Oil Painting Brushes & the Home Studio > Care of Equipment & Brush Handling > More about Brush Handling > Arranging Colors on the Palette & Color Mixing > More About Color Mixing > Color Mixing Exercises