Greetings!
Imagine spring green. (What a lovely thought!) Now look at the spring greens in the sunlit areas of this pasture.
Do you see the difference? Like all vibrant colors in nature, those spring greens are slightly neutralized. It's in the middle value range where interpreting these colors can get tedious. But there's an easy way to interpret them with authority by looking for variations in intensity and learning to use them.
Looking at the photo, if you isolate various sunlit portions, you will find a variety of intensities, not just one. Here are a few that I found in the light value range:
Tip: If while painting spring greens, you search out and use three to five degrees of neutrals with a only a hint of the saturated hue, your spring greens will look more natural. Here's a step by step process for one way to mix those neutrals.
1. Begin with a bright yellow green and a reddish violet.
Tip: Mixtures should always be from colors of the same value.
On the worksheet below, I show a mixing sequence using a middle section from value scale above. Using this method makes it easier to control both values AND intensities.
In row A, I created a neutral from the two colors.
In row B, I used a small amount of the neutral mixed into the original green to create my perception of the spring green in the photo.
In row C, I used this new green plus the neutral to get the variations in Row D.
Tip: When painting an area of spring green, such as a lawn or pasture, varying the intensities rather than just the values can give a livelier interpretation.
Happy painting,
Dianne
P.S. To see two examples of how painter Lori Putnam does this, go
HERE and
HERE.
P.P.S. Why not take a stab at today's tip and share on the Facebook forum?
