Performers in music, theater, dance and sports all know the value of doing exercises to enhance of their performances.  A huge array of books and DVD's are devoted totally to exercises that, if consistently practiced, can make a tremendous difference in the quality of performing.  

Visual artists, too, can enhance their performance by devoting daily spans of time doing exercises.  May I offer the idea of daily exercises to you as something that can lead you to surprising growth and discovery on your artistic journey?

Here's one that I do routinely:

 

By warming or cooling the color first, then gradually neutralizing it, we make two changes, a more realistic approach most like the kind of change we might need while painting.

Tip:  Doing this daily exercise with four to six separate colors per session can do wonders toward developing your ability to gradually change a color with your brush during the process of painting.  It adds a degree of certainty and control so that you don't have to think about what to do when you need a gradual shift in color toward the neutral.