“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
I have to review this topic regularly with a younger class. I remind the students to add new color to their color mixes slowly. I also suggest that they add colors to the edge of a color mix so as not to pollute the entire paint pile.
Another important note: different colors have different tinting strengths and knowing that beforehand can save a ton of time. For example: zinc white has one tenth the tinting power of titanium white. I have two yellows, one semi-transparent and one opaque. My students struggle a great deal when using the less tinting yellow. Know your colors ahead of time and you’ll know how to manipulate them better.
Early on, painters found that they needed a color besides black (which could “deaden” colors) to tone down their mixes. So they began mixing their own greys. Manufacturers decided to cash in on the need by making a premixed color labeled Payne’s Grey though every brand was and is a slightly different color. You could buy it but it’s so easy to make my own with burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. This is a mix we’ve already been using since our second class!
It’s time to review the vocabulary from lesson three: hue, chroma, and value. It’s more of a review than a quiz.
I popped over to Khan Academy for the simplest video explaining it all.
Painting in a group, witnessing how others approach painting, and getting feedback pushes us to improve quicker than we would alone.
I love using critiques to bring to light things we might not have considered good and bad. Here’s a look at last week’s progress:
For my younger students, I have this formula:
Our results after a second pass:
Stay tuned!