“I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will.”
can deliver your message with greater clarity. I have certainly used both methods to great success over the years and evaluate each new project to determine what color system may best work for me to resolve the pictorial constraints of a new commission. There is no right nor wrong way to approach color, and as N.C.Wyeth and Monet have shown, exaggerated color can certainly be used with mind-blowing effectiveness.
This method provides plenty of paint on the palette ready to sample from with the option of warm and cool hues of varying values surrounding nearly any selection from this puddle. In the end I have arranged a complex color wheel constructed around paint I will use in the flesh and surrounding areas of the figure. A total mud pit! I invariably make modifications to this mixture, but find it a wonderful resource pool to dive into during the painting phase, without much worry about trying to remix the ‘exact color’ you just ran out of, because you never had any pure color to worry about. These mud colors also prove to be excellent sources for testing out background colors and values, as the test originates from a tight range of balanced relationships, and a sample from this source easily harmonizes the whole image.
Haha, and all my painting teachers in school were telling us to avoid mud. 😛 But of course, every piece of advice has its place. Thanks for sharing Donato!
We were discussing your use of “mud” on a recent podcast over at Drawn Today. This article helps clarify its uses even more. Thank you for sharing, Donato. I look forward to visiting this blog daily. Keep up the great, informative posts.
The information of this new blog is already one of my favorite reads. A direct link to my favorite artists and their knowledge? Thank you, internet.
Great post! this blog is AWESOME!!! I am so thankful you giants have started it!
this reminds me of 'broken hues', unequal combination of the primary colours, the kind we see in nature. And it is easier to shift colours from one temperature to the other.
Great post.
Great insight Donato, I look forward to your next post!
Wow really, good start post for this blog! Looking forward to read more!
I really needed to read that right now, thanks Donato, I'm sure I'll read it again tomorrow.
Great first post, Donato! I'm really excited to see what you bring to this blog.
What a fantastic and insightful post! Thank you Donato.
Great info Donato, thanks.