In need of advice concerning color!

[Jenner]

Hello, my name is Jenna. I'm new to this site and I'm in need of advice concerning color. I sketch on my free time and I would love to try painting. But all my attemps fail. I know the color wheel and I know how to set a basic outline, but I'm having trouble blinding the colors and lighting with color. Does anyone have any tips or techniques? Anything would help.

Thanks, Jenna.

Below is a few of my sketches:

[FrancisXavier]

Hey Jenna,

Before, I tried mixing everything with white. LoL. But later on, I mix my color with lighter gray and/or lighter mixture of lighter combination. For example, if I want a purple sky where it is mainly brighter than other areas, I would mix al. crimson and viridian and bit of white to make a light-purple-gray-hue. Then i would mix that with some purple color (a small amount) to make a bright sky that i wanted.

My second way is I make a monochromatic painting layer first. My second layer, I will paint color on top of it after it dried--starting with a thin amount of paint.

Well, hope it helps :D

[cvb]

Hi Jenna and FrancisXavier,

I have never mastered the use of color and I have been an art student for so many years. I have learned a lot about color usage by looking at lots of old masters' paintings to see how color was used throughout past history.

I think each person needs to decide what the color is going to do in the artwork. For instance, if you want to translate a fully shadowed drawing into a painting, do you want a realistic, true to life color version? Or do you want to use color to say something for you beyond realism as we see it around us?

Maybe you can think about this for a while and look at paintings you like to understand why the color is used the way it is in those paintings. Let us know how you are doing because we love to help students.

Cheryl
Art Fortune

[ReedJames]

When it comes to drawings I prefer just black and white. My favorite drawing medium is felt tipped pens so I do like to vary the width of the lines. I just love the the simplicity of black and white- Photography, drawing, even painting. I just can't get enough of it.

[Nikki]

What I would do is practice with the basic colors doing them in a row from light to dark. this helps you figure out how much paint water white black and other colors need to go into the paint to make it the color you want. study the medium you are using ,each one paints different and involve different techniques, such as watercolor is a water based paint which is very different from acrylic. I put a picture of an example of an exercise i know you have done this with drawing so do the same thing for paint, try it until you get it right. You really just have to experiment before you start painting the final piece. I'm more of a drawer and never really got the painting down like I have drawing either.

[Nikki]

sorry i forgot to add to do layers like the first post said. I start with a light outline then fill it in with watered down paint if using paints that require water. then gradually get darker leaving your whites completely white or lightest parts on the paper paint free until the end.because you cant erase when you mess up with paint. its the easiest way to not get frustrated when you cant go back either.

[Rose]

Try using black sparingly as you draw, instead creating shaded areas with a darker color, or combination of colors, that allows the base color to remain prominent.