Part II of my Colour Lesson about creating a glowing red  is posted here.

I had so much fun creating this Red Parrot Tulip and while developing these glowing red washes, it occurred to me that I should share this information with you all. Red is a notoriously difficult color to portray – unless you know what I am about to tell you.

This is not a step by step guide of how to paint this subject. What I want to highlight are a number of points relating to painting a glorious glowing red using this study as an example.

For those who missed it - here is the link to Part I or go directly to this link for Part II

In these lessons you will find info about warm and cool colours, shadow color, color temperature, creating glowing reds, yellow underwash ...

This Parrot Tulip study will be an ongoing tutorial where I will teach you many of the invaluable lessons that will help you create form with red – no matter which medium you choose.

In my Art Lessons section you will find more helpful articles.

If you want to learn more about Watercolor Painting and Watercolor Technique check out my Watercolor DVDs.

Happy Painting

Susan

"Ophir – Past and Present"
24"x20" - 610 mm x 510 mm
Oil on Belgian Linen
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

Time for sneak preview of another exhibition painting.

This time my oil painting is of an old house in Ophir New Zealand. Ophir is a beautiful village in Central Otago, New Zealand. Running alongside this and many other rustic villages in this area is the ‘Rail Trail”. A cycling trail along several kilometres of an old railway rising. Riding this rail trail is an exhilarating experience and if you are coming to NZ – do add it to your bucket list. You will love the experience! It is not to be missed.

I wanted to capture the atmosphere and presence of these old villages before the character and history within those layers of peeling paint and aged timbers are exchanged for a bright, fresh new cloak. These areas are revitalized by the rail trail, bringing new awareness of these magical places that speak so eloquently of times passed.

In my oil painting, you will notice one window shows a reflection of the old Ophir general store - the other window, the glass and surround is missing but it allows us to be drawn inside the building where we see the beginnings of a renovation taking place.

Old kauri timber, peeling wallpaper and boxes and cloth lay amongst the dust and detritus. They can barely be made-out in the darkness of the room. This is deliberate - we are drawn out of that room by the warm glow of orange light. Through an out-of-sight window an early evening twilight glows and dances on the wall of the room behind. I love the contrast between warm and cool, light and dark. Notice how the warmth of this glow pulls your attention through the painting and creates a path for you to follow.

In contrast we see the old drapery shop and the early evening sky reflected in the window pane. This is Ophir – Central Otago, New Zealand. Our history - our heritage.

Are you aware you have become part of this oil painting - Part of this early New Zealand land and village scape?

We stand in front of the painting – enticed to peek inside the dark room. Curiosity draws us in. The reflection is behind us – across the street. The grey/blue twilight behind us allows us to feel as if we are within this scene –  somewhere between these rustic windows and the blue/grey twilight and the old general store behind us. I want viewers of this piece to feel part of this painting – to experience the feeling of ‘being there’.

These places are our heritage, history, our past and our ever-evolving present.

No matter which medium you use, watercolor painting or oil painting, pastel or acrylic painting, these hints and tips and painting lessons on how to use color, color temperature and tone will stand you in good stead.

Please click to visit the Exhibiton page and see more
sneak previews of Susan's latest work

Learn  about my Watercolor Painting Technique in my Watercolor DVDs.

Learn about how to paint in my Free Art Lessons.

Pear on wood - watercolor painting
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

Demystifying Warm and Cool (Color Temperature)

Warm and cool is a vast subject but I have a great, simple way of teaching it:

Anything with red or yellow is basically warm. Anything with blue is basically cool.

But within the red  spectrum there are warmer or cooler reds. Just as there are warmer and cooler yellows within the yellow spectrum and it is the same for blue.

Take a look at a colour wheel. Look at a tomato red - this is a red that is leaning toward the yellow section. This is the warmest of reds. Then compare that to a red such as Alizarin Crimson. Alizarin Crimson is leaning toward the blue section. Purples are even more cool because they have more blue in them of course. You can see these 'reds' are more blue than the tomatoe red. So naturally Alizarin Crimson is a cooler red.  So now you can understand what I mean when I say "we have warm and cool within each colour section."

So naturally you can determine where - within each colour section - they fall by taking note how warm or cool they are in relation to the others either side of them.

That is what it is all about. Determining how warm or cool a color is, is about looking at it "In relation" to what else is around it. It is the same for all colour groups. Blue is thought of as being cold. Yes - it is cold when it is put up against red. But within the blue section there are warm and cool blues. The warm blues would be leaning toward red. A good example of a warm blue is Ultramarine Blue Finest.

Naturally the cool blues will be furthermost away from red. So use your colour wheel to help you determine where your colours are and whether they are warm or cool in relation to the colours you are using in your painting as well as on the colors on the color wheel.

The colour temperature of each colour you use on your painting
will be compared to the colour next to it.

Take yellow for instance: Aureolin is a cool yellow because it has a touch of blue in it. This cools it down. Compare that yellow to Indian Yellow which has some red in it. Indian Yellow is a warm yellow. So you could create a painting that is totally yellow. There will be warm and cool passages within it if you use a variation of yellows or mixes of yellows. But you can still create the impression of form because you can use warm and cool yellows to help you mould shape and substance.

The overall feeling/mood/colour temperature of the painting will be warm because you are using yellow (which gives the impression of warmth when we look at it). But you would describe your shapes and also focal planes by placing warm and cool yellows next to each other. Or if you need to give the impression of a gradual roll on a ball or petal for example - you would graduate the colours beginning with warm or cool and then as the subject rolls away into the background for instance, you would then gradually introduce a yellow of the opposite color temperature.

This is how you create form. Naturally you could also mix a tiny touch of blue or red with your yellows to alter them - but still allow the yellow colour to be dominant. This will also alter the colour temperature as you would expect. Warm your Indian yellow even further by adding a tiny touch of red. Cool another yellow down by adding a tiny touch of blue. You will see what I mean when you experiment.

It is generally true to say 'shadows are warm and sunlight is cool' when affected by natural (outside) light.  Generally when painting something affected by the natural light (outside or inside) - you would use warm colours to describe shadows. Make the shadows dance with warm transparent darks and throw in a little splash of red or orange - it makes the shadow look alive.

Conversely anything that is affected by the sky (which is generally blue - or a cool colour) - these things are cool. So the sunlit highlights are cool and the shadows are warm when outside or affected by natural light.

Inside lighting often creates a warm highlight and a cool shadow.

A good exercise is to paint a ball using warm and cool yellows. You will see how it automatically gives you form.

I hope that helps.

It is not an easy subject to grasp - but I find that once my workshop students understand there are warm and cool colours within each main colour - they can then see what I mean by looking at a colour wheel. It is a great idea to make a colour wheel of your own palette.

Learn more about my Watercolor Painting Technique in my Watercolor DVDs.

Learn more about how to paint in my Free Art Lessons.

Here is the final article to the series of notes on Susan's Watercolor palette

Article 5 - How to paint a light skin tone

Analyse what you have in front of you. Do you need to paint a light skin tone? If this is the case - remember to use a small amount of yellow in your underwash. Then use a basic skin tone mix:

Aureolin Yellow (or Indian Yellow if you want a very warm skin tone)

Alizarin Crimson (or Scarlet Red if you want a very warm skin tone)

Touch of Thalo Blue (or Sap Green if you want a warmer skin tone)

Is your skin tone overpowering the yellow? Maybe you dont have enough yellow underneath? Or maybe your red is simply too strong. Simply adjust the other hues to create the skin tone you require.

My skin tones almost always has some blue in it at some stage (sometimes Sap Green which of course has blue in it). The highlights on a face that is lit from natural light will have always be cool so they will be very light and favor blue rather than any other color.

If you give this some thought - it stands to reason that the highlights are cool - therefore the shadows have to be warm in color temperature. So let's think about this further. If our highlights did not favor blue - then we would find we have an imbalance in our mix that would result in orange. (red and yellow)

If we have orange - our highlights would look warm in color temperature wouldn't they. This would look unnatural. So can you see why color temperature plays an important role in allowing us to create and mould form? Warm shadows, cool highlights give the impression of rounded form.

Color temperature can be confusing. At a later date I will write an article for you on how this can be easily understood. But for now - do take my word for it! You will find my methods work well.

When working in an area that is affected by light - the important thing to remember is not to go too dark with your green or blue otherwise you will loose the look of light.

One thing to keep in mind is that when you add your background you will probably find your main focal point - face or person - can then look too wishy washy. At that stage, it is not unusual for me to have to deepen (make more saturated) the depth of color I have used in my main subject.

Our subjects can look perfectly rich in hue when it is against the white of the paper. But when we add our background - we can immediately see we need more depth of hue in our subject.

Or due to an error, we may find we have to go deeper in hue. If this is the case, all we need to do is compensate for that by bringing the rest of the depth of color in the painting up to the level of the alteration. It is about transposing the saturation of the painting up a notch to keep it all balanced and looking natural. I believe that is the key - ask yourself "does this look natural". If it does - then you are finished! Well done!

Want to read the other Articles?

Article 1 - What Transparent pigments does Susan Harrison-Tustain use?

Article 2 - How to compensate for too much red in skin tone

Article 3 - How to paint shadow areas in watercolor?

Article 4 - Shadow color mixes - Shall I use Blue and Yellow or should I use sap green?

I have only just realized that subscribers to my blog receive notification and the text of each blog via email as well. How clever this program and my webmaster Doris is! But we have also only just realised that this text is sent on a white background. So when the text is yellow (as it was in my previous posts) it is hard to read against the white background. The yellow text looks excellent against the black background of my blog page!

All the colours are now altered in the previous text that was sent via email. So that they are good to read - in your mailbox and on my website.

If you would like to read the previous articles again please visit these links:

Article 1: What Transparent pigments does Susan Harrison-Tustain use?

Article 2 - How to compensate for too much red in skin tone

Here comes the next article to the  series of notes on Susan's Watercolor palette.

Article 3 - How to paint shadow areas in Watercolor

Using my Priming Method I lay in at least one underwash of yellow.

My shadow mix is often warm in color temperature. So I will sometimes use

• Alizarin Crimson
• Aureolin
• and a touch of Thalo Blue.

I let this mix favor the Alizarin Crimson. But if I want a warmer mix - I will sometimes add a touch of Scarlet Red.

I use Schmincke watercolors exclusively for the reasons mentioned in my previous posts.
When working in shadowed areas that I want to glow with warmth - I find I am often adding more red and more yellow in subsequent washes. Blue is ideal to use to help describe shadows. But blue dulls my beautiful glow down so much more than I imagine it will. So use it cautiously - in fine washes initially.

The trick is to have your yellow underwash glowing in a multiple fine washes of yellow. The darker your shadow - the more saturated you will need your yellow hue. Remember to keep your washes fine. If you use thick layers of paint - the paint will lift when you lay in your subsequent washes (shadow washes).

This will give you a fabulous glow from underneath which looks incredible. Check out the gallery in my website and you will see what I mean. Click on the image below.

Some of these paintings are available as Giclee Fine Art Prints. Visit the Fine Art Prints Page to see close ups of these images.

Watch this space for Article 4? - Shadow color mixes --- Shall I use Blue and Yellow or should I use sap green?