Green hues are one of the more difficult to work with. Art teacher/Artist Dianne Mize answers a question from one of our subscribers about this subject.
I was an art major in college, in the 60's. And then went into management and never used what I had learned. I haven't painted in years, but am now trying to paint a background for a large model railroad layout focused on the east Texas piney woods. I was stumped on how to do shadows under the trees until this video. Thank you for the excellent teaching methods and explanations. I am practicing on made up practice sections until I feel comfortable painting on the actual backdrops.
You are a wonderful and beautiful person to share your knowledge of art with the world. God bless you with a healthy long life so people like myself keep learning and loving art 🖼
One little hint, Candace. It actually can get easier to work things out in studies rather than to try to remember them. After all these decades of painting, I still run into passages that stop me in my tracks. THAT'S the time to stop and solve the problem in a study rather than try to work it out on the painting. In my mind, it's the same as a musician working out a musical phrase, the blending into a performance.
Again such good information. Thanks!!! I took notes and I plan to reinforce the info. with colour swatches in my sketchbook. I love that you say we should refer to the colour wheel. It makes so much sense and I don't have to depend so much on my memory.
Thank you, Dianne. You explain this so well. I have a fellow painter who was trying to lighten green by adding more and more white but was never happy!
Again a great lesson! And exceptionally helpful because I'm always struggling with landscapes, trees and bushes. Many thanks and I hope you will keep helping us amateur painters for a long time in the future with your great lessons. I learned SO MUCH from your quick tips! Thanks, Dianne, and greetings from Amsterdam (NL)
you ARE a great teacher. Thank you so much, i understand the concepts you teach easily. I can't say that about many teachers. God bless you and thank you again, sincerely!. :)
This is a fantastic video! You always give such thorough yet easy to understood explanations ( I just don't always remember all the details . . . love being able to re-watch your Quick Tips). THANK YOU!!!
I have found, after moving to California, that leaves of many of the indigenous flora appear more drab than I was used to seeing out east. Now I know how to manipulate the greens to capture their color. Thank you for that great explanation.
Great tip Dianne ! i always use red and blue for shadow green also a bit of burnt umber for an olive green , never use black it takes over the colour .
I found that so interesting and something I can use often as I find at times greens can be very difficult to get just the value that I’m looking for thank you
A postscript to yesterday's note . . . . I just watched this great tip a second time. Yesterday, I should have added . . . it is so helpful to know the brand AND colors (single color or mixtures) you use in your demos. GREAT to be able to (or try to) duplicate your exact example before trying to venture out with other colors (in this case other greens). THANK YOU FOR FANTASTIC TIPS!!!!!!!!
I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw this tip offering. Thank you. I think I may be over thinking my greens for example; in direct sunlight I want to put lightest light with lightest shadow (maybe this is shallow shadow). Then in the medium shadow (core) I am grouping the medium values lighter and darker/warmer and cooler, In deep shadow colors I use more desaturated colors; warm and cool. The real confusion for me starts when using cool light warm shadows. So....would this mean more viridian in the original mix and then more reds in shadow? For the most part I understand what your tip explains. More practice even if I use a green apple or other green form will probably help make is less complicated. Am I getting out of line with my process? Thank you so much. Onward I go.
Candace, greens vary so much it is best to depend upon observation as to their color in various places, but if you remember that in shadow, the lightest value will be about the same (sometimes a bit lighter) than the darkest dark not in shadow, you will keep your values reading correctly. In cool light, shadows are warmer than areas not in shadow, but warmer might mean they have in them more purple or orange or green or any other hue that is warmer than the colors not in shadow. Warmer doesn't always mean adding red or yellow. I have two video tutorials that might help--In Series 37, Working with Shadows, Lessons 3 & 4. In these two I use a hay bail--in warm light for lesson 3 and cool light for lesson 4.
As there is a complimentary color in the shadow but no complimentary color in light, it seems that we can not make the color of light by adding white and yellow to the color of shade. Then can I subsume that to make the colors of "in shadow" and "not in shadow" of any shape, I need to start with local color of that shape? Or can I make the color of " in shadow" by first mixing the color of " not in shadow " and then just make it darker and add complimentary color to make " in shadow " color of that shape. I understand that to make the light color of a shape which is not in direct light, I can add white to the color of " in shadow". Thank you so much for your valuable teachings.
Reza, there might very well be complimentary color in light, depend upon the local color-- the color of tree trunks or dirt, for example. And yes, beginning with the local color of the shape is our best bet. By doing so, we begin "in tune". In the long run, it's best to depend upon observation and make color mixing decisions by what we know bout how color behaves as it receives various degrees of light or to the extent it is in shadow, considering the temperature of the light.
Say, Dianne, I have been watching these for about an hour and I have been painting the color chart studies that you've shown us with the blue and orange. (I have just moved on to the purple and yellow... My question is: am I first and foremost working to find the true complimentary color or am I working to study the gradations? Thank you, I have learned a lot from this approach to color and to finding the neutrals. WHY are we finding the neutral, is it to "prove" that the compliment is true? All in all, very interesting and informative. To ask another way: Am I looking for the true compliment so that the colors used in the painting will be the most harmonious, the most visually pleasing? (Or, again, not to belabor the point, am I learning how to shadow and shade for depth and variation of the hue and varying intensity?) I learned a great lesson when you said, in effect, "Don't start out with the full intensity of color or you'll have no place to go to high light".Your lessons have been invaluable to me.
First, this blue/orange Quick Tip is the first in a series of 5. In this one, I was showing you how to adjust and mix for a scientific study of compliments. In the one coming up this week, I'll be showing you the steps for making the chart. The next week, one way to approach mixing yellows/purples, and so on. The purpose for doing these studies is to develop a skill for controlling color/value/intensity mixtures. Since this is a scientific study, our goal is to develop a method for finding exact complements and yes, to be able to mix an exact neutral from them. During the process of developing the chart (coming Wednesday), you learn to control both value and intensity of colors. So, in the long run - just like a chemistry experiment - the color chart exercises can develop the skill of seeing nuances of hue, value and intensity which will feed over into enhancing your painting skills.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction Thank you for your answer. I just watched this lesson again and it has so much information it will take some time for me to study it and wrap my head around so much knowledge. You are deepening my understanding with every lesson I watch. Thank you again,
Very helpful! Now, I work in watercolors, so instead of adding white, would you suggest diluting the green and adding a touch of yellow, hansa light or medium, for a lighter color?
Yes. Watercolor is so different from oils that I often say it is more akin to pottery. I suggest you play with it to find out which yellows work best or whether, with certain greens, adding yellow is needed.
I can guess or understand how to gradate with other hues, but what about darker hues like purple / ultramarine? How to make them warmer/cooler & lighter like you shown with the green hue using yellow & white?
Every tube color has its inherent value which we can make lighter by adding white, prior to mixing it with another color. I did that here in Quick Tip 223.
I currently working on a bayou scene at dawn. Much moisture in the air, old cypress. I believe the dull gray green references apply. Question: Clearly the light shifts won't warm toward yellow much, if at all. But can I say the same for shadow shifts? Does it warm toward dark blue green or only slightly darker gray green (little blue)?
I wouldn't dare make a rule about this. Generally, in cool or overcast light, shadows will be warmer. That could me a shift towards purple or orange, but observing the hue difference is your best bet for getting that color right. It could also mean a shift towards neutral.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction Thank you. My last sentence was badly worded. I meant, "Does it SHIFT toward dark blue green..." I think the observational part is hard. Takes practice but I think there's less gradation in moist low light conditions.
Please will you make the same video for yellow and orange. If you can't then please tell me how to mix dark yellow and dark orange. People are misleading and confusing us on these colours. I believe they are hardest to deal with. Some artist suggest to introduce burnt umber and all these earth colour to do so but it goes off with these and I want to stick to primary colour palette.
Arvind, if you are using the most highly saturated yellow and oranges, then using their complements or their split complements is the best way to darken them. For yellow the complement is violet and the split complement is a set of red-violet and blue-violet; for orange the complement is blue and the split is blue-violet and red-violet.
This tip was to get you going in the right direction of realizing that adding white reduces the warmth. It all depends upon the direction in which you want to lean the lighter green so yes, adding yellow orange or even orange might give you what you are seeing or aiming for. We do best when we taken it past the theory and put it into practice with studies.
@melih gumuscay, the only way to get yellow lighter is to add white to it. It is already the lightest color on the color wheel. There are a number of tube colors formulated towards a lighter yellow, but my take is that just adding while gets the job done. Notice that, depending upon the yellow you are using, some lean towards green, others sit pretty close to spectrum yellow and some lean towards orange.
Could you do a Video on how to mix Naples Yellow plz. and Indian Yellow too plz. You may have done Videos on making Colors already and I just cant find them. TY
Miss Dianne, please know how much we all appreciate your teaching us beginners! Thank you so much! You are a wonderful teacher!
Thank you.
Thank you.
I've been all over the place with green, I'm glad you resolved this for me also. Thank you.
My pleasure.
Thank you again. I have always had great difficulty with greens.
You are so welcome!
You are just the best Diane..Beautifully explained.. Thankyou so much
Miss Dianne, I love how you teach. Trank you fit take your time us.
You are so welcome
So informative and spot on. Thank you for all these wonderful quick tips.
My pleasure.
I was an art major in college, in the 60's. And then went into management and never used what I had learned. I haven't painted in years, but am now trying to paint a background for a large model railroad layout focused on the east Texas piney woods. I was stumped on how to do shadows under the trees until this video. Thank you for the excellent teaching methods and explanations. I am practicing on made up practice sections until I feel comfortable painting on the actual backdrops.
Good for you! Enjoy the process.
You are a wonderful and beautiful person to share your knowledge of art with the world. God bless you with a healthy long life so people like myself keep learning and loving art 🖼
Thanks, Mary.
You are just amazing - thank you
Wow, thank you!
I am always curious on the gradation of greens in Monet's water lilies. Now, you have shown me the way. Thanks.
You are very welcome
Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge!
My pleasure.
I have realised this problem in my paintings just these days and here's my saviour. Love from Pakistan ma'am
Great!
What a wonderful "tip". I had no idea. I can see this across all media. Thank you very much!!🧡
Yes, the principles of color mixing are the same across the board.
Thank you so much! You are a very good teacher!
Thank you so much! The information resolves big one of my problems.
Wonderful!
Thank you Dianne for your help with greens. I will check out the series 37. The more I know the harder it gets!
One little hint, Candace. It actually can get easier to work things out in studies rather than to try to remember them. After all these decades of painting, I still run into passages that stop me in my tracks. THAT'S the time to stop and solve the problem in a study rather than try to work it out on the painting. In my mind, it's the same as a musician working out a musical phrase, the blending into a performance.
It might sound strange but I was wondering about this a few days ago, lol! Thank you for your wonderful instruction, Dianne! Julie 🥰
Synchronicity! And my pleasure.
Once again: very helpful, your explanations are just great. thank you very much!
My pleasure.
You’re fantastic! You’re a great teacher!
Thanks.
Excellent explanation one of the best, thank you very much!
You're very welcome!
Again such good information. Thanks!!! I took notes and I plan to reinforce the info. with colour swatches in my sketchbook. I love that you say we should refer to the colour wheel. It makes so much sense and I don't have to depend so much on my memory.
We are visual people so it's always a good thing to have a visual reference.
I love your videos. Thank you for making them.
It's a pleasure to share.
Quick Tip #158 - Going Green - is the foundation of my current level of understanding of green.
I am delighted.
Really Enlightening Tutorial on Green. Learned something that I was always searching for! Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure.
Every quick tip is awesome. Thank you for your patience and time for doing these videos.
My pleasure!
Excellent lesson! Thank you Dianne!
Thanks. And my pleasure.
Faboulous explanations. Thank you so much. 👏 bravo et merci beaucoup
My pleasure.
What an amazing lesson! Your teaching will help my landscape painting sooooo much!
I'm so glad!
Thank you, Dianne. Great stuff and presentation.
My pleasure.
Thank you, I needed this just now.
It's a pleasure.
Thank you, Dianne. You explain this so well. I have a fellow painter who was trying to lighten green by adding more and more white but was never happy!
Yep, I see that a lot. Hope this helps your fellow painter.
This is such an important tutorial. Thank you for this wonderful explanation and demonstration.
My pleasure. Thanks for watching.
Thank you Dianne. Your quick tips are always so informative and this one in particular reminds me to refer to the colour wheel .
In my experience, the color wheel is the painter's most important tool when one uses it to find color relationships.
Again a great lesson! And exceptionally helpful because I'm always struggling with landscapes, trees and bushes. Many thanks and I hope you will keep helping us amateur painters for a long time in the future with your great lessons. I learned SO MUCH from your quick tips! Thanks, Dianne, and greetings from Amsterdam (NL)
Thanks. I am delight to help.
Greens are difficult for me too. Thank you for simplifying.
Glad to help.
You remind me of my mom if she could draw :)
Thanks for all the information you're sharing, much love!
Thanks.
Excellente explications sur les verts!!! avec en plus une attitude zen, cela fait du bien au moral
merci et bonne fin de semaine
Merci.
you ARE a great teacher. Thank you so much, i understand the concepts you teach easily. I can't say that about many teachers. God bless you and thank you again, sincerely!. :)
Thank you! 😃
Wow - that was brilliant, thank you!
My pleasure! Thanks for watching.
This is a fantastic video! You always give such thorough yet easy to understood explanations ( I just don't always remember all the details . . . love being able to re-watch your Quick Tips). THANK YOU!!!
The best way to remember them is to do them, then they will become a part of your tool kit.
Very informative tutorial and easy to understand color theory for beginners.
Wonderful!
G-R-E-A-T video. Explained beautifully! Thank you!!!!!!
My pleasure.
Thank you so much you cleared my concepts about green so succintly. May ALLAH bless you and keep you healthy.
Play with greens and you'll see how easy they are to work with.
Salute you, I now realise where I was going wrong. My greens coming pale or milky
I'm delighted to help.
Oh Dianne! This is so very helpful and logical. Mahalo for helping us understand what is happening to color in sun and shadow 🏝✨🙏🏽
Great! Enjoy working with color!
Thank you, this was a great help, painting dappled shade is something I aspire to, this tip should really help me achieve that.
Great!
Wow talk about a light bulb moment !... fantastic explanation Dianne, thank you 💚
Shall refer back to this many times I'm sure
I love turning on those light bulbs.
I have found, after moving to California, that leaves of many of the indigenous flora appear more drab than I was used to seeing out east. Now I know how to manipulate the greens to capture their color. Thank you for that great explanation.
Great!
Great tip Dianne ! i always use red and blue for shadow green also a bit of burnt umber for an olive green , never use black it takes over the colour .
Alan, you might have fun playing with other options to open up your range of possibilities.
EXCELENTE DIANNE!!!!
GRACIAS! !!!
UN SALUDO DESDE MÉXICO
Thanks for watching.
I found that so interesting and something I can use often as I find at times greens can be very difficult to get just the value that I’m looking for thank you
My pleasure.
Very helpful, even for a watercolorist!
Yes!
A postscript to yesterday's note . . . . I just watched this great tip a second time. Yesterday, I should have added . . . it is so helpful to know the brand AND colors (single color or mixtures) you use in your demos. GREAT to be able to (or try to) duplicate your exact example before trying to venture out with other colors (in this case other greens). THANK YOU FOR FANTASTIC TIPS!!!!!!!!
Good point, Joan. Thanks.
You are so awesome 👏
Thanks!!!
I appreciate it greatly.
My pleasure. Thanks for being a Studio Insider member.
The hardest colour for me. Thank you.
You can do it! Thanks for watching.
Thank you!
My pleasure.
Thank you, good video!
My pleasure.
Really very useful thanks...
My pleasure.
Thank you, I need to use the color wheel more often
I would say always. You can watch a free video on how to use the color wheel at diannemizeacademy.com .
super helpfull, thankyou.
You bet.
Thank You.
You are welcome.
I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw this tip offering. Thank you. I think I may be over thinking my greens for example; in direct sunlight I want to put lightest light with lightest shadow (maybe this is shallow shadow). Then in the medium shadow (core) I am grouping the medium values lighter and darker/warmer and cooler, In deep shadow colors I use more desaturated colors; warm and cool.
The real confusion for me starts when using cool light warm shadows. So....would this mean more viridian in the original mix and then more reds in shadow?
For the most part I understand what your tip explains. More practice even if I use a green apple or other green form will probably help make is less complicated.
Am I getting out of line with my process?
Thank you so much. Onward I go.
Candace, greens vary so much it is best to depend upon observation as to their color in various places, but if you remember that in shadow, the lightest value will be about the same (sometimes a bit lighter) than the darkest dark not in shadow, you will keep your values reading correctly.
In cool light, shadows are warmer than areas not in shadow, but warmer might mean they have in them more purple or orange or green or any other hue that is warmer than the colors not in shadow. Warmer doesn't always mean adding red or yellow. I have two video tutorials that might help--In Series 37, Working with Shadows, Lessons 3 & 4. In these two I use a hay bail--in warm light for lesson 3 and cool light for lesson 4.
Thank, again!
My pleasure.
thank you!
My pleasure.
Thanks!
You bet!
Thank you so much, this was very helpful. Could you please do a quick tip/tutorial how to paint the transition between the hairline and skin.
Sure thing! Look for it in late June as we film these several weeks in advance.
thank you. It all made sence. I think I'd better spend some time working on greens.
Have fun with it.
As there is a complimentary color in the shadow but no complimentary color in light, it seems that we can not make the color of light by adding white and yellow to the color of shade. Then can I subsume that to make the colors of "in shadow" and "not in shadow" of any shape, I need to start with local color of that shape? Or can I make the color of " in shadow" by first mixing the color of " not in shadow " and then just make it darker and add complimentary color to make " in shadow " color of that shape. I understand that to make the light color of a shape which is not in direct light, I can add white to the color of " in shadow". Thank you so much for your valuable teachings.
Reza, there might very well be complimentary color in light, depend upon the local color-- the color of tree trunks or dirt, for example. And yes, beginning with the local color of the shape is our best bet. By doing so, we begin "in tune". In the long run, it's best to depend upon observation and make color mixing decisions by what we know bout how color behaves as it receives various degrees of light or to the extent it is in shadow, considering the temperature of the light.
Another timely tip, Dianne. As commenters have already said, getting realistic foliage colors can be a frustrating proposition.
It gets easy once you manage the technical side of it.
Thank you
You're welcome
I love art
Me, too!
Say, Dianne, I have been watching these for about an hour and I have been painting the color chart studies that you've shown us with the blue and orange. (I have just moved on to the purple and yellow... My question is: am I first and foremost working to find the true complimentary color or am I working to study the gradations? Thank you, I have learned a lot from this approach to color and to finding the neutrals. WHY are we finding the neutral, is it to "prove" that the compliment is true? All in all, very interesting and informative.
To ask another way: Am I looking for the true compliment so that the colors used in the painting will be the most harmonious, the most visually pleasing? (Or, again, not to belabor the point, am I learning how to shadow and shade for depth and variation of the hue and varying intensity?)
I learned a great lesson when you said, in effect, "Don't start out with the full intensity of color or you'll have no place to go to high light".Your lessons have been invaluable to me.
First, this blue/orange Quick Tip is the first in a series of 5. In this one, I was showing you how to adjust and mix for a scientific study of compliments. In the one coming up this week, I'll be showing you the steps for making the chart. The next week, one way to approach mixing yellows/purples, and so on.
The purpose for doing these studies is to develop a skill for controlling color/value/intensity mixtures. Since this is a scientific study, our goal is to develop a method for finding exact complements and yes, to be able to mix an exact neutral from them. During the process of developing the chart (coming Wednesday), you learn to control both value and intensity of colors.
So, in the long run - just like a chemistry experiment - the color chart exercises can develop the skill of seeing nuances of hue, value and intensity which will feed over into enhancing your painting skills.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction Thank you for your answer. I just watched this lesson again and it has so much information it will take some time for me to study it and wrap my head around so much knowledge. You are deepening my understanding with every lesson I watch. Thank you again,
I loved this video. I love all your videos. Could I please send you an image of my painting before I saw your video and one after?
Gouri, I wish my time would allow that, but you can request a critique at diannemize.com/painting-critiques/ .
Thanks for that
My pleasure.
Very helpful! Now, I work in watercolors, so instead of adding white, would you suggest diluting the green and adding a touch of yellow, hansa light or medium, for a lighter color?
Yes. Watercolor is so different from oils that I often say it is more akin to pottery. I suggest you play with it to find out which yellows work best or whether, with certain greens, adding yellow is needed.
Could you also do a quick tip on graduation of the brilliant colors of sky when sun is setting
I'll put your request on our filming schedule. We film these several weeks in advance, so look for it late September or early October.
I can guess or understand how to gradate with other hues, but what about darker hues like purple / ultramarine? How to make them warmer/cooler & lighter like you shown with the green hue using yellow & white?
Every tube color has its inherent value which we can make lighter by adding white, prior to mixing it with another color. I did that here in Quick Tip 223.
Thank you for your explanation , but when you getting lighter by adding yellow and white, doesn’t white make it cooler again?
The yellow being warm knocks down the cool of the white.
I currently working on a bayou scene at dawn. Much moisture in the air, old cypress. I believe the dull gray green references apply. Question: Clearly the light shifts won't warm toward yellow much, if at all. But can I say the same for shadow shifts? Does it warm toward dark blue green or only slightly darker gray green (little blue)?
I wouldn't dare make a rule about this. Generally, in cool or overcast light, shadows will be warmer. That could me a shift towards purple or orange, but observing the hue difference is your best bet for getting that color right. It could also mean a shift towards neutral.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction Thank you. My last sentence was badly worded. I meant, "Does it SHIFT toward dark blue green..." I think the observational part is hard. Takes practice but I think there's less gradation in moist low light conditions.
👌👌👌👌🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🌹🌹🌹
😊
Please will you make the same video for yellow and orange. If you can't then please tell me how to mix dark yellow and dark orange. People are misleading and confusing us on these colours. I believe they are hardest to deal with. Some artist suggest to introduce burnt umber and all these earth colour to do so but it goes off with these and I want to stick to primary colour palette.
Arvind, if you are using the most highly saturated yellow and oranges, then using their complements or their split complements is the best way to darken them. For yellow the complement is violet and the split complement is a set of red-violet and blue-violet; for orange the complement is blue and the split is blue-violet and red-violet.
Does this principle work with all colors? I assume so. Thank you.
Yes. The principles of color mixing do not change with the medium.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction colors not mediums. Thank you for quick response. Do you have a video on skin tones.
Hi, kindly do you have art tutorial DVDs on Amazon and under which title or company
Yes. There are 170 DVDs to choose from. You can browse them at www.amazon.com/s?k=dianne+mize+dvd&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
But what if we want to degrade of yellow. According to this theory we shoul add orange and white to get a lighter tone???
This tip was to get you going in the right direction of realizing that adding white reduces the warmth. It all depends upon the direction in which you want to lean the lighter green so yes, adding yellow orange or even orange might give you what you are seeing or aiming for. We do best when we taken it past the theory and put it into practice with studies.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction thanks for the tip but my question is how to get lighter yellow? (Not green)
@melih gumuscay, the only way to get yellow lighter is to add white to it. It is already the lightest color on the color wheel. There are a number of tube colors formulated towards a lighter yellow, but my take is that just adding while gets the job done. Notice that, depending upon the yellow you are using, some lean towards green, others sit pretty close to spectrum yellow and some lean towards orange.
Could you do a Video on how to mix Naples Yellow plz. and Indian Yellow too plz. You may have done Videos on making Colors already and I just cant find them. TY
I'll put this one on the schedule and perhaps include a few more variations on yellow.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction Tyvm
Dear Mrs Granier
Plzfwd this green shade in mixing in my gmail
Thanks
Rims1