while we were told in elementary school you can mix all the colors of the rainbow with just
red, yellow, and blue, It turns out you kind of need a little bit more than that
having a more expanded selection of color gives you more variety and control
and some colors are just impossible to mix with just a limited palette
but also doesn't mean you should pick up 1 of every single color
so today I want to share my recommendations on what colors you
should pick out
we just starting to learn how to paint. If you're picking up the paint brush for
the first time since
elementary school I recommend that you start off with just two colors
black-and-white I know it's really boring. People will like, "that's not even
a color!" but it's a really great way to start off if you've never painted before.
if you can restrain yourself, pick up a tube of titanium white
and ivory black or bone black. And start off with
painting the grayscale. It can be a bit difficult first because contrary to most
initial assumptions mixing equal parts of black and white
will not actually give you a middle grey. Certian colors are stronger when you mix
them so this is a good practice to train your eye.
Just using black and white first is great because you can get a handle on the
material
first, if you're painting something you're looking at, which
I highly recommend. You'll have an interesting challenge of how to translate
all these different colors into different grays. You think in tones,
paying attention to light and dark. So once you're pretty familiar with black
and white
you feel pretty comfortable, you can start building on it with colors
and I recommend the next step to be earth tones.
while you can go with any sort of monochromatic
palette, I do recommend the earth tone because
its everywhere in nature I think it's a little bit more intuitive for us to
figure out
light versus dark. Warm versus cool. with these kind of colors
expanding to the earth tones, pick-up burnt sienna
raw sienna, burnt umber, and raw umber.
I actually didn't have the umbers in acrylic paint and I didn't want to mix
oil and acrylic paint, so here I am just going to work with what I have.
If you're up for a challenge, take away black, and if you want some more variety
add ultramarine blue or naples yellow.
I'll have a blog post on Littlearttalks.com listing each color
out for you, as well as an explanation on why I think each color is important
to have your kit.
As well as tips on how to use them. With this palette you have to start thinking,
not just about tone,
but also the temperature which in these clothes are warmer or cooler
knowing that how can you utilize these colors? Mixing colors can be really fun
but also
kinda overwhelming. So experimenting with a smaller selection of colors can not
only be more manageable, but
also force you to be more creative in thinking about how colors mix
and interact. I made a video about how our eyes perceive colors,
so if you're not familiar with that I definitely recommend that you check out
those videos
out, because those ideas are really imperative to how you place colors side
by side,
and how they're perceived. Finally let's expand on to more colors!
Now, you already had a lot of colors to choose from with that limited palette
but let's think about what colors you can't create, and what colors you should
get
at this point assess what your needs are if all you want to paint are
naturalistic still life's and landscapes, the colors you need will be very
different
from what you need if you were to, say, paint favuest landscapes
at this point you can really start only adding
one or two colors at a time. (Unless there's a sale -
then you can pick up a couple more!) Pick and choose what you think is most useful
to you, and what you want to paint.
If you wanna go with more naturalistic colors, add Alizarin Crimson and cadmium yellow into
the mix.
If you find yourself looking for more colors,
try a yellow ochre, or a bright red like cadmium red
or Vermillion red, or even some blues:
Prussian blue, or phthalo blue. For a brighter pallet, you might want to consider
adding
green. You can already mix a bunch of different greens with the colors you
have,
but a color like phthalo green or Viridian green
will give you much brighter options to choose from.
So those are my recommendations of specific colors to start off with.
Everyone's different so the more paint, the more you learn about what colors you
gravitate towards,
Or what colors you use my often, and even what colors are lacking.
At this point you can make a ton of colors with your kit.
It's not going to make every single color out there, especially
really, really, bright colors or neons. If you tend to use those colors, maybe you just need to
buy those
instead, or in addition to your kit.
But it's going to cover a pretty decent amount of colors,
especially if you're just starting out, and feeling out what you like,
don't like. I hope you found this video useful. If you have any more questions
leave them in the comments section below and I'll try my best to answer them
and help you guys out. Let me know what is your favorite color to paint with. What
can you not live without.
I love to hear what is essential in your painting kit.
If you enjoyed this video and want to see more like it, please consider making
monthly pledged to our Patreon page. I made a video comparing the brands of
different
acrylic paint, and a lot are you guys recommend more brands for me to
test and compare for you guys. And I really enjoy making those videos, and helping you
guys figure out which materials are best for your practice then what you want to
achieve,
but unfortunately materials cost a lot of money. But, if everyone is willing to
contribute a little bit I would be super grateful because
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Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you guys next time! Contrary to what we're told in
elementary school, you can't really make every single color you want
with just three primary colors.
Oh this is two.