Mixing Warm and Cool Greens
Green is probably the most viewed color in nature. If you paint landscapes or florals you will be using a lot of vaious shades of green. You’ll need warm and cool greens. But how do you mix them and when do you use them and can’t I just buy different tubes of green?
Yes! You absolutely can buy many many tubes of green but you will save money by not doing so because there are so many varieties of cool and warm greens. You will have many of the colors used to create green anyway, so why not learn to mix the colors you need and as you do not only will you create more interest in your painting, but you will also be creating confidence in yourself.
Because there are so many shades of green, they all have their own unique qualities and characteristics. Greens can be divided into two main categories: warm greens and cool greens. Learning to create warm and cool greens enables the artist to change the mood of a painting as well as create form and depth.
Let’s look at some fundamental art concepts:
- Things in the background are cooler, duller and with less detail.
- As thing come forward they get warmer, brighter and with more detail.
Keep those two concepts in mind as we talk about creating and using greens.
Seeing all the various shades of green are critical to success when painting a landscape. Not that you have to paint en plein air, or on location, but you need to be aware that there are very many shades of both warm and cool greens and where they would be in your painting.
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If you’re painting a tree in the distance that tree would be a cooler green than ones in the foreground. So how would you mix a cooler green. In the video we saw that ultramarine blue, made a realistic cool green. Pthalo blue and turquoise deep and yellow made a more vibrant but cool green, so you distant tree would have the ultramarine and light yellow for the undertones and you woould probably use one of the other two hues for the edges of the tree.
Trees in the foreground would probably use the greens made with yellow and black or burnt umber. I personally like the black and yellow green and all it’s various shades. It is warmer, more of an olive shade and is an amazing mixture. Who’d have thought black and yellow make that gorgeous green.
Warm greens have a yellow or orange undertone. These greens can range from a lime or chartreuse green all the way to a deep olive or moss green as we saw in the video. Warm greens are often associated with warm or happy feelings and produce that mood in your artwork. Not only does color produce perspective but it can also create the mood of your painting.
Cool greens, on the other hand, have a blue undertone. These greens can range from a mint green to a deep forest green. Cool greens can be associated with calmness and relaxation as in a spa or they can also be used to evoke dark or sinister emotions. Cool greens are often used in artwork that has a more minimalist or modern theme, as well as in artwork that depicts water or sky scenes.
In conclusion, warm and cool greens are two broad categories of greens that artists use in landscapes, seascapes and florals. By understanding the qualities and characteristics of each type of green, and how to mix them, artists can use them effectively to convey the mood, theme, and message of their artwork.
I hope this has been helpful. If you are a beginning artist and would like to move your artwork forward, I suggest you look at the Painting With Acrylics Academy a complete beginner artist online course. Clock HERE to see what’s available.
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