Spring Bouquet, OIl on Panel, 7 x 5 inches
Currently at auction, click to bid
The way I’m painting flowers now is a very good example of two things:
1. Painting representationally isn’t always painting what you see
Because usually, you can’t.
Take these daffodils. If you look at the shadows inside the trumpets of daffodils indoors, there’s a good chance that you’ll find, like I have, that you can either hit the value right or the chroma right, but not both at the same time.
The compromise I’ve been using lately is to raise the value of the shadows, so that I can hit the chroma.
It also makes a value balance in the picture that is actually closer to impressionism than, say, classicism or naturalism.
I don’t think these pictures look particularly like impressionist work, because in terms of hue and chroma, I tend to stay quite close to what I see.
Good impressionsit painters, I think, introduce a lot of hues that aren’t actually there in the subject. They then rely on visaul mixing to create the impression of more accurate colour than they’ve actually used.
Done well, it’s beautful. But it’s not the way I paint, personally.
An interesting point, though: if you take a lot of impressionist paintings and desaturate them in photoshop or something similar, you’ll find a value balance similar to the ones I’m using lately – the darks are dark, but then the value balance goes up the scale quickly, resulting in a lighter painting overall, with the lights compressed into a narrow range.
Like this one.
2. How the Munsell big book can help you mix more expressive colour
I’m using my Munsell book to help me do this – but I’m not matching the colours
I start by finding the local colour of the subject – in this case, daffodils – by finding the closest chip from the Munsell book.
But that’s the end of the matching. After that point, I’m using knowledge gained from painting a lot of cubes and spheres, investigations into how local colours change from light to shadow, to work out where I want the shadows and lights to be – based on the value balance I’ve set up, which is all keyed from the shadow colour of the trumpets of the daffodils.
I feel this also makes a picture that’s more expressive of what draws me to paint these daffodils. It’s spring. The lightness and freshness of the days, the breezy sun and the end of winter, new beginnings and optimism. This is what these daffodils mean to me.
And I find that a lighter painting reflects these feelings more than, say, an eighteenth century Dutch flower painting (as beautiful as they are).
This is much easier to explain by watching than with words, so here are the two live sterams I did whilst paiting this little picture.
The first one is a little glitchy for the first few minutes, I was testing out some tech that didn’t quite work 🙂
But then it settles down I get straight into painting, describing what I’m doing as I go.
I hope they were useful.
Do you struggle with yellows? This might be the answer to your problems – or at least, bring you closer to understanding why you find them hard.
It’s mostly to do with the limitations of paint, and the link between value and chroma.
Best wishes and thanks for reading,
Paul
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Hi Paul,
Thank you for sharing your struggle and solutions with the yellows and shadows of your painting. I want to buy the Munsell book. What is his first name and is it still in print?
Warm Regards
Jill
Thanks Jill.
His name is Alfred H Munsell, I think you can download his origianl book for free now since it will be out of copyringht.
That’s not the book I use though. This is the Munsell big book of colour, glossy edition. It’s a book filled only with colour chips, organised by hue, value and chroma and represents the range of colour availabl in paint. Unfortunately it’s also very expensive, about $1000 last time I checked. Pantone make it now:
https://www.pantone.com/products/munsell/munsell-book-of-color-glossy-edition
What a brave man you are Paul. Those of us who follow you learn so much from your journey because you show us everything .
The highly polished videos I have watched teach next to nothing because they show and teach NOTHING, only a so called diva showing off.
You teach us the challenges you face and talk us through those challenges.
The technical discoveries you share so generously with us enrich our knowledge and give us a deeper understanding of how to create a luminous painting . For that, I sincerely thank you.
Christopher
I’m with Christopher on this one! You’re so generous. I have a mantra in my studio ‘The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away’ I’ve learnt so much from you Paul both on line and in the two workshops I did with you. Judy x
I’ve too have been trying to paint yellow daffs since they started blooming, only in watercolor. The values are so tight that painting has to be very delicate. I can get that feeling of freshness if I leave a lot of white paper for highlights, but that has the effect of making the highlights too chilly. So I paint all over very lightly in yellow, then use that light yellow as my highlights, which makes those value shifts even closer. A really hard exercise!
Unfortunately I can’t seem to watch the videos.
Thank you so much for explaing your process. I teach watercolor painting, and the yellow chroma issue is just as problematic! But chroma and value are constants and your breakdown of the relationship and how it can be manipulated offers a great teaching discussion.
How I would love to see and learn from this video but unfotunatly could not open it. I would love to learn about mixing the yellows ect. Missed out
My first ever oil painting was from a photo of a blossom from a yellow magnolia tree I received as a birthday gift (Magnolia x ‘Sunsation’). I learned early on my lightest light would NOT be white, but an extremely pale (almost imperceptably) yellow.
I’ve since learned that the only “pure” white is a highlight usually found on glass or ceramic surfaces. Yellow is very challenging, as it can go either red or blue leaning.
Don’t even get me started on the shadows! Lol