Gray can have personality
Did you know how many different grays there are and the great variety of ways to mix them? At the Madison County Senior Center we have been working on midday skies and gray is an important color for the underside of a cloud. It is what gives it definition and volume.
The standard way of mixing gray is to combine black and white in varying amounts but some artists object to black being used as a color to darken other colors. Here is where an inexpensive color wheel comes in handy. This instrument can help make all the difference in the world. Using complimentary colors directly across the color chart from each other can achieve a gray. The truth is that this gray is not really like just mixing black and white, it’s a gray with personality. The grays you mix with contrasting colors offer more unity and harmony in your painting
These grays will in most cases need a lot of white added to them to mix well with a sky. This gray makes the dark part of the cloud. So what about the light part of the cloud, is it just white? No, it’s a variety of colors usually some yellow mixed in with a lot of white. Sometimes a dash of red is mixed into the lightest of these colors. I usually explain this as a dot (a very small dot of color) mixed into a mountain of white.
A well planned and painted sky can add a great deal to your overall painting by way of composition and mood.
Learning the techniques of making a good sky is to me a great help in turning out a creditable painting especially when it is a landscape.
In class, I will be finishing up some of the principals of making an interesting midday sky and starting to lay a color foundation for a striking sunrise and sunset. It’s all in the way you blend and brush on your colors.
Come and join us. The cost is free, just a donation box, and you will learn a lot just by watching and listening to my lessons and talking with the other artists in the group. In addition, it’s a fun group of really great people.
Come and watch and if you’re interested in joining the group, we have lists and prices of different types of painting materials. We mainly work in oils, acrylics and watercolors but we are not limited to these mediums.
Harry Croghan can be reached by e-mail at croghan@dragonbbs.com or call him at (740) 852-4906.
