Hi it’s Anna Mason.
Have you ever struggled when painting with Yellow?
In this mini class I'm going to show you how I made my colour
mixing choices when working on this yellow freesia flower in watercolour.
We'll explore how I gave it form and depth of tone without losing its lovely glow.
Let's take a look...
I’m not sure how much experience you have painting with yellow,
but it has a reputation for being a challenge.
Mainly that’s because the paint as you buy it is very light, even in its thickest,
least watery state it's the lightest colour in the palette by far - except for white of course.
So when we need to darken it - as we’ll need to for the shadow parts of this flower,
we need to mix other paint colours into it. And that’s where things can
get tricky because it can be hard to judge just what to add - and how much.
The important thing to bear in mind when you work with yellow is that
even the darkest shadow areas are still actually quite light.
If you look at the reference photo in black and white this is a LOT clearer.
The contrast levels are not that big. They appear much bigger when
in colour and that’s to do with just how vibrant and glowing that bright yellow is.
So basically there are some inherent issues our eyes have with assessing
hue and tone in yellow subjects - and I’m going to show you how to overcome that.
I begin by placing the lightest versions of each of the colour areas within the painting,
applying a watery vibrant yellow - the transparent Winsor Lemon is my favourite - all
over the petals except for the very lightest highlights which I leave as paper colour.
Then, so that I can more easily judge how dark to take the midtones,
it's time to paint the darkest tones within the yellow petals.
When looking for the darkest tones within
the parts of the petals, the crevices between the petals that are in shadow, the bits that
STAND OUT as the darkest areas are those bits with a more red-orange hue to them
that you can see in these areas but, when we look at the image in black and white it’s
easier to see that those areas are basically the same tonally as some of the areas around them.
We can see that these broader areas are pretty much as dark so we need to paint these next too.
Working out how to mix this colour is a challenge. When we’re looking at the colour photo.
These dark, shadow areas seem much less bright than the yellow around them - so
you would think that adding a neutral colour - some grey, or perhaps brown would work.
So within this palette you might want to reach for Burnt Sienna or even the
tiniest bit of Payne’s Grey to mix in with the Winsor Lemon to create the right colour.
But that would be a mistake…let me show you why...
We make that mistake because of the way in which
we perceive hues and tones relative to the hues and tones we see around them.
It’s something I refer to a lot and it’s relevant in every painting,
but it’s crucial to grasp when working with yellow.
Let’s look at those dark areas again when they’re up against the super bright,
mega-vibrant lighter yellows, they look relatively dull and muted.
But what if we take a look at them against grey
they look SOOO much brighter and it’s obvious that they’re actually quite a bright orange colour.
Let’s toggle between the black and white and colour, and, honestly, this is the exact same
colour we’re looking at, it’s just the surrounding colours that are changing.
What we need to do it to try to view the colour against the most neutral colour we
can, and white usually works best for this.
Against white, we can see the colours are actually a midtone orange that’s pretty bright.
I recommend you make your own low-tech colour-isolator to help with this by
simply cutting a small hole in a white piece of paper or card.
Hold it over the relevant bit of the photo, however you’re viewing it,
and you can then view the colour surrounded by white, not the other colours.
If you view on a screen, you can also zoom right in on the area to make this easier.
Ok, so now we’re clear that these darkest areas of the petals are
definitely quite a bright orange, let’s avoid our neutral colours,
they all contain some blue to them and so will give us colours that are too green. Instead
let’s mix...
I apply this to the darkest areas, then water down a touch to work on the slight lighter areas.
Then I omit the opera rose,
and add more Winsor Lemon to the mix to work on the darker midtones....
again adding more Winsor Lemon to work on the mid midtones,
before using neat Winsor Lemon as another layer to
the lighter midtones - connecting up the petals so they look 3D.
With the stem and buds darkened, I make further adjustments to the petals with additional layers,
including a teeny bit of Quinacridone Violet to
the mix where the hues need to be more muted, but without making them go green.
With further rounds of tonal adjustments and
using a teeny brush to add more details, the freesia is finished.
I hope this has helped you gain some confidence in painting yellow.
A full video class of this yellow freesia is available now in my online School.
If you’ve enjoyed this mini class, please subscribe to my YouTube channel,
then head on over to AnnaMasonArt.com where you can take full length video classes FOR
FREE and find a whole heap of resources to help you capture the beauty of nature on your paper.
Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you soon.