I'm so very grateful that you're teaching this information for free; especially, as I've bought beginner sketching and painting kits already, under the supposition that I'll just act on inspiration, alone 😬🙃 I'd be happy to invest money into any specialized art classes 🎨 if you're ever interested (or already have) your own website to Teach from 🍎
Not watercolour, but I’ve just bought some coloured pencils and that green is one of two in the set. The other is mint. Really not very useful! Really interesting video. Thanks
I'm not exactly sure that applies to the Schmincke variant, though. That's more bluish than a true green, for all that I can tell, I'd also say it's also granulating a bit and I think it's not as translucent as say, the heliogreen wish is the other green that I got 🤔
If you do have and want to use up Viridian, I enjoy it with Burnt Sienna for a moody, mossy green or Alizarin Crimson for lovely, stormy blues and purples.
Thanks for the mixing recommendations. I like Viridian actually. Only thing is it’s too hard to re-wet so I think I will just use it out of the tube. In the pan it dries so hard that is pops out of the pan.
The thing about viridian / phthalo green is it's actually a fantastic mixing green - add yellows or oranges to get any spectrum of natural foliage greens. Or the other angle, add blues to get any spectrum of water or skies. Or add reds to get neutrals. It's quite a workhorse on my palette but definitely not for everyone, especially those wanting to just use pigments directly from the tube
Color mixing is really the foundation for painting. It would be so frustrating to know what color you wanted to put to paper but have no idea how to make it. When I was in my 20's I took a few artist led community classes. I was so frustrated when I tried to paint at home and had no knowledge of color theory and mixing. So for me, I like that you are teaching it.
When I first started watercolors my instructor included thalo green as a starter color. I live where there's an abundance of fir trees. Thalo green and alizarin crimson were used for all the different colors of the firs. I switched to viridian because it's non-staining and can be lifted whereas thalo green stains and is impossible to lift. Some viridian hues contain thalo green which will stain.
This is a more more useful, information-full tutorial than the others I have watched on mixing colors. Don't use black to darken colors, don't use white to lighten them, avoid Viridian as a beginner, know that when you mix, some colors already have secondary colors in them and this will affect what color you produce... and tons more, like pan sizes and that replacements are available. Thank you - really learned something watching this!
You are amazing. I wish I had had the opportunity to have a great art instructor back in the day, but even though I am now retired I can perhaps have the time to take more advantage of the knowledge you have to offer. I’m overwhelmed at times, but keep replaying till things sink in.
So true, Michelle indeed is an excellent teacher. To teach is a craft. She does it well. Whoever learns in her guidance will become proficient and confident. The best part is, Michelle doesn’t hold back. She shares secrets of artists that most will not divulge. 💗
About using (tube) black, I was taught that the best reason for not using black is that you can actually make not only darker colors than tube black but also richer colors than black by mixing complements. I have had classroom exercises where we were challenged to make the darkest color shades possible using only colors on the color wheel without using tube black. Then once we had those lined up, we put tube black next to it to compare which is darker, and which is more....pleasing. Without a doubt, tube black was not only lighter but also gives a dirty charcoal gray essence to colors that can nearly ruin a painting. I do find tube black useful for making monochromatic paintings and value studies, but as a strong rule I leave it out of all my realistic painting work. It is also good for graphic arts purposes like lettering, calligraphy as well as logo design, line work, etc. So even as a beginner there are uses for it, but I will quickly agree using black out of the tube can trash an otherwise well executed watercolor painting; this is even true in acrylics and oil painting. Also if you want to be a purist about traditional transparent watercolor painting techniques, white adds opacity and hence violates the whole religious stance of transparent-only colors. Many people consider adding white, even in small amounts, as moving a "traditional watercolor" instantly into the "mixed media" category. Some juried watercolor art shows may not even accept paintings if you used white pigment. So, white does have its uses, but it is tricky to learn for sure. My two cents.
All of that is true, but the purists amuse me because the earliest watercolourists all used 'body' colour, so it can hardly claim to be traditional. I am not against white, just in favour of fully understanding it's affects before using.
Black is something I rarely use. Learning watercolor from professionals like you on youtube, I've learnt to avoid for the most part. However, since the watercolor set I have only has burnt sienna, I use it to darken my brown sometimes without losing the vibrancy of it. Viridian (Hue) on the other hand, I love. I think the one I have is more a Pthalo Green than Viridian as the color is slightly different than what you've shown and the brand also has a separate Emerald bit it is still quite unnatural straight out of the tube. However, mixed with a warm red (scarlet lake in the brand I use), it gives this beautiful cool, dark but duller/more natural green that I absolutely love. And mixed with a cool red (crimson lake in the brand I use), it gives a gorgeous grey. I absolutely love it. Oh, and it also gives a bright turquoise color when mixed with prussian blue (and maybe with other cooler blues too). I also mix a teeny bit of it with prussian for the skies as the prussian I have is not quite the color of the skies. I hadn't tried mixing it with ochre though, I should give that a try too. P.S. The brand I use is Camlin. It is an Indian brand and extremely affordable for us in south Asia. The colors are not as transparent as something like W&N and do not bloom far in water but they are lightfast, affordable, artists quality, easily reactivated and not at all chalky. Universally loved by those of us who have used it.
You are such a good teacher. I have taken watercolor on and off for 10 years and no one every told me this. I assume that these tips hold true with acrylic paint as well??? Thank you for making this video.
Not quite. Black can be used but I wouldn't use it to darken colours, use it sparingly, just when painting something that is actually black. White IS used, because acrylics are not a transparent medium, so white is used to lighten colours. With watercolour you just add more water to lighten. The green still applies!
Great video! I think phthalo green is usually included in beginner sets because it's a great mixing colour. Even if it isn't natural looking on its own it can be used to mix beautiful natural greens by mixing it with different yellows and blues. It can also be used to make a beautiful cool grey when mixed with a quinacridone rose or a quinacridone magenta.
A very, very helpful video! My ex-husband is a color blind painter, and I used to help him mix colors. Viridian was the worst! I didn't know about ultramarine, though. I finally settled him on Hooker's green (he paints with acrylics), and he has been able to do some beautiful landscapes. He does see yellow, so is able to mix shades of green with Hooker's green and yellow.
Brilliant. Two hacks for Viridian that always work, add a touch of pink (greys it slightly) or add Yellow Ochre, will warm and dull it. But of course it can be hard to judge if you are colour blind, many men are, it's genetic.
This is a timeless video and sooo very useful to beginners, who maybe have never thought of colour mixing - it's a whole art in itself and one worth learning about: thank you!
Thanks for the tips. I consider myself quite accomplished in watercolours but sometimes it is worthwhile to go back to basics. As far as Ultramarine Blue, as I live in South Africa and like doing desert-scapes, if you use it wet on wet it is a beautiful sky colour.
Michele, I adore your videos! I find they have so much value. Whether you are an accomplished watercolor artist or a true beginner, your passion for the art medium shines though and excites the imagination! Thank you for your willingness to share these important tips for success.
I will often use a very pale Viridian wash for skies and then go over that with more of a cerulean or primary blue color (either as a mix or after it dries) along with a bit of pale rose, yellow ochre, and ultramarine when needed. Don't diss the vrid. ;-) To me, it's essential in order to make watercolor vibrant, and I absolutely understand why it's included, (though...subtlety is most definitely a virtue). Learn to control the pure hues, just like those rose dye colors you describe as so essential.
Ah, not dissing it. It's a great and useful colour, but beginners get into a lot of trouble with it. All the colours in this video can be used effectively when you know what you are doing!
What I also find funny is that on Amazon people, for example, rate watercolour boxes worse if there are a few colors that they don't like. But it can be checked beforehand in the description and in the pictures of the box which colors are included. If you don't like the colour scheme you can buy another one. In the reviews, a few people always write that they do not need the white and would rather have had a different colour and others find it good that there is a white. Exactly the same with the black.
What's worse is when that the same brand has a set of the same colors, one including and the other excluding white. Sure, the one excluding white will have another color to replace that, but you can choose for yourself what you value more, white or the extra color.
You only have to learn how to mix it. I use mine a lot. I have a pan set of Van Gogh (I particularly don’t like Cotman’s, but I do like the professional W&N, but I only buy them in tubes) and they came with Viridian. I really love this color. I mix with different kind of yellows and browns, mix with the other green (that’s a sap green), and I find it very useful. If I had a set without it I would miss it very much. It’s an amazing color for mixing. As I don’t usually use colors in their primary stage it never bothered me.
@@ilustralilian_ The Viridian from Van Gogh (and Cotman) is actually Phthalo Green PG7, and it is a great mixing color. True Viridian is PG 18, and doesn't work well.
Thank you so much for this video. Your explanations make so much sense. I felt funny using the white to make a pink, like something was wrong, but I didn’t know why, and wasn’t happy with how the black was working when I tried to use it, even in small amounts.
I used to live in Colorado (US) and the sky there was pretty close to Ultramarine on many days, especially in winter, but that was the only place where the sky got close to that.
Thank you Michelle! I need all the help I can get especially with mixing blues and greens as I unfortunately have tritonopia. I mostly rely on other people's advice on what works. I'll check your other videos to see your advice on other greens and blues. It's very helpful!
I am amazed how people are different. I’ve never met or even heard of trying to paint sky with ultramarine, it just doesn’t compute. For me it’s an only paint I need to rebuy frequently in sets, it’s absolutely essential. I use it in mixing and in washes of dramatic shadows, it’s a night colour for me.
It's a beautiful colour. I do know a couple of people who use it successfully in skies but they have a very pale, light touch, it certainly doesn't work with a lot of pigment.
Thank you, Michele Webber, for a great green colour-mixing video. I used to kick my Viridian out of my box but now will be able to use it for mixing, thanks to your tutorial. My favourite mix was Naples Yellow & Prussian Blue.
A now deceased oil painter - former editor of Leisure Painter, F C Johnson - said Viridian on its own was useful only for painting park benches. I've seen it used for tree foliage, with ghastly results. I wouldn't recommend it, and still less pthalo green, to beginners either. I'm not a beginner, and find viridian very useful as a mixer - with yellows, with burnt sienna, for example. And, it'll make an optical black, with a bit of red - if you ask it nicely. Agree with you about Ultramarine for skies, too - at least when starting out. Useful video for beginners.
If I could have Only one convenience green for the rest of my life it would be phthalo green. It's very versatile and transparent and mixes beautifully for a wide range of colors. One of my favorite is to mix it with some paynes grey for wet sand effect in seascapes. But absolutely couldn't use it for the first year of learning to paint. 😁
In the Studio with Michele Webber but if you put these kind of colors without mixing with other ones you don’t have the least amount of observation. I don’t see how this is possible. I mean, I’m really new in watercolor - about 6 months that I’m using it, but as I came from a background of coloring books (and for that I watched classes to color better - Kit and Clowder is the best) I might be jaded. But even with classes, it’s a totally another medium. I was used to use colors, but having 120 Polychromos / 150 Prismacolor + Albrecht Dürer + Luminance + Pablos + Inktense + Holbein ... whatever, you don’t really need to learn to mix colors, but to combine them... Not mixing the way we do in watercolors. So I only learned to mix colors when I decided to learn watercolor. But then I started with a set of professional 48 colors (it was a gift - I’m almost finished with most of the colors and now I’m in a phase of testing brands - “student” line none is better than Van Gogh, it puts some “professional” down, in my opinion - of course I’m not considering lightfastness since I haven’t bothered with this yet. And in the professional I do love many: MaimeriBlu, Daniel Smith, QoR, W& N (I hate Cotman), Holbeins... Oh, I love Paul Rubens as well, nice paints, great price. I really need to get more colors. And I need to test Schminke and Sennelier, but they are hard to get here. So I didn’t ever needed, in the beginning, to use these colors. But one of the first things I did was to learn how to understand better the color wheel and mix colors. For instance, in the color mixing classes from The Watercolour Academy you can learn a lot and it’s free. I used and still do take photos or look for references to use colors to paint things in nature... I don’t know. Maybe because I’m learning on my own, and I’m choosing what I learn and from who I learn I don’t have these preconceptions to not use white or black - since my two favorite artists uses one or both of them. And Sarah Simon (@themintgardner) uses gouaches in her flowers - I’m reading her book and I’m from her Patreon. The other one I love is Cara, from Rosalie Gwen Paperie. Love the colors she uses in her paintings. Oh... of course there are many others. I just mention two that paint mostly flowers. I don’t paint only flowers. I’m still searching for my preferences.
@@adelehammond1621 Drpends on your brand of viridian. M Graham is easy to rewet. Blick artist watercolors has a nice viridian that rewets easily as well. It is granulating too and makes great granulating mixes.
When I was first starting out, ultramarine was one of the 3 “primary” colors recommended in the course I took. But I’ve never really liked it for sky or ocean. It does make a really pretty purple like you said. I got viridian just because I like it, but you are right, it does need something else mixed with it. I love your explanations and suggestions for “alternatives.”
I especially appreciate the section on Ultramarine Blue - it explains some of the issues I've had with it and you gave some great tips to use going forward. I just found your channel, so it looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do. Thank you for posting these great tutorials. Cheers!
My entire pallets is Alizarine Crimson, Lemon Yellow, Cerulean (cools) and Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Medium, French Ultramarine (warms). That’s it. You can mix what you need from there. My travel palette is only 3 inches with six half pans.
Must stop watching your videos and go put all that I learn into practice, but these are so good, and I have watched alot of videos and yours are just loaded with practical tips and experience no one else ever points out, yet is so obvious when you explain it. Thank you.
Hey everyone, I just painted an abstract piece using all the colours a beginner isn't supposed to use. It felt liberating, joyful, and wonderfully expressive, which is what art is all about! Paint whatever you want with whatever colours and mediums you want! Fill your heart with joy! Live!! Be free!! Experience creativity fully, and don't let yourself be stifled by rules. 🖌️🎨🌈☀️
I enjoy your videos so much and learn so many things. You are so direct in your teaching-no nonsense and blabbing away. So many blogs are filled with wonderfully talented artists who talk about everything but what and how they are doing. I have had to turn several off. You give the exact amount of how with the proper amount of anecdotes and I learn so much. Thank you, 💐
Mixing sky blue from ultramarine? No worries! Just mix it with a bit of that gaudy emerald you didn't seem to like! Actually my set has no colours in between those two so yeah I have to get my blues by mixing them in some proportion or other. From the colour theory I learned at university (not much but it was very helpful), about half of the standard chromaticity diagram contains different shades of green. It's impossible to get a full range of greens by mixing yellow and blue, just as you demonstrate. Printers use yellow and cyan which is what you're recommending. Although I'm only a beginner with watercolour so I'm speaking from theory rather than experience, but I would recommend you that your art set contains extremely saturated greens (including the emerald you don't seem like much). As you point out, you would rarely use them directly, but they can help you mix a good range of greens and maybe that's why paint sets contain them.
Everything you say is true and I have actually done a video on the things you can use such greens for, the problem is that because most beginners don't understand colour theory they simply use the set green for their whole landscape.
this video was god sent, you explain everything so well and you didn't just say which color to avoid but the ones we can use to replace it, from the bottom of my heart thank you so much, this just helped so much with making the correct decision of which colors to buy first!!
I’m a newbie. Thanks. I find you to be an effective presentation for technical aspects all the while adding a wonderful artistic presentation. I thought I heard that ultramarine is not a pure hue, so I will continue to observe which ones are, and are not. I made the crafty floral piece. Thanks. I’m really enjoying you.
Awesome, thank you! Ultramarine is a single pigment colour, but granulates heavily and varies between brands. It can be very beautiful when used for the right things :-)
Thank you for this tutorial because I wondered why the put that viridian blue in my first set of tubes. I had not found a use for it. The explanations you gave were so educational. Thank you!
the first beginner set I bought was a Winsor-Newton Cotman, and one of the colours included was Viridian -- and I thought it was ghastly right off, and really have never seen any good uses for even while several of the other colours they had have turned out to be surprisingly helpful. The second set I bought was a Daniel Smith beginner's set and the only green it included was Phthalo Green Blue Shade, also rather not helpful. Your tips about mixing with the different blues was very useful information! I appreciated knowing this!
Phthalo Green is actually very useful for a more advanced artist who wants to mix colours, it's just alone that beginners get into trouble with it. I do have a video that gives some mixes for it... Somewhere (!)
Such a great help. I've not heard or perhaps not understood that a colours that have another primary already have a head start in that direction. Will be watching more. Awesome. Thank you 💖
These are all the colours I would also suggest avoiding when teaching beginners but I would also put more emphasis on the mixing of complementary colours
There are whites you can use for mixing, they are usually called Chinese or zinc white. Kremer does a very beautiful white that is odd looking in the pan but not opaque at all, it mixes beautiful pales from the more opaque watercolours such as chrome oxide green, certain earth reds like caput mortuum or English/Venetian red, and even others and siennas. Avoid titanium white for anything except tiny highlights. There are some lovely dark pigments and mixture that are not black. I think the reason historically for including black and white in watercolour sets is because it was part of the pedagogy of art education to do a lot of value studies, especially in Europe where they were very thorough about how things were taught. So on a student field trip you might be required to do such a study, and you would not use your coloured pigments which could be quite expensive. Well most of the really good ones still are.
Viridian used to be the color of the ocean in the tropics,a beautiful color, but it had poor light fastness. Then in the 80's they changed the pigment to be more light fast. The color changed then to a darker green that didn't glow like the older pigment did.
Your right Payne’s gray is much better. White makes the other colours muddy. Isn’t the green be mixed with yellow? As for the ultramarine, the colour is so beautiful I use it for irises and imaginary flowers. Aside from that just creating purple. Veri informative. Calm voice good subject
Thanks for the many videos. I enjoy them all. I find I also learn from the comments. Keep up the excellent work Ann God bless you throughout this trying time
One of the things I found revolutionary when I was learning: Paints aren't colors at all. Color is how we perceive things, so it's understandable to see it that way at first, but paints are made of stuff that reflects light... pigments. Understanding what materials are ground down for my pigments was very helpful in understanding why different formulas behave the way they do. My teacher actually made us search up and write reports on material safety data sheets so we could understand every element of what was in our paint. It was enlightening. A lot of students bought greens and were disappointed when he wouldn't let us use them (but made them do Color charts for them anyway, lol)
@@IntheStudiowithMicheleWebber every now and then I'm tempted to get a tube of green, but it would be a little like the expensive whisk my husband bought me. I love it and it has it's uses, but I'm still more likely to grab a fork or a pair of chopsticks because it's such a familiar way to do it. I have a very limited pallet and just mix everything really. I picked up the practice in oil painting. Once I learned how, I kept it on because it's so practical. I actually feel bad for younger artists who spend on massive paint collections. Learning to mix greens is wonderful advice.
Thank you for this video. I paint mostly landscapes and nature and I actually have Phthalo green in my beginner's palette. But even in my very first watercolour painting I would never have thought of using it on its own. Beginners need to learn how to mix the shades that they want or need; and I consider the bright greens perfect for this venture.
@@marsbeads yessss! Mix with a little quinacridone gold or indian yellow or nickel azo yellow and a little dulling with quin. coral. If learning to mix sap green you have to have phalo. I use French Ultramarine in my skies all the time. Phalo blue than should be pulled too for beginners because why they might actually have a happy accident and learn to mix with it! Oh but keep the fugitive colors. Doesn't make any sense to me.
I adore viridian aaaaaand haven't used. I've mixed it with all my other pigments at which I ooo'd and awwww'd but thats about it. So true. Thks for your yt lessons. I'm pickibg a lot up that I've forgotten. 🎨👩🎨👏👏
i feel like alot of your points are very much tailored to your taste there are plenty of amazing artists who like using granulating blues for their skys and i use ultramarine all the time to mix greens
This was merely a video about the trouble beginners get into with these colours and I too know people who can use ultramarine in skies successfully but it requires a light touch and some experience. The other colours are just a result of decades teaching art classes and seeing the problems beginners have with these colours time and again. No colours are bad as such but some colours are best left until you become experienced enough to handle them.
Of course any seasoned artists' points would be tailored to their own taste - they give hints and tips out of their own experience. About black and white - in art school black was a nono in any medium except for inks and white in watercolor was not tolerated.
Adele! These are recommendations for beginners and she explains why. She doesn’t say never to use them just avoid if you are a beginner. You jumped to conclusion without taking in all the info. Slow down please. Why so jumpy?
I discovered that if you mix slight veridian with permanent rose or Quinn magenta it tones them, it’s great to varying the pinks. It’s a great mixing colour.
Actually, I wouldn't discourage anyone from using any color especially if you are a beginner.I encourage everyone to experiment with all colors because that is how you build knowledge and skill.Try every color and create your own technique.
Viridian is PG 18, which is non-staining and much weaker than phthalo green blue shade (PG 7) (Emerald Green by White Nights is PG 7). Some paint manufacturers call their phthalo green 'viridian' but that is not accurate. I'm not sure why they do that, but maybe it's because the two colours fill a similar spot on the colour wheel? I would recommend beginners use viridian (PG 18) rather than either of the phthalo greens (PG7 or PG36) because they are so overpowering and very unnatural. They are gorgeous mixing colours though, which might be why most manufacturers include PG 7 in their beginners sets, despite how powerful they are.
Thank you, Michele, from Canada! I use viridian and alizarin crimson to make a colour that is excellent for old asphalt roads in my landscapes. I’m sure there are other mixes just as good but this is the one I have the most success with. I have too many similar colours in my pallet, however, and want to some day phase out some. Will try Phthlo green the next time in this mix and see what happens
Thank you. It is now clear that I need to learn a lot about mixing colors before I can even start. And to think I was so excited to paint a pic that I was just going to put brush to paint and go! Haha.
All these colors may be good to use from the very start. It depends on the place where you live and your personal color choice to you it or not. In the place where I live all shadows in summer are impossible to imagine without ultramarine ans alizarine. As for black I don't like to use it but some great artists used it successfully.
What bothers me in beginner sets is that there is always a blue which consists of two pigments, a blue pigment and a white pigment instead of using blues for the set which consists of one pigment.
@@IntheStudiowithMicheleWebber well, that's not all sets, e.g. from talens and sennelier contain mixed blue tones in 12 colors sets, generally the boxes with at least 24 colors contain such tones. I mean these boxes especially for beginners of brands that have colors for beginners that are easier to handle.
Let me know if any of these colors have caused you problems in the past?
I'm so very grateful that you're teaching this information for free; especially, as I've bought beginner sketching and painting kits already, under the supposition that I'll just act on inspiration, alone 😬🙃
I'd be happy to invest money into any specialized art classes 🎨 if you're ever interested (or already have) your own website to Teach from 🍎
Not watercolour, but I’ve just bought some coloured pencils and that green is one of two in the set. The other is mint. Really not very useful!
Really interesting video. Thanks
Viridian mixed with alizarin gives you nice greys. It's a very pure, transparent color, very close to true green.
Sounds great, will try that one!
I'm not exactly sure that applies to the Schmincke variant, though. That's more bluish than a true green, for all that I can tell, I'd also say it's also granulating a bit and I think it's not as translucent as say, the heliogreen wish is the other green that I got 🤔
Try mix with transparent orange, you ll get a very beautiful green tone
Yes! I accidentally did mixed those two and have been in love with that mix of grey ever since.
@@mikenoneofyourbusiness7122 You're right. True Green means exactly between blue and yellow on the color wheel, which only applies to pigments.
If you do have and want to use up Viridian, I enjoy it with Burnt Sienna for a moody, mossy green or Alizarin Crimson for lovely, stormy blues and purples.
Great ideas, thanks!
Thanks for the mixing recommendations. I like Viridian actually. Only thing is it’s too hard to re-wet so I think I will just use it out of the tube. In the pan it dries so hard that is pops out of the pan.
Yes, and it's also the perfect color both for windowglass and fog before sunrise!
The thing about viridian / phthalo green is it's actually a fantastic mixing green - add yellows or oranges to get any spectrum of natural foliage greens. Or the other angle, add blues to get any spectrum of water or skies. Or add reds to get neutrals. It's quite a workhorse on my palette but definitely not for everyone, especially those wanting to just use pigments directly from the tube
I love the color for mixing, it's a lot cheaper for a larger tube. This was the one color I got the biggest tube in lol
Color mixing is really the foundation for painting. It would be so frustrating to know what color you wanted to put to paper but have no idea how to make it. When I was in my 20's I took a few artist led community classes. I was so frustrated when I tried to paint at home and had no knowledge of color theory and mixing. So for me, I like that you are teaching it.
For most people it doesn't come naturally, but it can definitely be learned!
When I first started watercolors my instructor included thalo green as a starter color. I live where there's an abundance of fir trees. Thalo green and alizarin crimson were used for all the different colors of the firs. I switched to viridian because it's non-staining and can be lifted whereas thalo green stains and is impossible to lift. Some viridian hues contain thalo green which will stain.
This is a more more useful, information-full tutorial than the others I have watched on mixing colors. Don't use black to darken colors, don't use white to lighten them, avoid Viridian as a beginner, know that when you mix, some colors already have secondary colors in them and this will affect what color you produce... and tons more, like pan sizes and that replacements are available. Thank you - really learned something watching this!
Brilliant Patrick, thanks so much for watching :-)
You are amazing. I wish I had had the opportunity to have a great art instructor back in the day, but even though I am now retired I can perhaps have the time to take more advantage of the knowledge you have to offer. I’m overwhelmed at times, but keep replaying till things sink in.
Thanks so much Sophia, if you learn something with each painting that's all that matters, you don't have to absorb it all at once!
So true, Michelle indeed is an excellent teacher. To teach is a craft. She does it well. Whoever learns in her guidance will become proficient and confident. The best part is, Michelle doesn’t hold back. She shares secrets of artists that most will not divulge. 💗
Viridian and sepia or burnt umber make a beautiful green shade.
About using (tube) black, I was taught that the best reason for not using black is that you can actually make not only darker colors than tube black but also richer colors than black by mixing complements. I have had classroom exercises where we were challenged to make the darkest color shades possible using only colors on the color wheel without using tube black. Then once we had those lined up, we put tube black next to it to compare which is darker, and which is more....pleasing. Without a doubt, tube black was not only lighter but also gives a dirty charcoal gray essence to colors that can nearly ruin a painting. I do find tube black useful for making monochromatic paintings and value studies, but as a strong rule I leave it out of all my realistic painting work. It is also good for graphic arts purposes like lettering, calligraphy as well as logo design, line work, etc. So even as a beginner there are uses for it, but I will quickly agree using black out of the tube can trash an otherwise well executed watercolor painting; this is even true in acrylics and oil painting.
Also if you want to be a purist about traditional transparent watercolor painting techniques, white adds opacity and hence violates the whole religious stance of transparent-only colors. Many people consider adding white, even in small amounts, as moving a "traditional watercolor" instantly into the "mixed media" category. Some juried watercolor art shows may not even accept paintings if you used white pigment. So, white does have its uses, but it is tricky to learn for sure. My two cents.
All of that is true, but the purists amuse me because the earliest watercolourists all used 'body' colour, so it can hardly claim to be traditional. I am not against white, just in favour of fully understanding it's affects before using.
I live in the tropics and viridian is perfect for creating the bluish emerald water. I’ve tried a lot of other ways, but viridian really captures it.
Black is something I rarely use. Learning watercolor from professionals like you on youtube, I've learnt to avoid for the most part. However, since the watercolor set I have only has burnt sienna, I use it to darken my brown sometimes without losing the vibrancy of it.
Viridian (Hue) on the other hand, I love. I think the one I have is more a Pthalo Green than Viridian as the color is slightly different than what you've shown and the brand also has a separate Emerald bit it is still quite unnatural straight out of the tube. However, mixed with a warm red (scarlet lake in the brand I use), it gives this beautiful cool, dark but duller/more natural green that I absolutely love. And mixed with a cool red (crimson lake in the brand I use), it gives a gorgeous grey. I absolutely love it. Oh, and it also gives a bright turquoise color when mixed with prussian blue (and maybe with other cooler blues too). I also mix a teeny bit of it with prussian for the skies as the prussian I have is not quite the color of the skies. I hadn't tried mixing it with ochre though, I should give that a try too.
P.S. The brand I use is Camlin. It is an Indian brand and extremely affordable for us in south Asia. The colors are not as transparent as something like W&N and do not bloom far in water but they are lightfast, affordable, artists quality, easily reactivated and not at all chalky. Universally loved by those of us who have used it.
You are such a good teacher. I have taken watercolor on and off for 10 years and no one every told me this. I assume that these tips hold true with
acrylic paint as well??? Thank you for making this video.
Not quite. Black can be used but I wouldn't use it to darken colours, use it sparingly, just when painting something that is actually black. White IS used, because acrylics are not a transparent medium, so white is used to lighten colours. With watercolour you just add more water to lighten. The green still applies!
Great video!
I think phthalo green is usually included in beginner sets because it's a great mixing colour. Even if it isn't natural looking on its own it can be used to mix beautiful natural greens by mixing it with different yellows and blues. It can also be used to make a beautiful cool grey when mixed with a quinacridone rose or a quinacridone magenta.
Yes I did a video all about using these bright greens for mixing!
A very, very helpful video! My ex-husband is a color blind painter, and I used to help him mix colors. Viridian was the worst! I didn't know about ultramarine, though. I finally settled him on Hooker's green (he paints with acrylics), and he has been able to do some beautiful landscapes. He does see yellow, so is able to mix shades of green with Hooker's green and yellow.
Brilliant. Two hacks for Viridian that always work, add a touch of pink (greys it slightly) or add Yellow Ochre, will warm and dull it. But of course it can be hard to judge if you are colour blind, many men are, it's genetic.
This is a timeless video and sooo very useful to beginners, who maybe have never thought of colour mixing - it's a whole art in itself and one worth learning about: thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I definitely mix my greens, but I do keep phalo green in my pallette for mixing purposes, never straight. Great video Michelle.
Thanks for the tips. I consider myself quite accomplished in watercolours but sometimes it is worthwhile to go back to basics. As far as Ultramarine Blue, as I live in South Africa and like doing desert-scapes, if you use it wet on wet it is a beautiful sky colour.
Of course, no doubt a great colour for Africa, a little too strong for UK skies!
I'm learning so much with your videos. My love for watercolor is getting bigger. Thank you ♥
It's a great medium!
I really like your color mixing videos. You are a very good teacher. Thank you!
Thank you so much!
Michele, I adore your videos! I find they have so much value. Whether you are an accomplished watercolor artist or a true beginner, your passion for the art medium shines though and excites the imagination! Thank you for your willingness to share these important tips for success.
You are so welcome!
I will often use a very pale Viridian wash for skies and then go over that with more of a cerulean or primary blue color (either as a mix or after it dries) along with a bit of pale rose, yellow ochre, and ultramarine when needed. Don't diss the vrid. ;-) To me, it's essential in order to make watercolor vibrant, and I absolutely understand why it's included, (though...subtlety is most definitely a virtue). Learn to control the pure hues, just like those rose dye colors you describe as so essential.
Ah, not dissing it. It's a great and useful colour, but beginners get into a lot of trouble with it. All the colours in this video can be used effectively when you know what you are doing!
What I also find funny is that on Amazon people, for example, rate watercolour boxes worse if there are a few colors that they don't like.
But it can be checked beforehand in the description and in the pictures of the box which colors are included. If you don't like the colour scheme you can buy another one.
In the reviews, a few people always write that they do not need the white and would rather have had a different colour and others find it good that there is a white.
Exactly the same with the black.
Yes they can't please everyone!
What's worse is when that the same brand has a set of the same colors, one including and the other excluding white. Sure, the one excluding white will have another color to replace that, but you can choose for yourself what you value more, white or the extra color.
This is very useful, thank you. My Winsor Newton set came with Viridian and I never use it because it looks so unnatural, glad it's not just me.
It's very pretty, but not much found in nature!
You only have to learn how to mix it. I use mine a lot. I have a pan set of Van Gogh (I particularly don’t like Cotman’s, but I do like the professional W&N, but I only buy them in tubes) and they came with Viridian. I really love this color. I mix with different kind of yellows and browns, mix with the other green (that’s a sap green), and I find it very useful. If I had a set without it I would miss it very much. It’s an amazing color for mixing. As I don’t usually use colors in their primary stage it never bothered me.
@@ilustralilian_ The Viridian from Van Gogh (and Cotman) is actually Phthalo Green PG7, and it is a great mixing color. True Viridian is PG 18, and doesn't work well.
Thank you so much for this video. Your explanations make so much sense. I felt funny using the white to make a pink, like something was wrong, but I didn’t know why, and wasn’t happy with how the black was working when I tried to use it, even in small amounts.
So glad it helped you Dara ☺️
I used to live in Colorado (US) and the sky there was pretty close to Ultramarine on many days, especially in winter, but that was the only place where the sky got close to that.
Amazing!
Thank you Michelle! I need all the help I can get especially with mixing blues and greens as I unfortunately have tritonopia. I mostly rely on other people's advice on what works. I'll check your other videos to see your advice on other greens and blues. It's very helpful!
I am amazed how people are different. I’ve never met or even heard of trying to paint sky with ultramarine, it just doesn’t compute. For me it’s an only paint I need to rebuy frequently in sets, it’s absolutely essential. I use it in mixing and in washes of dramatic shadows, it’s a night colour for me.
It's a beautiful colour. I do know a couple of people who use it successfully in skies but they have a very pale, light touch, it certainly doesn't work with a lot of pigment.
Thank you, Michele Webber, for a great green colour-mixing video. I used to kick my Viridian out of my box but now will be able to use it for mixing, thanks to your tutorial. My favourite mix was Naples Yellow & Prussian Blue.
You are so welcome!
I looove how organized you are🤩
I always use ultramarine to make purple colors, subconsciously up to now!
Thank you for this great video 💕
Good instinct then! You are very welcome :-)
Payne's grey is such a gorgeous color!
Yes it is!
It is one of the most useful colors in watercolor. I need it.
A now deceased oil painter - former editor of Leisure Painter, F C Johnson - said Viridian on its own was useful only for painting park benches. I've seen it used for tree foliage, with ghastly results. I wouldn't recommend it, and still less pthalo green, to beginners either. I'm not a beginner, and find viridian very useful as a mixer - with yellows, with burnt sienna, for example. And, it'll make an optical black, with a bit of red - if you ask it nicely. Agree with you about Ultramarine for skies, too - at least when starting out. Useful video for beginners.
Thanks Robert, I actually have some true viridian and it's not bad, many things labelled viridian are actually phthalo greens I have found!
If I could have Only one convenience green for the rest of my life it would be phthalo green. It's very versatile and transparent and mixes beautifully for a wide range of colors. One of my favorite is to mix it with some paynes grey for wet sand effect in seascapes. But absolutely couldn't use it for the first year of learning to paint. 😁
Yes I am going to do a video with some mixes for Viridian. It's an interesting colour, but beginners sometimes chuck it into their entire landscape 😆
In the Studio with Michele Webber but if you put these kind of colors without mixing with other ones you don’t have the least amount of observation. I don’t see how this is possible. I mean, I’m really new in watercolor - about 6 months that I’m using it, but as I came from a background of coloring books (and for that I watched classes to color better - Kit and Clowder is the best) I might be jaded. But even with classes, it’s a totally another medium. I was used to use colors, but having 120 Polychromos / 150 Prismacolor + Albrecht Dürer + Luminance + Pablos + Inktense + Holbein ... whatever, you don’t really need to learn to mix colors, but to combine them... Not mixing the way we do in watercolors. So I only learned to mix colors when I decided to learn watercolor. But then I started with a set of professional 48 colors (it was a gift - I’m almost finished with most of the colors and now I’m in a phase of testing brands - “student” line none is better than Van Gogh, it puts some “professional” down, in my opinion - of course I’m not considering lightfastness since I haven’t bothered with this yet. And in the professional I do love many: MaimeriBlu, Daniel Smith, QoR, W& N (I hate Cotman), Holbeins... Oh, I love Paul Rubens as well, nice paints, great price. I really need to get more colors. And I need to test Schminke and Sennelier, but they are hard to get here. So I didn’t ever needed, in the beginning, to use these colors. But one of the first things I did was to learn how to understand better the color wheel and mix colors. For instance, in the color mixing classes from The Watercolour Academy you can learn a lot and it’s free.
I used and still do take photos or look for references to use colors to paint things in nature... I don’t know. Maybe because I’m learning on my own, and I’m choosing what I learn and from who I learn I don’t have these preconceptions to not use white or black - since my two favorite artists uses one or both of them. And Sarah Simon (@themintgardner) uses gouaches in her flowers - I’m reading her book and I’m from her Patreon. The other one I love is Cara, from Rosalie Gwen Paperie. Love the colors she uses in her paintings. Oh... of course there are many others. I just mention two that paint mostly flowers. I don’t paint only flowers. I’m still searching for my preferences.
@@IntheStudiowithMicheleWebber viridan is such a not useful colour its hard as a brick its pretty weak and not worth the effort
@@adelehammond1621 Drpends on your brand of viridian. M Graham is easy to rewet. Blick artist watercolors has a nice viridian that rewets easily as well. It is granulating too and makes great granulating mixes.
When I was first starting out, ultramarine was one of the 3 “primary” colors recommended in the course I took. But I’ve never really liked it for sky or ocean. It does make a really pretty purple like you said. I got viridian just because I like it, but you are right, it does need something else mixed with it. I love your explanations and suggestions for “alternatives.”
I especially appreciate the section on Ultramarine Blue - it explains some of the issues I've had with it and you gave some great tips to use going forward. I just found your channel, so it looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do. Thank you for posting these great tutorials. Cheers!
No problem Barb 🙂
My entire pallets is Alizarine Crimson, Lemon Yellow, Cerulean (cools) and Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Medium, French Ultramarine (warms). That’s it. You can mix what you need from there. My travel palette is only 3 inches with six half pans.
Nice explanations and reviews of the colors and how they appear and mix up. Thanks.
No problem Ruth!
Must stop watching your videos and go put all that I learn into practice, but these are so good, and I have watched alot of videos and yours are just loaded with practical tips and experience no one else ever points out, yet is so obvious when you explain it. Thank you.
Awesome, thank you!
Hey everyone, I just painted an abstract piece using all the colours a beginner isn't supposed to use. It felt liberating, joyful, and wonderfully expressive, which is what art is all about! Paint whatever you want with whatever colours and mediums you want! Fill your heart with joy! Live!! Be free!! Experience creativity fully, and don't let yourself be stifled by rules. 🖌️🎨🌈☀️
I enjoy your videos so much and learn so many things. You are so direct in your teaching-no nonsense and blabbing away. So many blogs are filled with wonderfully talented artists who talk about everything but what and how they are doing. I have had to turn several off.
You give the exact amount of how with the proper amount of anecdotes and I learn so much. Thank you, 💐
Wow, thank you!
Just started doing watercolor. Enjoy and learned a lot from your video. Thank you.
Les from Minnesota.
Hi Les, thanks for watching ☺️
Mixing sky blue from ultramarine? No worries! Just mix it with a bit of that gaudy emerald you didn't seem to like! Actually my set has no colours in between those two so yeah I have to get my blues by mixing them in some proportion or other.
From the colour theory I learned at university (not much but it was very helpful), about half of the standard chromaticity diagram contains different shades of green. It's impossible to get a full range of greens by mixing yellow and blue, just as you demonstrate. Printers use yellow and cyan which is what you're recommending.
Although I'm only a beginner with watercolour so I'm speaking from theory rather than experience, but I would recommend you that your art set contains extremely saturated greens (including the emerald you don't seem like much). As you point out, you would rarely use them directly, but they can help you mix a good range of greens and maybe that's why paint sets contain them.
Everything you say is true and I have actually done a video on the things you can use such greens for, the problem is that because most beginners don't understand colour theory they simply use the set green for their whole landscape.
Thanks for the guidance, it's very useful, especially the comments about mixing greens as I like to do landscapes !
You are very welcome Bob! X
this video was god sent, you explain everything so well and you didn't just say which color to avoid but the ones we can use to replace it, from the bottom of my heart thank you so much, this just helped so much with making the correct decision of which colors to buy first!!
I'm so glad it helped you!
just discovered your videos and thank you so much for this information with such a details. You inspire me to improve my watercolor paintings
Thank you Annabelle, so pleased you found it useful :-)
I’m a newbie. Thanks. I find you to be an effective presentation for technical aspects all the while adding a wonderful artistic presentation. I thought I heard that ultramarine is not a pure hue, so I will continue to observe which ones are, and are not. I made the crafty floral piece. Thanks. I’m really enjoying you.
Awesome, thank you! Ultramarine is a single pigment colour, but granulates heavily and varies between brands. It can be very beautiful when used for the right things :-)
Thank you, very informative for this beginner!
Thank you for this tutorial because I wondered why the put that viridian blue in my first set of tubes. I had not found a use for it. The explanations you gave were so educational. Thank you!
You’re welcome 😊
Incredibly helpful for me as a beginner. I’ve made these color mistakes already but now know why they were so unsuccessful.
Thank you!
Brilliant, once you get used to them they can all be used (carefully), they can just be tricky when you are starting out.
the first beginner set I bought was a Winsor-Newton Cotman, and one of the colours included was Viridian -- and I thought it was ghastly right off, and really have never seen any good uses for even while several of the other colours they had have turned out to be surprisingly helpful. The second set I bought was a Daniel Smith beginner's set and the only green it included was Phthalo Green Blue Shade, also rather not helpful. Your tips about mixing with the different blues was very useful information! I appreciated knowing this!
Phthalo Green is actually very useful for a more advanced artist who wants to mix colours, it's just alone that beginners get into trouble with it. I do have a video that gives some mixes for it... Somewhere (!)
Fantastic video. I had no idea about the blues. Thank you.
My pleasure!
Such a great help. I've not heard or perhaps not understood that a colours that have another primary already have a head start in that direction. Will be watching more. Awesome. Thank you 💖
Glad it was helpful!
Viridian and phthalo green are great in sea-scapes and fantasy pictures. They are my favourite greens.
Oo yes Dragons!!
I found this video extremely useful. I did share it with a friend. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing!
This was so informative...explains why blue doesn't act like I think it should!
These are all the colours I would also suggest avoiding when teaching beginners but I would also put more emphasis on the mixing of complementary colours
Hey, you’ve just got a new subscriber! And one of my cats loves your brushes, he totally approves!
Thanks so much!
I really needed this information. One of the most useful topics you have presented
Thanks Tom!
Viridian pg18 is similar to pthalo green pg7 which is used form many ready made greens ,tfs your technique
The problem with Viridian, Emerald and Phthalo is the manufacturers don't all stick to the same names! Can be confusing :-)
Really helpful. I find it difficult to decide on sky colours. Thanks
You’re welcome 😊
There are whites you can use for mixing, they are usually called Chinese or zinc white. Kremer does a very beautiful white that is odd looking in the pan but not opaque at all, it mixes beautiful pales from the more opaque watercolours such as chrome oxide green, certain earth reds like caput mortuum or English/Venetian red, and even others and siennas. Avoid titanium white for anything except tiny highlights. There are some lovely dark pigments and mixture that are not black. I think the reason historically for including black and white in watercolour sets is because it was part of the pedagogy of art education to do a lot of value studies, especially in Europe where they were very thorough about how things were taught. So on a student field trip you might be required to do such a study, and you would not use your coloured pigments which could be quite expensive. Well most of the really good ones still are.
Interesting, thank you!
Nod nod… 😀
Viridian used to be the color of the ocean in the tropics,a beautiful color, but it had poor light fastness. Then in the 80's they changed the pigment to be more light fast. The color changed then to a darker green that didn't glow like the older pigment did.
Yes they try not to use fugitive pigments now, but it does mean we miss some beauty!
Your right Payne’s gray is much better. White makes the other colours muddy. Isn’t the green be mixed with yellow? As for the ultramarine, the colour is so beautiful I use it for irises and imaginary flowers. Aside from that just creating purple. Veri informative. Calm voice good subject
Glad you liked the video ☺️
Thanks for the many videos. I enjoy them all. I find I also learn from the comments. Keep up the excellent work Ann God bless you throughout this trying time
I feel so enlightened after watching this video. Thank you!
You're so welcome!
I just mixed viridian and moonglow. So pretty.
One of the things I found revolutionary when I was learning: Paints aren't colors at all. Color is how we perceive things, so it's understandable to see it that way at first, but paints are made of stuff that reflects light... pigments. Understanding what materials are ground down for my pigments was very helpful in understanding why different formulas behave the way they do. My teacher actually made us search up and write reports on material safety data sheets so we could understand every element of what was in our paint. It was enlightening. A lot of students bought greens and were disappointed when he wouldn't let us use them (but made them do Color charts for them anyway, lol)
I use a lot of ready made greens now, but when I started I mixed them all, I think that's really important.
@@IntheStudiowithMicheleWebber every now and then I'm tempted to get a tube of green, but it would be a little like the expensive whisk my husband bought me. I love it and it has it's uses, but I'm still more likely to grab a fork or a pair of chopsticks because it's such a familiar way to do it. I have a very limited pallet and just mix everything really. I picked up the practice in oil painting. Once I learned how, I kept it on because it's so practical. I actually feel bad for younger artists who spend on massive paint collections. Learning to mix greens is wonderful advice.
I'm learning so much, thank you!
Excellent!
Thank you for this video. I paint mostly landscapes and nature and I actually have Phthalo green in my beginner's palette. But even in my very first watercolour painting I would never have thought of using it on its own. Beginners need to learn how to mix the shades that they want or need; and I consider the bright greens perfect for this venture.
You obviously have good colour mixing instincts, so glad you enjoyed the video!
Ausmalblog Ausmaler yes, phthalo green is meant to be a mixing color 👍🏻
@@marsbeads yessss! Mix with a little quinacridone gold or indian yellow or nickel azo yellow and a little dulling with quin. coral. If learning to mix sap green you have to have phalo. I use French Ultramarine in my skies all the time. Phalo blue than should be pulled too for beginners because why they might actually have a happy accident and learn to mix with it! Oh but keep the fugitive colors. Doesn't make any sense to me.
This is incredibly useful and very helpful. Thank you Michele!
Glad it was helpful!
Very helpful! Thanks.
Looks more like Winsor Red than Alizarin
Need paint chart for bathroom
Thank you. Useful advise
You are welcome
I adore viridian aaaaaand haven't used. I've mixed it with all my other pigments at which I ooo'd and awwww'd but thats about it. So true. Thks for your yt lessons. I'm pickibg a lot up that I've forgotten. 🎨👩🎨👏👏
Another very good video with plenty of easily understood information. Thank you Michele.
Glad it was helpful!
i feel like alot of your points are very much tailored to your taste there are plenty of amazing artists who like using granulating blues for their skys and i use ultramarine all the time to mix greens
This was merely a video about the trouble beginners get into with these colours and I too know people who can use ultramarine in skies successfully but it requires a light touch and some experience. The other colours are just a result of decades teaching art classes and seeing the problems beginners have with these colours time and again. No colours are bad as such but some colours are best left until you become experienced enough to handle them.
Michele is not saying don't ever use them - just to take care till more experienced!
Of course any seasoned artists' points would be tailored to their own taste - they give hints and tips out of their own experience. About black and white - in art school black was a nono in any medium except for inks and white in watercolor was not tolerated.
Adele! These are recommendations for beginners and she explains why. She doesn’t say never to use them just avoid if you are a beginner. You jumped to conclusion without taking in all the info. Slow down please. Why so jumpy?
I discovered that if you mix slight veridian with permanent rose or Quinn magenta it tones them, it’s great to varying the pinks. It’s a great mixing colour.
Yes pink is always good for calming down greens :-)
It helped to see how these colours.
Actually, I wouldn't discourage anyone from using any color especially if you are a beginner.I encourage everyone to experiment with all colors because that is how you build knowledge and skill.Try every color and create your own technique.
FYI: Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridone Gold make a very lovely green. I used to use it a lot.
Thanks for the tip!
I have bits of yellow, red and blue on my fingers right now and I do not care cause I am listening to you.
Viridian is PG 18, which is non-staining and much weaker than phthalo green blue shade (PG 7) (Emerald Green by White Nights is PG 7). Some paint manufacturers call their phthalo green 'viridian' but that is not accurate. I'm not sure why they do that, but maybe it's because the two colours fill a similar spot on the colour wheel? I would recommend beginners use viridian (PG 18) rather than either of the phthalo greens (PG7 or PG36) because they are so overpowering and very unnatural. They are gorgeous mixing colours though, which might be why most manufacturers include PG 7 in their beginners sets, despite how powerful they are.
Indeed, most of the greens I used to think were Viridian were simply mis-labelled. Yes it's good for mixing though!
I found this video fascinating I have so much to learn about color so thank you for this wonderful video.
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent info !
I'm a beginner who absolutely loves viridian. I'm not into landscapes, I'm an abstract artist.
It's a beautiful and versatile colour, just not great for beginner landscapes :-)
Absolutely useful&interesting video, thank you Michelle.
Thank you, Michele, from Canada! I use viridian and alizarin crimson to make a colour that is excellent for old asphalt roads in my landscapes. I’m sure there are other mixes just as good but this is the one I have the most success with. I have too many similar colours in my pallet, however, and want to some day phase out some. Will try Phthlo green the next time in this mix and see what happens
Great video. Just found your channel. Hope to start painting soon. Thank you. Ron Highland,Indiana
Thank you. It is now clear that I need to learn a lot about mixing colors before I can even start. And to think I was so excited to paint a pic that I was just going to put brush to paint and go! Haha.
Nothing wrong with diving in. Don't want to spend so much time on reasearch that you don't paint. Learn as you go along!
@@IntheStudiowithMicheleWebber Thanks for advice.....I will do just that! :)
For African skies we often paint a pink undercoat. African skies are very different to European skies.
Thank you for an interesting and informative tutorial. My painting needs all the help I can find. Keep up the good work!
Thank you 🙏
All these colors may be good to use from the very start. It depends on the place where you live and your personal color choice to you it or not. In the place where I live all shadows in summer are impossible to imagine without ultramarine ans alizarine. As for black I don't like to use it but some great artists used it successfully.
This was very very helpful
Ah, thanks Carol ☺️
I actually like ultramarine in skies, but I like mixing it with pthalo blue to adjust the color. I like the granulation in skies.
I do this too, with cerulean, to keep but reduce the granulation :-)
New subscriber here and newbie with watercolors. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and talents. ♥️♥️♥️
What bothers me in beginner sets is that there is always a blue which consists of two pigments,
a blue pigment and a white pigment instead of using blues for the set which consists of one pigment.
Most beginners sets have Cerulean and Ultramarine here in the UK and those are both single pigment ones 🙂
@@IntheStudiowithMicheleWebber
well, that's not all sets, e.g. from talens and sennelier contain mixed blue tones in 12 colors sets, generally the boxes with at least 24 colors contain such tones.
I mean these boxes especially for beginners of brands that have colors for beginners that are easier to handle.
Paint in your hair is the making of joy in progress… what is there not to celebrate ❤
Thank you for a very helpful video.
No worries!
Thank you! Very helpful Michele!
This was very informative, thank you!
Perfect! Thank you
You're welcome!