Sunsets and Sunrises | Lesson in Acrylic Paint Mixing
Should you mix your colors flawlessly…gradually…perfectly?
Or is it to better to let them be more chunky…layered…placing pieces of color upon pieces of color?
Both are beautiful…both are right.
I want to encourage you that the way you decide to blend your colors or not blend your colors are both just as beautiful.
Let your style develop as you play with color…with brush strokes.
Just like your fingerprints are unique to you…so is the way you paint.
This world needs your uniqueness…not more copies.
Striving so often for perfection…we can lose the beauty of the process…of the experience
The more you “work” your painting…or the more you brush over your canvas with paint, the more it blends.
The color loses it’s place…it’s uniqueness and vibrancy.
Let’s say, I want this perfect color of orange for my sunset…I can see it in my mind…or I see it on my reference photo.
I start adding the red and the yellow.
It’s too dark…than I add white…mixing and mixing until I either have the perfect shade to only find out I didn’t make enough.
Or, I abandon the process all together because I now have a palette of yuck…either way can be frustrating and wasteful of your paint.
If you are lucky to come up with that one perfect shade of orange for your sunset…that is what you will get..the ONE perfect shade.
Yet you will miss out on all 49 other shades of orange that could show up in your painting if you started first, with just adding color from your brush directly onto your canvas.
There’s never a wrong color for a sunset…except green
…unless you want a tornado in your painting
So how do I get my colors to create more beautiful colors without looking like baby poop…am I right??? I hear you say that ALL THE TIME!
Think of a rainbow…and that order of color…red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, red…and bend it into a complete circle.
Beautiful isn’t it!?
When you choose the colors next to one another they mix together beautifully!
But watch out…if you go to far….there it is! That dreaded muddy color!
Let’s think of the colors that make us feel warm…and the ones that make us feel cool. When you cross those two…you get mud…or browns.
For sure we need those colors too, but we aren’t talking about them this time.
In this video I demonstrate this color blending for you.
By far the absolute best way to learn blend…or not blending…mixing colors and what they make is to just do it!
Stop being so afraid of mistakes…stop being so critical of your progress…play with paint…and play with it some more.
Fall in love with the learning process.
Fall in love with the way you paint.
Fall in love with who you are and how you were created.
Because YOU, my friend,
are deeply loved by the ONE who made you!
NEXT UP: We Love Drama! Why Black and White?
Come back again next week and I will so you all the drama black and white can create. And it’s beautiful!
Wondering where to get my brushes, paints and painting surfaces?
You can go here to shop for all my favorites!
I am an affiliate for Blick Art Supplies…and if you purchase through the link above…I will get a little bit of money to shop for more art supplies….but it does not cost you anything extra. And we both know art supplies make us happy!