Summer Greens

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

The Water Iris Oil © John Hulsey

We’ve been mixing a lot of greens on our palettes for these summer days of painting. Of all the color mixes, greens can be the most troublesome to mix accurately. We’re not sure why, but we understand the challenges. Greens vary widely in perceived temperature—cool or warm, with the value measurement to be dealt with on top of that. We use a limited palette of split primaries: a warm and cool of yellow, blue and red, plus white and black.

It is crucial to select the correct primaries, either warm or cool, to mix and match a subject’s greens. We use Cadmium Yellow Medium or Cadmium Yellow Light mixed with Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue to make our greens, generally. There is a also an interesting range of greens which can be made from yellow and black. See: Mixing Beautiful Greens from Black.

Since there are 4 possible combinations of primaries in this palette, cool/cool, cool/warm, warm/cool and warm/warm, knowing…