Tuesdays Lesson.

Tuesday classes at SARAH Hall and Orrell 

This week I want to use a full palette of warm and cool primaries and attempt to paint in the style of Peggi Kroll Roberts, http://www.krollroberts.com I like the simplicity of Peggi’s work, but don’t confuse simple with easy.

Lay out your palette first and don’t skimp on the paint. For the example shown I used

Cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium red, crimson red, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow and white.

As a general breakdown of the colours used I laid in cobalt blue for the background and ultramarine for the shadow; adding the compliment is one way to take down a colour in the shadows but if you have a darker value  of the same colour try that first. For instance the mid blue cobalt has the dark blue ultramarine for the shadow. Similarly with red, cadmium in the light could use crimson in the shadows. Both these examples will give a cleaner shadow colour, give it a try.

From left to right the fruits were cadmium yellow; cadmium yellow and cadmium red to make orange and lemon yellow.

Take them into shadow this time using the complementary of each colour.

The dark background on the left is a rich dark brown; make your own using a mix of three primaries, ultramarine blue, crimson and cadmium yellow.

The teapot is a little of the same mix added to white; you may need to adjust it to get a greyer mix without any obvious colour dominating.

The green foreground is cadmium yellow and ultramarine blue, and remember the shadows are a darker green, not black.

The other part of the foreground was crimson red and ultramarine blue added to white.

Remember when mixing add the dark to the light. Don’t over mix the paint and use as few brushstrokes as you need. Use a swatch.