brushing up
March 2016 23- Contrasting colors: For tem-
perature contrast, I added two colors
that aren’t yellow. I painted the struc-
ture with cadmium red light dulled
with a little transparent earth yellow;
I painted the trees and shadows with
dioxazine purple, also dulled with
transparent earth yellow. The purple,
complementary to yellow, serves as
a contrasting color; its addition to
yellow makes excellent darks.
- Final colors: Building on the
predominantly yellow underlayers,
I used a combination of genuine
manganese blue (not the hue) and
transparent earth yellow for the
building’s roof. A green, mixed from
manganese blue and gold ochre, cre-
ates the shadowed grassy area. For
the darker foliage I used gold ochre
plus dioxazine purple. For the lighter
foliage I introduced my opaque yel-
lows: cadmium yellow deep for the
midtone areas; cadmium lemon
and radiant yellow for the few sunlit
areas. Finally, for the sky holes in the
trees and around the sugarhouse, I
used the very cool nickel titanate yel-
low, which gives an attractive tem-
perature contrast against the warm
cadmium yellow and radiant lemon
accents. I added a bit of manganese
blue to the nickel titanate yellow in
the uppermost reaches of the sky,
completing Path to the Sugarhouse.
LEFT: Path to the Sugarhouse (oil on
panel, 12x12)
Learn More ONLINE
Read the stories behind some common
yellows. Go to artistsnetwork.com/
learnmore2016.