How often do you mix muddy colors? Or wonder how to mix a color? Or can’t remember how you mixed a color? Or wonder just how does color mixing work? Or why ARE there so many colors to choose from?? This class will completely demystify all of these questions and more, giving you the tools to consistently create clean colors, including greys. You will create notebooks of your color mixes so you can see what the differences are, for example when you want to make a purple, when you mix different reds with different blues, and understand WHY these purples are different. Based on the Michael Wilcox book, “Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green”, you will come away with an excellent understanding of why colors work the way they do, allowing you to have complete control over your palette no matter how many or how few colors you choose. This class is for the oil, acrylic, or watercolor painter. Painters of all levels are welcome.

Summary of Understanding Color and How to Mix It

The purpose of this course is to teach you how to understand each color on your palette, what it is capable of and, as important, what it isn’t able to do. Through a series of exercises you will learn the direction that a color leans, and then using that information mix the colors that YOU want to mix every time. We will be mixing colors using the basic palette and then do several simple still life paintings to see how to use your colors and how one color in a set up acts with other colors that are in the set up. As time permits we will analyze colors that are on your palette and see where they fit in your color wheel and how they work. Maybe you need those additional colors, but maybe they are redundant! You are welcome to use any paints. I’m specifying paint colors because they will be closest to what we are doing, but other colors will help teach and show what happens with each color. For example, you may have student grade paint or paint color hues, i.e., cad red light hue. I don’t suggest using these colors, but for the class it will be interesting to see why.

By the end of the course you will be able to:
1. Determine which way a color leans
2. Know how to mix CLEAN colors
3. What a double ‘primary’ palette looks like and how it can benefit you
4. How to add additional colors to your palette and where they fit
5. How to understand color wheels
6. How to read a paint tube and why that’s important
7. What a limited palette is and how to choose the colors
8. How to think about color

SUPPLY LIST:

Paint – Any type! Oil, acrylic, or watercolor in any brand
- Lemon Yellow (or Hansa Yellow Light)
- Cadmium Yellow Light
- Yellow Ochre
- Cadmium Red Light
- Quinacridone Violet (or Quinacridone Red or Permanent Alizarin Crimson)
- Ultramarine Blue
- Cerulean Blue
- Viridian
- Titanium White

Additional Colors:
These are not required but might be helpful.
- Yellow Ochre
- Burnt Sienna
- Raw Sienna
- Burnt Umber
- Ivory Black

Additional Supplies:
- Masking tape
- Board to tape your canvas to (Cut a piece of cardboard about 12 x 14 from a box)
- Brushes - #4, #6 Your choice of Flat or Filbert
- Palette - Glass is preferred. If you don’t have a glass palette then Grey Matters palette paper will be helpful.
- Sta-Wet Palette box if you are working in watercolor or acrylic
- Palette knife
- Fine Tip Permanent Marker
- Small New Pizza Box (ask your local pizza place. They may charge you about $1)
- Waxed Paper
- Watercolor Paper (if you are working in watercolor)
- Pencil
- Odorless Mineral Spirits and container for the OMS
- (3) 6 x 8 canvas boards if working in oil or acrylic
- A fast drying medium such as Galkyd

Canvas will be provided.