Painting with CMY instead of RYB is imo way nicer for mixing colors. I think when working with limited palettes, it's much more challenging, but imo more interesting to avoid using the primaries all at once, and instead replace at least one with another color i.e.: burnt sienna, violet and yellow instead of red blue and yellow.
@@viviondioline I’ll have to maybe do a dedicated video on this. I actually greatly prefer the look of RYB color mixes to CMY but I should continue to investigate as my tastes do change over time. Do you have a good Cyan that you like in gouache?
@@DannySabraArt I use Holbein's "Primary Cyan". I was kinda broke one day and needed some paint and tried out their cmy tubes that they sold in a pack at my local art store. I think red yellow and blue do mix in predictable ways, and that's what I've used most of my time painting. I just find that CMY produces a wider range of hues with much brighter results.
@@viviondioline I’d agree with you there! I think they typically do give you a much wider color spectrum to work with and that can be useful! I’ll maybe have to play around with it more. It’s just a different way of thinking about color than what I’m most comfortable with.
Holbein's starter gouache set (CMYKW) is my favourite. Excellent quality 👍🏻 and inexpensive (5x 15ml around 22€ via Jackson's). It's beginner friendly as well, as it includes a colour mixing brochure, showing how to mix many colours from just 5. I found it the best way to start and showed me I cam afford high quality paint for reasonable $$. I can mix from the basic colours and learn from the process. Yes, I can always add burnt sienna or cobalt teal if I feel fancy, but the starter set was a fantastic way to get going with a limited palette.
This is a great tip. I might have to check it out! I've actually been incorporating more black into my gouache pallets and have been liking the effects of getting more contrast and less saturation in my darkest darks
Mixing black has been a surprise to me it creates interesting greens when mixed with yellow, a totally different direction than the mixes of yellow and blue. Hope you try the Holbein Starter set. I think all brands should do something similar. I found it so useful as a beginner! @DannySabraArt
Beautiful painting, There was a moment where I thought your were going to leave it as a negative space painting (I liked that too) Also, on the topic of palettes that don’t go very dark, I’ve found that blue gives a bit of an illusion of a darker value, especially if it’s surrounded by warm colors and vice versa.
Thanks CD! I thought about it! I kinda want to try some negative painting possibly with just white on this toned surface. And I think you’re right about blue! I’d like to experiment with more blues and really dial in various color palettes
@@steamyb2 that’s a great palette! I’ve been playing around with rotating out a primary over the past couple years. There’s a pthalo blue by Utrecht in their gouche line that is a PERFECT sky blue. But it’s tonal value is much higher than ultramarine so it’s always interesting to experiment with that one. I’ve also been using black on occasion to give me more of that tonal value depth that I lose sometimes. I’ll probably talk about that in one of my next videos.
Thanks Michael! This is a Mi Tientes Board from Canson cut to 4x6 dimension. It’s their toned archival paper that they glue to archival matte board. I find it’s a really nice surface to paint on and I enjoy that I can custom cut it to size and the boards are easily frameable. This color is called “tobacco” but they have a lot of different colors and I’d like to try some other ones. Highly recommend!
It’s pretty economical as well. A 12”x18” board is about $5 so you can make a lot of smaller boards with it easily. It’ll be a while before I run out. I’m going to try painting with acrylic in the next couple of days so that’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
After years I still haven’t really settled on one palette lol. I definitely gravitate towards using certain pigments though. I use acrylics and have found that chroma is often lost due to the properties of the binder, so the compromise is to only use pure single-pigment paints and if the color is still lacking then a transparent glaze will do the trick 99% of the time. With acrylics you can also just separate the pigment from the binder by using a lot of water and the result is much purer color
That’s a really interesting insight Brandon. I think I’ve noticed that too with some of my more transparent colors for sure. I recently intentionally was playing around with glazing and I was surprised at the Intensity of color that it gave me. Almost too much for the passage I was working on! Sometimes I water down gouache for transparent passages but it’s almost always on a white background. And with regards to settling on a palette I haven’t either. I think it’s too much fun to fiddle with variety and experiment. But sometimes I know that possibly holds me back as when I started I used the same palette for a couple years and was able to really dial that in. So there’s benefits to consistency too. Follow the muse!
Thank you Trish! I’ve been experimenting with Canson’s “Mi Tientes” board. It’s archival colored paper on archival board. I think it’s intended use is for matting, but since it’s archival surface I’ve been experimenting with it. It holds the gouache nicely, has a subtle texture and best of all I can cut to custom sizes and easily frame. A 12x18” board is a little under $5 at my local art shop and it’s been lasting me a while so far! I think it’s superior to mixed media paper if you don’t mind cutting it to size (can be done with a utility knife) They have a ton of colors and it’s been a time saver in not having to tone it myself. I want to play around with some other colors as well. Highly recommend. I might make a video on it one of these days
@DannySabraArt That’s so cool!! Might be a good thing for me to try before my en plein air trip to Lake O’Hara. It could be safer for my paintings when backpacking.
@trishnewbery161 Definitely worth a try for sure! I’ve really been favoring boards for their ease of framing options if you might sell one. It frustrates me how most watercolor blocks are cut to European sizes and are difficult to frame without custom mattes and frame sizes. I’ve been painting in standard photo sizes and can get frames easily. It’s also pleasant to paint on something more firm and substantial and in a way it feels more “legit” to have something solid than a wavy piece of paper at the end. But I still use WC paper for sure. I’ve just been preferring it lately for those reasons.
Painting with CMY instead of RYB is imo way nicer for mixing colors. I think when working with limited palettes, it's much more challenging, but imo more interesting to avoid using the primaries all at once, and instead replace at least one with another color i.e.: burnt sienna, violet and yellow instead of red blue and yellow.
CMY mixes are much less muddy
@@viviondioline I’ll have to maybe do a dedicated video on this. I actually greatly prefer the look of RYB color mixes to CMY but I should continue to investigate as my tastes do change over time. Do you have a good Cyan that you like in gouache?
@@DannySabraArt I use Holbein's "Primary Cyan". I was kinda broke one day and needed some paint and tried out their cmy tubes that they sold in a pack at my local art store.
I think red yellow and blue do mix in predictable ways, and that's what I've used most of my time painting. I just find that CMY produces a wider range of hues with much brighter results.
@@viviondioline I’d agree with you there! I think they typically do give you a much wider color spectrum to work with and that can be useful! I’ll maybe have to play around with it more. It’s just a different way of thinking about color than what I’m most comfortable with.
Holbein's starter gouache set (CMYKW) is my favourite. Excellent quality 👍🏻 and inexpensive (5x 15ml around 22€ via Jackson's). It's beginner friendly as well, as it includes a colour mixing brochure, showing how to mix many colours from just 5. I found it the best way to start and showed me I cam afford high quality paint for reasonable $$. I can mix from the basic colours and learn from the process. Yes, I can always add burnt sienna or cobalt teal if I feel fancy, but the starter set was a fantastic way to get going with a limited palette.
This is a great tip. I might have to check it out! I've actually been incorporating more black into my gouache pallets and have been liking the effects of getting more contrast and less saturation in my darkest darks
Mixing black has been a surprise to me it creates interesting greens when mixed with yellow, a totally different direction than the mixes of yellow and blue. Hope you try the Holbein Starter set. I think all brands should do something similar. I found it so useful as a beginner! @DannySabraArt
Beautiful painting, There was a moment where I thought your were going to leave it as a negative space painting (I liked that too)
Also, on the topic of palettes that don’t go very dark, I’ve found that blue gives a bit of an illusion of a darker value, especially if it’s surrounded by warm colors and vice versa.
Thanks CD! I thought about it! I kinda want to try some negative painting possibly with just white on this toned surface. And I think you’re right about blue! I’d like to experiment with more blues and really dial in various color palettes
Hey Danny!
I use Cad Yellow, Primary Red, Ultramarine Blue & Titanium White.
Works for me!
@@steamyb2 that’s a great palette! I’ve been playing around with rotating out a primary over the past couple years. There’s a pthalo blue by Utrecht in their gouche line that is a PERFECT sky blue. But it’s tonal value is much higher than ultramarine so it’s always interesting to experiment with that one. I’ve also been using black on occasion to give me more of that tonal value depth that I lose sometimes. I’ll probably talk about that in one of my next videos.
Great video and conversation. Thanks Danny! I'm wondering what kind of surface you're working on here? Thanks so much!
Thanks Michael! This is a Mi Tientes Board from Canson cut to 4x6 dimension. It’s their toned archival paper that they glue to archival matte board. I find it’s a really nice surface to paint on and I enjoy that I can custom cut it to size and the boards are easily frameable. This color is called “tobacco” but they have a lot of different colors and I’d like to try some other ones. Highly recommend!
It’s pretty economical as well. A 12”x18” board is about $5 so you can make a lot of smaller boards with it easily. It’ll be a while before I run out. I’m going to try painting with acrylic in the next couple of days so that’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
@@DannySabraArt amazing! Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond.
@MichaelWurmJr absolutely! No problem
After years I still haven’t really settled on one palette lol. I definitely gravitate towards using certain pigments though. I use acrylics and have found that chroma is often lost due to the properties of the binder, so the compromise is to only use pure single-pigment paints and if the color is still lacking then a transparent glaze will do the trick 99% of the time. With acrylics you can also just separate the pigment from the binder by using a lot of water and the result is much purer color
That’s a really interesting insight Brandon. I think I’ve noticed that too with some of my more transparent colors for sure. I recently intentionally was playing around with glazing and I was surprised at the Intensity of color that it gave me. Almost too much for the passage I was working on! Sometimes I water down gouache for transparent passages but it’s almost always on a white background.
And with regards to settling on a palette I haven’t either. I think it’s too much fun to fiddle with variety and experiment. But sometimes I know that possibly holds me back as when I started I used the same palette for a couple years and was able to really dial that in. So there’s benefits to consistency too. Follow the muse!
This was so helpful! May I ask what tonal paper you are using for this?
Thank you Trish! I’ve been experimenting with Canson’s “Mi Tientes” board. It’s archival colored paper on archival board. I think it’s intended use is for matting, but since it’s archival surface I’ve been experimenting with it. It holds the gouache nicely, has a subtle texture and best of all I can cut to custom sizes and easily frame. A 12x18” board is a little under $5 at my local art shop and it’s been lasting me a while so far! I think it’s superior to mixed media paper if you don’t mind cutting it to size (can be done with a utility knife)
They have a ton of colors and it’s been a time saver in not having to tone it myself. I want to play around with some other colors as well. Highly recommend. I might make a video on it one of these days
@DannySabraArt That’s so cool!! Might be a good thing for me to try before my en plein air trip to Lake O’Hara. It could be safer for my paintings when backpacking.
@trishnewbery161 Definitely worth a try for sure! I’ve really been favoring boards for their ease of framing options if you might sell one. It frustrates me how most watercolor blocks are cut to European sizes and are difficult to frame without custom mattes and frame sizes. I’ve been painting in standard photo sizes and can get frames easily. It’s also pleasant to paint on something more firm and substantial and in a way it feels more “legit” to have something solid than a wavy piece of paper at the end. But I still use WC paper for sure. I’ve just been preferring it lately for those reasons.