Colour Tips and Painting Techniques - Paler Shades and Highlights - What About Red?

By Catherine Calder

I had a query about making paler colours and I thought it would be a good idea to discuss this topic in an article.

There are a couple of ways to get a paler colour when you are painting. These pale colours are normally for the highlighted areas or areas where the light is hitting the object you are painting.

1. You can paint a thin layer of paint and let the white of the painting surface show through. This works well as long as you are painting on a pale surface. Generally speaking you will be.

2. You can add white to the colour to make a pale version of it, called a tint. This works well except when you try to do it with red. Adding white to red will give you pink, which is probably not what you wanted! This was the main point of the question I received.

Highlights when using Red

When you are painting on a non-white surface you can paint the area of the highlight white, let it dry and then over paint with a thin layer of red to get the same effect as in Point 1 above. (This will work with other colours too.)

If you are trying to add a highlight, for example, to an area that you have already painted then let the paint dry before adding a thin layer of white to the area for the highlight. Use quite a watery mix if you want some of the red to show through. White is an opaque colour in acrylics and the area can look a bit chalky if the white is applied too thickly.

Or

An alternative method is to apply further layers of red to the darker areas of the object. When you add extra layers of paint the colour looks richer and deeper. These richer coloured areas will enhance the highlight effect in the area with just the one layer of paint.

Try this on a spare piece of paper; it is a very good effect. The highlight area has just the one layer of paint, and the middle and darker areas will have more layers of paint to give a richer colour.

If you go on to add shadow shades of red as well you will be able to achieve good results.
The shadow shade for red will depend on what you are painting. It could be a purple made by adding some blue. However if you wanted a more neutral look try adding a little of the complimentary colour (for red that would be green) to dull the colour down.

Maybe try using several techniques?

Of course you could use a mix of these different options too. Maybe a thin layer of white for the highlight, plus some extra layers of red to the middle tone areas and then some darker shadow tones. It will really depend on your subject and the effect you are trying to paint.

Catherine Calder is the author of the Acrylic Painting Course. This step-by-step painting course shows all the stages for painting 12 pictures. Learn a range of painting techniques as you paint the lovely pictures. Visit the Learn and Do website for a free preview that shows all the stages to completing your first sunset painting. http://www.LearnAndDo.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Catherine_Calder