It is my pleasure to create this free art lesson to help you with your understanding of painting and color!

I have used a watercolor painting example – but the color lessons I teach below and in future posts can be created using any medium.

I begin by retaining my highlights – if needed

In this case my highlights are mostly pale yellow

NB: Often hair has highlights that are white. Retain your white paper in those areas if your subject has white highlights.

Auburn hair glows with warmth. To capture this glow (as well as the pale yellow highlights) we need to create colors that exude life and rich warmth from within.

I achieve that by laying an initial pale wash of Aureolin Yellow Modern (Schmincke). I lay this pigmented wash into a clear water wash – as seen here

If I were painting in oil or acrylic – I would capture the glow using an initial underpainting glaze of any cool yellow.

How to understand warm and cool yellows:
The Cool yellow I use errs on the side of a light yellow with a tinge of green/blue. It is definitely yellow – but has a very slight green-ish bias.

When I teach painting – I find my artists grasp the concept of warm and cool colors more easily if I give a comparison. 
Here it is:

Warm yellows
In comparison – warm yellows have a slightly red bias. 
The best example I can give is to suggest you take a look at the color wheel image attached. You will immediately see the color temperature shift (from warm to cool yellows).

As time allows there will be more to come as the painting progresses…….
Watch this space!

LEARN HOW TO PAINT WITH SUSAN
You will find many other free painting lessons, hints and tips in this blog and throughout my website. We have now sold tens of thousands of my best selling art instruction DVDs and Video Downloads around the world. You are able to see comprehensive previews as well as preview videos of contents here:   
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Happy Painting!

Susan