the yellow color

[megroot]

Hello Guys,

Instead of watching the soccer, i paint. So yesterday evening i was painting a yellow color.
After shadowing and darkning i find almost no yellow. I think i did the wrong color for highlighting (white) and for shadowing i take a darker yellow.
What color's should i use for shadowing the yellow, and what is better than the white for highligting.

Marc.

 

[Patrick Kirk]

Marc,
Are you using oils or acrylics?

Patrick

 

[Einion]

Hi Marc, you have to use white to highlight yellow, you don't have any real choice. You can use other yellows too if you have a lighter one on the palette but eventually you'll need to add white.

For shadows if you want to use complementary mixing to dull the base colour down you'll need a violet, if you don't have one mix red and blue. Lighten this with white and add it sparingly, this will be the start of your shadow colour.

If you don't want to use complements you'll need a darker colour of around the same hue, ochres to start with followed by something like Raw Umber.

Originally posted by megroot@Jul 1 2004, 01:14 PM
After shadowing and darkning i find almost no yellow.

I think you probably made the mistake of covering too much of the midtone when highlighting and shadowing, leaving almost no yellow behind; this is not an uncommon problem, you just have to watch what you're doing. Remember that any area that's vertical or nearly vertical should be the 'local colour' (the midtone) only undercuts should begin to be shadowed, and upward-facing areas highlighted.

Einion

 

[KeithP]

Enion-

Help on a seemingly basic question?

For acrylic yellow and white, I have alot of difficulty getting coverage of the base color over the primer. Takes many many more coats than I would expect and the coverage is varied. If I reduce the dilution, the paint is too thick and becomes impossible to work effectively.

Anybody with suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

Keith

 

[megroot]

Thankx Einion.
I redo the yellow this evening.

And Keith i paint now only in acrylics. I find it better for the painting that i am doing now. For me the long drying time of oils is no satisfaction for me.
When i paint one hour i can see what i have done.
But that is my opion.

Thanks guys.

 

[DrLutz]

Hi everybody!
One more question to Patrick:
when shadowing ang highlitnibg if there is any difference of what colours to use - oils or acrylics?

 

[Einion]

You're welcome Marc, hope it was of some help.


Keith, you're not alone in this, pale colours don't tend to cover well in thin coats, especially yellow. The best advice I can give is if you know you'll be facing a large amount of white or a light colour is to use a white primer to begin with.

If you have used a grey primer and you're tackling yellow, since white acrylic is reasonably opaque (by comparison at least) it's often a good idea to underpaint the area in white before using the yellow itself. You can also try a buff or ochre colour, these usually have good coverage and make a decent base for yellow, but if you're aiming for a bright colour I'd stick to white.

This doesn't help you with painting white itself but it's not uncommon to have to use maybe five coats to cover a dark base with light colours, are you finding you have to use many more than this? Aim for that 'sweet spot' between too thin and too thick - about the consistency of heavy milk - and you'll get decent coverage with minimal brushmarks but as with most painting many thin coats is better than fewer thick coats.

BTW it also helps if you use the largest brush you can, the work will go faster to begin with and you'll get smoother coverage, and you can speed-dry between each application with a hairdryer as well. I have a Lefranc & Bourgeois synthetic round I use for this sort of job, it's numbered as a 6 but smaller than typical so I just compared and it's equivalent to a 4 from Series 7 in size.

Einion

 

[KeithP]

Enion-

Thanks for the reply. Many good suggestions. Undercoating in white prior to yellow is a good one.

Keith

 

[Einion]

No problem, hope some of it proves helpful.

Einion