In Reply to: Colour mixing and long-deep breath! posted by Solomon Meteku on 11/06/01 at 6:04 AM:

: Many thanks for the quick respons. Can you name any of the colour charts books you advised i should use?
: Now to something completely different..Shadows! So long as there is light so shall there be shadows, one can't do without them, I mean in paintings, with their tint, hues, how they complement the lighter side etc etc, God knows what else.
: For the sake of brevity; when you make shadows they tend to be more "prominent" if you lay them thick, which i often do for i am more into impressionism..and then i put yet thicker paint on the light side to let it come out and shine!
: Question is;
: 1: Is it wise to use darker comlements for shadows, applying it very lightly, not thick?
: 2: There are shadows in bright light, in shade and even in darkness..the theory of Helen Van Wijk (may she rest in peace) of using grey for shadow and white for light or highlihgt doesn't hold true as i have tried it.
: 3: Each colour has its shadow complement or a darker coplement that goes with it, in which case the colour wheel comes in handy, am i right?
: 4: When you paint wet on wet do you apply the darker ones on the lghter one?
: 5: When you paint light skin, brown or ones with real darker complexions, in light, in shadow or even in a darker room, which colour tubes do i need to keep at hand? for instance if you use a touch of violet or earth green or ultramarine
: or other blues to shadow a red tinted skin the result is not always that good.
: So what is the nearest solution, using the mixtrure, say of a dark background for shadows?
: I know there is someone out there, a painter who has been through all this, sufferd through it all and truimphantly won over it, who can reach out with an "edible" advise or tip on this complex issue,
: Keeping my ears and eyes, and of cource my internet, open,
: Greeting.
: Solomon

solomon, salutations: morris gave you good advice. try it it won't hurt you. better yet make some color charts now!!!!! once you start you can have a collection for each problem area you run into they will overlap. ie. naples yellow painted down one side of a small canvas; next to it place small squares of different hue, shades, colors what ever so you can see how each reacts with the naples. do this for all the ligths you use when you are finished you'll have most of you darks covered also. take a deep breath calm down and try some of the advice you've gotten. then come back and tells were we went wrong. take care be safe fom. oh by the way thick or thin if it's the wrong color its just wrong!