This SIMPLE Color Mixing Trick Can Help You Get the RIGHT Color Every Time - Color Theory Tutorial

Download my color wheel (go to the "resources for artists" section):
www.florentfarges.com/education
This trick is so simple but so effective to practice and improve your color mixing skills it’s not even fair. It’s not just an exercise, it can also help you with your color mixing in your everyday practice so make sure you stay until the end because the strategy I’ll share with you can really help you if you sometimes struggle with color.
Alright, Start with a reference picture of your choice. Because I don’t have a high-end printer, what I like to do for practice is cut off pictures in fine arts magazines. Usually, they have a pretty good quality.
The trick is just to get a piece of glass and place if over the image, personally, I use a glass palette so I just have to slide the picture in between, that’s pretty useful. If you don’t have a palette like this, first, maybe you should, because it costs almost nothing, like I took this piece of glass from a glass frame and my palette use to be a glass shelf.
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About me (bio) :
Website :
www.florentfarges.com
I am an artist living and working in France. I learned the techniques of the Atelier of the Nineteenth century and now I try to share some of my knowledge with the rest of the world, because I think that beauty still has an important role to play in artistic creation. I do mostly drawing and oil painting, and my goal is always to provide techniques, thoughts and explanations that can be useful to anyone, from beginners to more advanced artists.
The material I use most of the time (not necessarily in this video) :
Drawing
✓ Kneaded eraser
✓ Plumb line (DIY)
✓ Small mirror
✓ An old synthetic brush
✓ Masking tape
✓ Cutter
✓ Sandpaper or sanding block
✓ Mahlstick or Hand rest (DIY)
✓ Level ruler
Graphite
✓ Pencils 2H, HB and 2B
Charcoal
✓ If available: Nitram charcoals (H, HB and B)
✓ Square charcoals
Black and white chalk
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
✓ Square Conté noir : HB and 2B
✓ Chalk or pencil holder
✓ Pencil sketch Conté Pierre noire : H and HB
Sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté : Blood and blood Medici
✓ Crayon Polychromos Faber-Castel : sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
Oil painting
Palette
(Extra-fine paint, recommended brands depending on availability: Sennelier, Lefranc Bourgeois, Winsor and Newton, Royal Talens Rembrandt, Blockx, Michael Harding, Gamblin)
✓ Titanium White PW6
✓ Flake White (or substitute) PW1
✓ Cadmium Yellow light (or "lemon") PY35
✓ Yellow Ochre PY42
✓ Raw Umber PBr7
✓ Transparent Red Oxyde PR101
✓ Burnt Umber PBr7
✓ Venetian Red PR101
✓ Pyrrole Red PR255
✓ Quinacridone Rose PV19
✓ Quinacridone Magenta PV19
✓ Ultramarine Blue PB29
✓ Mars Black PBk11
✓ Cobalt Teal Blue (turquoise light) PG50
✓ Phthalo green warm PG36
Brushes
✓ Filbert hog bristle and Synthetic sizes n° 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12
✓ Flat Synthetic brushes (same size)
✓ Round sable brush or round Kolinsky sable n° 4, 8, 10, 12 (from the size of the nail (about one inch) or synthetic imitation
Medium
✓ Linseed stand oil
✓ Odorless mineral spirits
✓ Or Alkyd medium (Liquin, Galkyd, Flow'n'Dry etc.)
✓ Safflower oil
Surface
✓ Linen canvas, fine grain universal coating
✓ For studies : Canson oil-acrylic oil paper Figueras
Others
✓ Palette
✓ Sponge and spalter brushes
✓ Palette knife in the shape of a water drop, no souldering
✓ A few small pots, containers, jars...
✓ Paper towels
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#art #painting #inspiration
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Thanks for watching !

[@FlorentFargesarts]

Thanks for watching everyone, remember to leave a like before you go, it really helps 😊👍✨See you in the next one.

[@tituswilliams8063]

Salut je t’ai vu passer dans le magazine du gdba.

[@neenakandwal6191]

Can't thank you enough. You are simply the best oil paint teacher on youtube.

[@dagoelius]

If you want to do this outside or when painting a live model or scene, take an old palette knife and drill a hole in the metal tang end. You now have a portable colour isolation tool which will help teach you to block out surrounding hues & tones and isolate a colour as you see it. How to use: Put a dab of your mixed colour around the viewhole and see if it matches what you see through the hole. Wipe and adjust your next dab accordingly till it matches what you see through the viewhole. The trick to using it is to keep the palette knife perpendicular and the same distance to your eye every time you look through it. This ensures the light hitting your dabs of colour match the tones and hues of what you see through the viewhole.

[@johnny9048]

Underrated comment, good tip!

[@judithgoulden972]

I have a glass pallet but never thought to do this...what a great idea. .

[@stevewinter331]

Your are an amazing teacher and artist

[@susanreinersuedahl]

I've done the 'glaze on glass' but never thought of the glass palette mixing test. Great idea! Thanks.

[@AutomHatter]

I have put reference photos into plastic sleeves to help with color matching but I have never thought to place the swatch on a glass sheet and hold it up to a live model! Thank you so much Florent!

[@elski3805]

Thank you Florent, invaluable exercise! Have a wonderful day :)

[@Sharkdog11b]

My favorite teacher

[@huntsail3727]

Enjoyed this one. Great job!

[@tthomas184]

This is a really great tip to use glass. Never thought of that. I have heard people recommend trying to match a color swatch as an exercise, which is also really useful, but I like this practical and more advanced tip for studying the color palette of master paintings. Can't wait to try it. Thanks!

[@William_Fields]

The beauty of your teaching is an inspiration.

[@-Reagan]

I remember being so excited the first time I tried (newer tech) digital art - you can add layers, import any picture you want, and use eye dropper to copy any color 🤯😅 As a traditional artist this was 💫 🧪 MAGIC 🔮 ✨

[@chamomilecat8473]

You are so inspirational, thank you so much for your videos.

[@chica2000ok]

Wow awsome tip! Thank you so much 💡

[@TheLoveweaver]

What great tips!

[@onlyhoasibuiart448]

It's amazing👏👏

[@catherinecervas3726]

That glazing test idea is wonderful! Ty Best regards

[@es1653]

Thank you for sharing your years of experience through your videos, they are incredibly helpful!

[@Zema2703]

Hi, what a simple and great idea!! Thanks a lot!

[@alik2897]

perfect idea! ❤️ so simple and genius

[@shuvoDhar.5537]

Very helpful👍👍 ❤❤

[@bondsons]

Excellent video! thank you Florent!

[@lifewithjanie3368]

Brilliant tool. Thank you.

[@decoordinathorsilva4450]

Well explained.. thank you ☺️

[@sylvainst-pierre8725]

Absolument superbe ! Merci pour votre générosité.

[@cynthiamarston2208]

I loved the color schemes represented by famous art in Color Theory lessons. Ive never been much of a color matcher unless im matching a color i used earlier in the painting. It just seems too limiting…..skin tones can be exagerated or take the chroma out for better effect. I do focus on likeness though

[@johnlannon87]

Glass shifts colors quite a lot. Off-the-shelf hardware store glass will make everything shift green. The only glass I've found that does not do this is Museum Glass by TruVue. I'm sure there are others, but I stopped searching once I found this glass. I got a piece from a local picture frame shop, and it works wonderfully for masking a photo for color matching.

[@davidpelzer2404]

What a great idea! Something so simple and such a commen sense solution for getting the right color notes.

[@loesgijsbers9601]

Thank you so much for this great idea!!! It is a fun way to exercise. Love your videos, I have learned a lot from you!🙏🏼

[@neelumahendra4695]

good trick - thank u

[@IsThatYouSimon]

Une fois que tu as fait tes mélanges, et tu te rends compte que tu n’as pas assez de matière de cette couleur tu répètes autant de fois le process ou des le départ selon la taille de ta toile, tu mets une grosse quantité pour être large ?

[@FlorentFargesarts]

C'est quelque chose qui vient avec l'expèrience. En effet, c'est en fonction de la surface à peindre. Moi j'aime bien mélanger une bonne quantité au départ mais j'ai souvent gaspillé un peu. Avec l'expérience, ça va mieux, on sait mieux combien on va utiliser pour peindre telle surface. Sinon, pour être économe, on mélange moins et on en refait autant que nécessaire.

[@andrewcowie6570]

Great tips! what thickness is the glass you use? and how do you manage lighting your palate to match your canvas? In a low ceiling studio and lighting the canvas alone is a struggle 🙃

[@gerriekaychurch658]

Great instructional video!! What is your color palette if I may ask?

[@johnsmithart]

Thank you Florent. You mentioned art magazines as a source of reference material - could you recommend some titles please? Thanks.

[@ElizabethBattle]

Yes, please!

[@mondaylukka2936]

Well done sir, my problem is mixing oil colors for realistic skin tones. Any help sir

[@shaki2306]

🥰

[@utverzhdai]

Hey! Amazing issue. But can I ask a detached question? What kind of camera do you shoot with? I watched your old clips, and now the video quality is awesome.

[@FlorentFargesarts]

Thanks, I Still use my reliable eos 250d from before but I bought a good lens, the sigma 18-35 f1.8, really recommend it if you're into gear and have an apsc sensor camera.

[@incognito3620]

I have several problems with this. One- your picture may not represent the actual colors and be off anyway. They will be correct to the photo only. To the real painting. Then there is the issue of isolation of color. No color stands on it own. Proper value distinction is based on comparisons. One determines color value next to other colors. Color has three characteristics. Hue, temperature and value. As he states modern colors are not the same as used by the masters. This still is a valuable video. Thanks.

[@izzatfatima442]

❤wow

[@MammothMole]

Hero

[@tomc7376]

LOL, if you're working from a reproduction from a magazine, you're not looking at Raphael's pigments, you're looking at process color inks. So make your palette cyan, magenta, yellow, black and white. I'm kidding, of course, but it should work, 'cause it's apples and apples.

[@robertwest863]

😇 ᴘʀᴏᴍᴏsᴍ

[@jammasterjay4298]

You just want to make money!

[@bellezavudd]

You just want to make silly comments.

[@neelumahendra4695]

and what is wrong in that ?

[@ruudratajczak2240]

YOU''RE JUST JEALOUS!!! Everyone works for a living! And he works hard for his money and earns it!!! You should also try it, because to hear you talk, you don''t know what hard work is for you money! Otherwise you had respect for this good man! Shame on you dumbo!