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When Oil painting how important is it to use the correct shade of a colour?
I am following some oil painting lessons on DVD and the colours required are listed. I am not exactly copying pictures but using them for ideas and layout. I have 2 different sets of student grade oils but neither of them have the midnight black stated. I have lamp black and ivory black. I also have 3 different greens but not one of the ones stated in the lesson. Is this important? I am a little confused as to why they are so specific on the shade. I can understand why it good to have several greens, yellows, blues and reds but how different are the blacks? Could anyone tell me for which particular purpose I should use the different blacks so that I might be able to decide if I should specifically buy the missing one
You need the primary colors: red, yellow, blue — plus white. Theoretically, you can make all the colors in the spectrum from these three colors (the white will lighten and/or flatten them out).
A good basic palette would have cadmium AND lemon yellow, cadmium red, alizarin crimson (great for flesh tones), cerulean AND ultramarine blue, earth AND viridian green, yellow ochre (also good in flesh tones), burnt AND raw umber, burnt AND raw sienna and titanium white.
You can make a beautiful black by mixing burnt sienna with ultramarine blue, much more vibrant and alive than any black you could buy in a tube! Adding white to this mix produces a whole range of greys but you can make “greys” for each color by using their compliments (for example alizarin crimson and viridian green).
And don’t forget: copying pictures is a really good exercise when you’re first starting to paint.
Enjoy!
INSTRUCTIONAL DVD CLIP ON OIL PAINTING–LEMONS
Here's my opinion: artistic talent is largely learned. Most of the so-called experts will argue this statement, of course. They’ll proclaim that artistic oil painting techniques are only in the grasp of those rare individuals that are born with a mysteriously God-like ability to create art. Being lowly mortals, we should never even try to understand art let alone try to create it. Give me a break! Click here For the rest of the story: Free Painting Lesson