In this wildlife painting study, the colour mixing techniques used can be applied to any subject. I’ll be creating this wildlife painting study of a Heron as I’m also filming a formal class video of a 16×20 wood panel painting featuring a waterfall and a Heron.
By using a limited palette and in this case I’m using the DecoArt Americana Premium Acrylics, you can really tweak the colours to what you want just by knowing a few things.
The most important though, is when working on colour matching in art is that the lighting be the same every time during the colour mixing session. Meaning, if you were going to do this study over a few days, make sure the lighting is the same. Lighting in the morning is not the same as in the afternoon or evening and that affects how you see colour. Same as warm and cool light. The lighting in my studio is 95% cool because of the Unstick mat on my table being brown, it’s a warm reflection so the cool lights balance it out.
If you enjoy colour mixing, I’ll be hosting a free 7 day colour mixing course and challenge in September.
If you would like to be added to the waiting list, go here:
Wildlife Painting Study of a Heron in Acrylics
What did you think?
Have you ever created painting studies before starting a formal painting? please share in the comments below.