One COLOR MIXING STRATEGY to Improve your PAINTINGS | Art Tips for Beginners + Demonstration

In this episode I want to share with you a color mixing strategy that can help you get better colors in your paintings. This is not a secret color is a very complicated subject let alone color mixing... So hopefully, this color strategy that saved me as a beginner can help you for your paintings!

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About me (bio) :

I am an artist living and working in France. I learned the techniques of the Atelier of the Nineteenth century and now I try to share some of my knowledge with the rest of the world, because I think that beauty still has an important role to play in artistic creation. I do mostly drawing and oil painting, and my goal is always to provide techniques and explanations that can be useful to anyone, from beginners to more advanced artists.

The material I use most of the time (not necessarily in this video) :

Drawing
Equipement
✓ Kneaded eraser
✓ Plumb line
✓ Small mirror
✓ An old synthetic brush
✓ Masking tape
✓ Cutter
✓ Sandpaper or sanding block
✓ Mahlstick or Hand rest (DIY)
✓ Level ruler
Graphite
✓ Pencils 2H, HB and 2B
Charcoal
✓ If available: Nitram charcoals (H, HB and B)
!!! Or, if not::
✓ Square Venetian charcoals Lefranc and Bourgeois
✓ Natural charcoal box (check that the heart of the stick is not spongy and hollow)
Black and white chalk
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
✓ Square Conté noir : HB and 2B
✓ Chalk or pencil holder
✓ Pencil sketch Conté Pierre noire : H and HB
Sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté : Blood and blood Medici
✓ Crayon Polychromos Faber-Castel : sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
Oil painting
Palette
(Extra-fine paint, recommended brands according to availability: Lefranc Bourgeois, Winsor and Newton, Royal Talens Rembrandt, Sennelier)
✓ Titanium white PW6
✓ Yellow ochre PY42
✓ Burnt Sienna PR101 or PBr7
✓ Venetian red or English red PR101
✓ Permanent Alizarin crimson (Attention: do not use the traditional pigment, which is not very light-fast) PV19 or PR177
✓ Cobalt teal blue PG50
✓ French ultramarine blue PB29
✓ Raw umber PBr7
✓ Burnt umber PBr7
✓ Ivory Black PBk9
Brushes
✓ About ten filbert hog bristle brushes sizes n° 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12
✓ Some flat brushes
✓ Round sable brush or round Kolinsky sable n°10 (from the size of the nail (about one inch) or synthetic imitation
Medium
✓ Linseed stand oil
✓ Odourless mineral spirits
✓ Safflower oil
Surface
✓ Linen canvas, fine grain universal coating
✓ Canson oil-acrylic oil paper Figueras
Others
✓ Palette
✓ Foam and spalter brushes
✓ Palette knife in the shape of a water drop
✓ A few small pots, containers, jars...
✓ Paper towels

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Thanks for watching !

[squarz]

Using less combination of different pigments helps too a lot. You need a skin color, just put a little of a transparent red and a transparent yellow to your white, re-do the same color will be so easy. Same for drapery, you need blue variations? Just take a little bit of phtalo blu and mix with a black, then put a white and play with those.
Then there is space to add everything you want.

[mikespell]

I JUST DISCOVERED THIS METHOD A WEEK AGO BY ACCIDENT IN MY FIRST PORTRAIT. THANK YOU FOR CONFIRMING IT! BRILLIANT!

[rebeccanewberry]

so helpful! now I can stop thinking that when I don't nail the color the first time around, that it's not a failure, just part of the process. Thank you!

[hicap]

I work using pallet paper (grey). And I save the paper once I'm finished. Not forever, but until I'm truly satisfied with the work. This allows me to "color match" and experiment on the paper prior to applying it to the canvas, It makes the process less stressful for me.

[redangrybird]

Colour mixing comes naturally and intuitively for just a very few gifted persons, for the rest of the mortals the mixing of colour comes from following a simple set of rules, starting with the colour wheel. The best video on this topic is the one made by Mark Carder. I have checked many good artist's videos and none reveal the "secret" of mixing colours as Mark does.

[tomfroehlich]

Florent, I love your videos! So simple and well explained...and you seem like a super nice guy!! I've started oil painting again after 40 years and your videos are so helpful and encouraging. Thank you!

[downtherabbithole]

Thank you so much. I have been struggling so much with colour mixing today...warm, cool, too dark/ light/ saturated etc. etc. ....this was the PERFECT video to watch.

[cseguin]

I learned quite a bit about colour mixing when I worked in the printing industry. The inks we used came in primary colours and we had a recipe book to give us the various ratios to mix all the colours of the rainbow . . . it was one of the more enjoyable aspects of the job watching a coupe or a few different colours start interacting and becoming homogenous whilst mixing - very satisfying.

[Isabel]

Thank you for this advice I've always struggled with color mixing I'm still learning as I do my art

[fidrewe]

"A painter is almost like a musician who would have to invent all the notes before playing"... true, being a painter is more like being a composer in music.

[petramicklethwaite]

Thanks, this makes sense. I have been more or less taking this approach, because it seemed logical, but it is reassuring to know that a much more experienced artist advocates it! I did think that I should know for certain the colour was right before I put it onto canvas. After watching this video I realise that I'm not likely to know for sure until I see the colour in the context of the painting. I'm glad I was on the right track after all 😊

[flexflex]

You're always so fantastic ! Love and respect for your dedications to art. So great pleasure!!!

[Cosetteseferian]

Thanks a lot !, I'm a beginner and struggling with my portrait painting. Your videos are great !

[skysky]

I love your train of thoughts ...thanks for sharing...its helping me to recognize my challenges

[mona]

I finally found you!, , just what I need, you are extremely generous and sooo informative. Just subscribed ! Now I need to learn colour mixing first . Thank you!,

[muhlenstedt]

Great tutorial.Your english is excellent, just a funny thing is that I was hearing statt colour, "carder" like Mark Carder LOL English is still difficult for me but I understand your strategy that is very practical and easy.Thank you very much, I needed this a lot.

[oilonpaper]

That was amazingly helpful, thank you! 💛🙏 I'm not (yet) a traditional oil painter, but use the dry-brush technique with oil paint on paper, and when I use color, I "paper mix" by adding thin layers that let previous layers shine through, so it's kind of like a glaze, I'd say.
I've wanted to try traditional oil painting for... forever, so this video took away my fear of sucking at color mixing. 😅 Thanks again!

[Karola]

thank you for the tutorial!! it really ligthened up some of my issues with mixing colors! and also huge respect for modifying a finished painting. i would probably be too scared to do it thinking i will damage the finished result!

[lynneholehouse]

LOVE your videos. Every single thing you say resonates! Just brilliant,

[lastranger]

BRO I AM REALLY THANKFUL TO YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR VIDEOS, BECAUSE YOU ARE THE BEST TEACHER AND ARTIST IN PAINTING ON YOUTUBE I HAVE EVER WATCHED... THANKS FROM HEART AGAIN. ONE QUESTION CAN YOU GIVE SOME ADVISE ON ALBERT LYNCH PAINTING TECHNIQUE..OR COLOR PELLETE