The color

Theory of color | The basic pallet | Mixture of colors

A " primary color " is a color that we can't get by mixture. There are three : the red, the blue (cyan) an the yellow. If we speak about painting, the magenta or the purple are the closest colors to the pure red. The ultramarine will be used for the cyan and the cadmium yellow for the yellow.
+=	If we mix two primary colors we get a secondary color. Thus, with only these three colors we can create orange, violet and green.
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Theoretically, it's thus possible to create all the colors of the chromatic spectrum by differently mixing the quantities. Unfortunately in practice, the pigments that compose the painting don't react very well. That's why you have to buy several colors… see the basic pallet
A "complementary color" is the opposite color of an other one on the chromatic circle.
	is the complementary of
	is the complementary of
	is the complementary of

¶ By mixing a primary color and its complementary, we can create some neutral grey or some brown according to the proportions.

¶ To create beautiful greens, we advice you to use a mix of Windsor blue and lemon yellow. Concerning the orange, we prefer a mix of yellow and cadmium red.

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The basic pallet | Theory of color | Mixture of colors

Theoretically, it's possible to create all the colors of the chromatic circle with only the primary colors (blue, red, yellow). But this is only the result we can get in optics.

When we speak about painting, the result is different. It is mainly due to chemical reactions between the pigments that compose the mixture.

That's why you will have to buy more than these three colors. You will find in the shops more than 100 different colors. Unless you have a specific need, you will do what you want with about ten colors only without being stuck to create a mixture.

So, here is the basic pallet we advice you to use :

Ultramarine			Lemon-yellow
Yellow ochre			Alizarin crimson
Natural umber			Cadmium red
Charcoal grey			Windsor violet
Cadmium yellow			Titanium white

By the way, you will notice that we never spoke about black. We are not selecting this color in our basic pallet because the beginners could unwisely use it. Actually, it can be easy to use the black color to draw the shadows for example, but if you look closely, you will see that these shadows are composed by some other colors. The black is never part of these colors.

Moreover, the black is not part of the natural colors...
The only times where you will use the black color will be to paint an artificial black object.

¶ You should always prepare your basic colors on your pallet before starting a painting. You will avoid, while concentrating yourself, to use a replacement color just because it's not ready...

¶ The ideal pallet will be a pallet where the center is used for the mixtures and the basic colors on the edge.

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Mixture of colors | Theory of color | The basic pallet

There is nothing better than a knife to mix your colors together on the pallet . There are different sizes. Of course, the more paint you have to mix, the bigger the knife should be. see the knifes

You can also use a brush but avoid the synthetic staples which wear very easily and may leave hairs on your painting... see the brushes

¶ The oil-painting is very expensive. You should therefore mix very little painting and check the required tint in front of the model. Then you will be able to increase the proportions.
In case you are painting and are out of a specific color, just apply the same method : check the tint of the new mixture before you paint on.

Spirit of turpentine is often used in the mixtures in order to make the colors brighter after drying. It is also used to clean the equipment after use or between two colors.

¶ Never go to an other color without perfectly clean your brush and your knife.

When preparing a color by mixture, some painting islets can appear. An islet is a small quantity that has not been mixed to the rest. In this case, you often have to manage this directly on the canvas.
Don't be afraid : take a piece of clean rag and remove this point of undesired painting directly on the canvas instead of try to modify the color with its complementary...

¶ Always prepare your mixtures on your pallet before placing a color on your canvas.

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