Oil Painting Tutorial - Colour Essentials, INTENSITY & SATURATION

[@amandagriffeyfineart271]

Fabulous instruction. Color is and area that I have struggled with in my work and you have so simply explained two of my biggest areas of frustration. Thank you so much for your clear simple explanations and wonderful examples.

[@whatapieceofwork]

I can foresee this body of work becoming the standard reference material. When this channel catches on it will explode.

[@melianna999]

Very good lesson. One lemon ...so many colors and mixing. Wow.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you Melianna!

[@benchristo4322]

Thank you Alex. This series is tremendously helpful.

[@juanlopera929]

Thanks again Alex! Can’t tell you enough how useful your videos are. I’m always excited to see a new one is out. Take care

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thanks Juan!

[@citadelofwinds1564]

This has been an extremely useful video. I am so glad I found this channel and I like the philosophy of keeping things simple.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you found this channel too.

[@monicaraquel7283]

You are an amazig artist and great teacher, thank you for taking your time to do these videos!

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thanks Monica!

[@robertrigel9806]

Once again I learned something new. Saturation is key to understanding how colors work next to each other. I wish I had come across you much earlier. Cheers!

[@robinwellner9039]

LOVE LOVE LOVE your videos!!! Thanks so much! Brilliant!!!

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you Robin!

[@joseluisderivera465]

I’m just watching this. Very useful. Thanks a million for sharing knowledgeable!

[@jackiehonda]

Mindblowing. Thanks, Alex. It's great how much straight to the point you instruct us 🙏🙏

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you Jackie!

[@jonroads8281]

I've only just discovered this channel, and what an amazing find! The best painting channel around by far!

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you very much Jon!

[@amalias8888]

Beeeeeutiful! Great explanation of what you're doing too.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you! Glad it was helpful.

[@OtakBolong]

You really help me improve my skills. While tutorial videos out there prob just paint and paint without explanations, yours actually give us cues about what to do. Thanks a lot!!

[@mariarowden3751]

Thank you. V helpful comments about saturation that I have not heard before despite paying for many art classes.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you Maria! Glad it was helpful.

[@davearmento5468]

Excellent video. Most concise painting instruction I have seen in a long while. Thanks

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thanks Dave

[@geneb3237]

Alex, your my #1 painter to follow, please keep up the informative videos, (also like your guest interviews) and awesome instruction. If I lived closer, I would take your classes. If you had an instructional DVD/download I would buy.

[@WILDNFREEMUSIC]

New subscribers here. Thanks for this informative video. It is easy to follow.

[@elizabethpears307]

Great lesson!!

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you Elizabeth!

[@thomase3551]

Bravo!!

[@jordih1000]

Thank you very much for your very clear explanation and your willingness to share, so it is a pleasure to learn, and much more pleasant

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thanks

[@rebecagarcia-gonzalez3117]

Excellent and succinct intro to several key concepts!

[@michaelrodrigues2632]

Too good... Straight forward & very clear explanation....Thank you..

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you Michael!

[@carleenmejzastrumunderthes4130]

I happen to need to paint my lemons in my composition now!

[@lindaragsdale1656]

Watched the video and learned a lot. Thank you.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thanks Linda. Glad it's been helpful. Have you tried painting a lemon with this limited palette?

[@lindaragsdale1656]

@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting No. I'm working on a painting of an unknown subject as I type this. My thoughts are to decorate my place with vintage- vibe artwork that I have created . I hope I can do it. I really like the salmon pinks and the rich saturated colors used in vintage artwork so I definitely think this'll be helpful. Thank you

[@vanessajmcintosh]

brilliant and beautiful, thanks so much... !

[@megustacalleja4601]

Una lección extraordinaria y una gran ayuda. Muchas gracias!

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you!

[@alessandrotatullo5220]

Hi! I write from Italy. First I want to express my appreciation for your artwork; it’s really inspiring. Also I think your channel is one of the few which really teaches art and how to improve painting skills. I want to ask you whether there is any book which contains the information you give in your videos. Thank you !

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you very much Alessandro! There are lots of great books that I have learned from and gotten information for my videos, but my favourites I would recommend are the books by Harold Speed and Alla Prima by Richard Schmid. Here is a video I made about them from years and years ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5OxYXehiLianbM

[@alessandrotatullo5220]

@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPaintingThank you so much for your time! I appreciate a lot. In case of future doubts I will contact you. Thank you in advance!

[@FrancileneSouza-r8d]

Famtastic!❤

[@tzilakeren156]

Tank you

[@KerryFreemanMelbourne]

Alex...useful info in managable doses! 10 stars, and thankyou.

[@sgbibby]

Nailed it again !

[@nestoremocling3235]

It is great to Learn from you Sir Alex.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you!

[@shannonmay6300]

I really appreciate what you share here. Agree that artists can be prone to too saturated paintings. However I do wish you’d has a longer video where I could see more clearly how you developed some of this desaturated colors and which you were applying in the shaded side, particularly the ambient lit parts. Slowing video in settings want slow enough. Do you have more videos on the topic?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you Shannon. There is a full length version of this same exercise, filmed in real time available to watch over on my Patreon channel. It's part of my essentials of colour course.

[@lisengel2498]

Beautiful and so well shown and explained ❤❤❤

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you very much!

[@mariecrowe8843]

Gosh, fabulously helpful 👍

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you very much Marie. Glad you think so!

[@emarcos40]

Another excellent video. Thanks Alex.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thanks Eduardo

[@sujanithtottempudi2991]

So beautiful.....better than photo...

[@Whiskeygalore24]

Excellent, thank you for the video.

[@randomgaming8509]

I like your colors and painting style.

[@tinacaruso1354]

excellent video, thanks

[@georgedibble7853]

You’re the best!

[@robbiej2070]

Thanks for the demo

[@lynnjin5018]

Thank you so much for this useful lesson! I had the confusion about color temperature for a long time and this explained really well. I do have a question regarding the color of the edges between lights and shadow, you put a cool green tone due to a cool light source for the edges, but shouldn’t it be a warmer tone because as we shift away from the light source it receive lesser color influence? (Sorry English isn’t my first language I tried to word the question as clear as possible, i will be really grateful if you reply, thank you again for your amazing contents!

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

The edges will usually take on the temperature of the light source. In this case they appear cooler in relation to the warm shadows. But you'll often see quite a lot of different colours in the half tones and edges. So you'll see a few warmer notes too. The cool light warm shadow, warm light cool shadow rule is a general guideline which you will often observe in nature. But colours don't always obey this rule, the main thing is to learn to be able to judge the temperature of you colour, are they warmer or cooler than the other colours in your painting.

[@johnhix7400]

Nice demonstration...

[@mariamalenta6574]

Super helpful!

[@Knskyzlp]

I like your accent! And thank you for the work you do

[@demetrio47]

Eres un gran artista, me encanta!

[@itsrooh645]

Thankyou my friend

[@Dawer8D]

Bacanisimo muchas gracias por compartir su entendimiento

[@juliemccaw5227]

Love ❤

[@mosiotv]

Thank you so much. 👍🏻

[@crisalidathomassie1811]

This is a great video. Thanks so much. Often times we don’t pay attention to the real colors in nature and observation is critical when painting from live. I struggle with red roses. How would you include the gray to the red to look real? Thanks so much. You are awesome. Your videos are kn target. Congratulations. Blessings and be safe.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

You grey down a colour by adding its complementary. The complementary of red is green. Green is a secondary colour made by mixing yellow and blue. So to grey down red you would add varying degrees of yellow and blue.

[@crisalidathomassie1811]

@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Awesome! Thanks so much Alex. I’m thinking in experimenting with different colors by using their complement to gray them down. I feel this is important when painting flowers. Blessings and be safe.

[@vijumewada2368]

Love it !!!!

[@masiebadi669]

Hi Alex, great video very helpful. What's a great way of desaturating colour that you have already put down on the canvas?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thank you! Glad it was helpful. The only way to really correct a colour after it has been placed on your canvas is to paint over it with another colour. While the paint is still wet, you can scrape back the paint that's already on you canvas with a palette knife, though this isn't always necessary.

[@PatMcDonald41]

Thank you...

[@atelierchiaroscuroassociaz195]

Hello Alex and congratulations for your videos, you are very good at explaining. I would like to know what kind of canvas you use (which brand) and what color you use for two coats on ground on the canvas. TKx

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

I make my own supports. I used extra fine Belgian linen from a company in the UK called Russell & Chapel. I size it with rabbit skin glue and then use a ground of two coats of oil primer by a company called Roberson's. I'm going to be doing a series on materials soon, and I'll be doing a video on making different supports.

[@yshcordaro5254]

Thank you very much, could you please tell me: Nature is more grayer than you think, when I paint, how grayer I should mix the color? Is there any way to see the color from the the object? Thank you.

[@rafaelteruel4261]

This is wonderful Alex! I'm wondering, is white light from a lamp considered a cool light?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

The standard lamps you normally find in houses are generally warm, 3000-3400K. Daylight lamps are around 5500K so much cooler. You can also buy LED lamps with adjustable temperatures.

[@rafaelteruel4261]

@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting GOt it. THank you!

[@cosminpodar]

awesome videos !!

[@hellobaby133]

Great video as always. How do you know what colours to choose when painting, as in there are many types of red you can buy but how do you know a particular red will be best for a red item you are painting??

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

This is why I think its a good idea to practice with versions of the 3 primaries. The versions here are quite close to the process colours in your printer (apart from blue, ultramarine is cheaper than using cobalt or cerulean), this allows you to mix a wide range of colours. The Zorn palette, yellow ochre (cool yellow), cadmium red (warm red) and Ivory black (warm blue) is easier to use for flesh colours, than the palette in the video but it doesn't have the range. Basically, using different reds and yellows etc make it easier to mix particular colours. Try a limited palette and then start adding different versions of the primaries. Does that make sense? I tend to have warm and cool versions of the primaries on my palette, like cadmium red light (warmer) alizarin (cooler) cobalt (cooler) ultramarine (warmer). I also have earth colours and a few greens for transparent mixtures when landscape painting. The only way to find the colours really like is to experiment. Also, mixing colour charts is a good way to find out what different colours do. Have you see the charts in Richard Schmid's Alla Prima?

[@rickypatten3657]

SIMPLIFY Drawing & Painting yes I’ve done the charts in Richard Schmid book. Takes ages.

[@martinarb5684]

Hello, thank you very much for the video! I have a question. In the photograph of the lemon I see the cast shadow having harder edges than in the painting. May I ask why this is? Is it because it looks better? Or am I seeing hard edges where you see soft ones? I’m sorry if this seems like I am overthinking this but I tried to make this painting from your photo before watching how you would make it (if I see my mistakes after I make them, by comparing my work, the concept sticks better in my mind) and that is a big difference I see in mine and yours. I have another question if you had time. You mentioned here the shadows are warmer, so by contrast the lit part should appear cooler. Why does the lit part (the more saturated yellow of the lemon I mean) not appear cool to me? I hope my questions make sense to you. Thank you so much.

[@dreadnaught3894]

Green Lemon? . . . .is it finished? Wish you well.

[@remy810521]

又有新視頻了，謝謝老師^^

[@briza2022]

Color is really a challenge because there is so many that is so difficult to set a limit.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

I agree colour most definitely is a challenge. But there are principles you need to learn. that will help really help you, light and dark tonal values, colour temperature and colour intensity. So when you're trying to match a colour, you should be asking yourself, is it lighter or darker? Warmer or cooler? Greyer or more intense?

[@briza2022]

@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting thank you sm⭐

[@lisafred1362]

How close is ultramarine to cyan blue of printer? If you add white to cad yellow medium will that make lemon yellow? Thanks in advance.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Ultramarine isn't close to cyan. I'm just comparing mixing colours using the three primaries to the way a printer mixes all the colours with different quantities of cyan magenta yellow and black. If you add white to cadmium yellow it will cool it down a bit like lemon. But you could replace the lemon with cadmium anyway, and use a limited palette of ultramarine, alizarine and cad yellow just as easily.

[@dtrevan]

I like your videos. Bit younmade a green lemon, and on the reference photo its yellow. Its a bit confusing. I get the temperature shift idea though.thnaks a lot

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thanks. That isn't a reference photo, I painted the lemon from life. There will always be an inconsistency between the way the camera films the lemon, how my eye sees the lemon and how the camera films my painting. Mainly to do with the exposure on the camera.

[@gavinnaylor786]

Great lesson. Interestingly it looks like you followed your rule more than necessary though. The painting ends up much more muted than the actual photo.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

The still photo was not used as a reference, I painted the lemon from life. The inconsistency between still photo and the painting is down to the exposure on my camera. Unfortunately, neither the colour of the real lemon or the painting appears exactly like they actually do in real life.

[@gavinnaylor786]

Ah ha, that makes sense. Your lessons have helped me so much just in the last few days Alex. Huge thanks. You really have a knack for passing on the tools needed to make a big step.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

@@gavinnaylor786 Thank you! Glad you've found my videos helpful. They always start out longer and I end up editing down a lot of the commentary in order to keep it simple.

[@kennethaquino8352]

hello sir nice painting are you using permanent version of alizarin crimson?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

No I'm using Michael harding Alizarin Crimson, they also do "Alizarin Claret" which they say is more permanent?

[@kennethaquino8352]

@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting i see i mean the PR177 or Anthraquinone Red

[@charlesreidy2765]

When you say Lemon Yellow is that the name of a particular brand of paint or do you mean Cadmium Lemon?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

I can't quite remember exactly which brand of lemon I used here. It was probably Michael Harding Lemon yellow or it may have been MH Cadmium Lemon? But I've also done this exercise with MH Bright Yellow lake and Winsor yellow by Winsor and Newton which are both made with the same pigment (Hansa Yellow PY3 I believe?). For this limited palette, the main thing is you need both the yellow and the red to be cooler versions, because you can warm the yellow up by adding red and you can warm the red by adding yellow. If you have a warmer yellow like Cadmium you can only cool it down by adding white or blue, which will either desaturate it or turn it too green.

[@charlesreidy2765]

@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Thanks. It sounds as though either Hansa Yellow Light or Cadmium Lemon will do the job. Thanks.

[@amysbees6686]

Great exercise! Well done! Would you also call saturation "chroma"?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Yes, it means the same thing.

[@Tarotblackcat]

I see the lemon more bright and cooler on the photo than the painting.

[@johnnyblaze373]

Hi Alex, to grab down a colour you add the compliment right?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Yes, but in terms of pigments that means two colours. To get down blue the compliment is orange so you need to mix both yellow and red. To grey down yellowfins you both red and blue. Does that make sense?

[@johnnyblaze373]

@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Yes absolutely, silly spellcheck changed grey for grab, anyhow, i really appreciate these tutorials man, they're helping a lot. straight to the point. i've checked out your zorn palette demo and i only have mars black, i know it is more of a warmer black but can it still be used to replace ivory as the cool colour? or should i use french ultramarine instead? The most difficult thing for me is trying not to emulate a colour that i see and try to get the brain to focus only on value and temperature.

[@kudreterkent3927]

Thank you Alex. I want to learn what kind of brush proper to alla prima. So hard or soft brushes?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

I use both. I shall have to do a video on brushes at some point.

[@kudreterkent3927]

SIMPLIFY Drawing & Painting l look forward to your video about brushes. Thank you again.

[@sentry9834]

Looks more like a lemon shaped apple, with the heavy use of green. Thanks for sharing.

[@jimreid9674]

What you painted is no where near saturated enough. It's easy to desaturate colour much more difficult to increase intensity because of the limitations of the oil paint. Hence use the very best highly pigmented oil paint if you can afford it.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

I mainly use Michael Harding oil paints which are very good quality. The greatest saturation you can achieve is by using unmixed colour straight out of the tube, but there are very few situations where you would do this in nature. Maybe the light parts of brightly coloured flowers in sunlight?

[@radiantjw1]

great demo . but wish you could do it without having to occasionally block the painting with your body...minor issue for me.

[@audreygair5497]

I wish i had seen this 10 years ago

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

You've still got plenty of time.

[@poorvijha1673]

Which brand oil paint do you use

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

mainly these www.michaelharding.co.uk

[@blackcat138]

Do you have online classes or DVDs?

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Not yet. Hopefully later this year

[@carpethooligan]

Your lemon came out too green, sir.

[@aydakoprulu1404]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏……………..

[@arvinjadejavier1001]

I dont understand what he means about "Nature is more grayer than you think"

[@paulmorinart]

You obviously don't live in the North of England then...

[@paicemaster6855]

The real world is oftentimes very desaturated

[@lpaone01]

Great technique, but a little too olive-looking. The world is full of colour and every artist interprets what they see differently. I would have leaned more toward brighter yellow/and muted it slightly with greenish-brown. I once read that every person is color-blind to some degree, and it becomes more prominent with age --my red is not your red. Nonetheless, great class.

[@marlenemeek9030]

It looks more like a lime than a lemon. 😞

[@DazzlingAction]

Looks like a lime....

[@brianjohnston7997]

Excellent instruction, only one negative comment. The sound was poor, and yours is not uncommon. Many teaching videos have poor sound and or lighting. Slow down your speech just a little. Otherwise I give it a ten.

[@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting]

Thanks for the feedback

[@MrGarib12]

Very Helpful!