The Artist_s Magazine 2016-03__

brushing up

WhenIlookatyellows,Inaturallythinkof

thewarmtonesofautumn,soIdecided

toconveythesenseoffallusingasmany

yellow oil colors as possible: Indian yel-

low, transparent earth yellow, gold ochre,

cadmiumyellowdeep,cadmiumlemon,

radiant lemon, and nickel titanate yellow.

Additional colors are cadmium red light,

dioxazine purple, genuine manganese

blue and titanium-zinc white. All paints

areGamblinArtists Colors.

1. Initial yellows:Istartedwithtwo

transparent yellows, Indian yellow (left)

andtransparentearthyellow(right).

2. Underpainting and

compositional drawing:With my

two initial yellows, I toned a 12x12

Falling for Yellow

Ampersand Gessobord to which I’d

applied an extra two coats of gesso

with a brush for more texture. I used

Indian yellow at the top because its

bright, rich color would bring out the

look of vivid autumn foliage; I used

transparent earth yellow at the bottom

because its darker, earthier hue would

enhance the impression of shadow

and ground. Using transparent colors

in the earlier stages let me save the

more opaque yellows for the fi nishing

touches. I knew that the contrast of the

opaque paints against the transparent

ones would help draw the eye.

I then drew in the shapes of the main

elements with pastel in dark brown,

a color that’s harmonious with the

yellows.

3. Darks: To establish the shadow areas,

I used transparent earth yellow and gold

ochre. The gold ochre is a little lighter in

value than the transparent earth yellow,

so I used it for the lighter shadow areas

of the foliage.

1 2 3

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