Urban Sketching:
Colour Mixing & the Palette
Good colour starts with knowing a few colours very well. You will see the palette I use and how it is organised, learn why complementary colours are the idea running through all my colour work, and then work through three exercises: a grey from three primaries, six complementary pairs matched to one tone, and eight variations from just two colours.
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What’s Inside
My palette
My palette probably does not look great. Most students arrive with a vast array of colours, and mine is deliberately limited: every colour is one I use and one I ask students to bring.
The colour wheel and complementaries
Running through all my colour workshops is one central idea: complementary colours. Opposites on the wheel make each other sing when they sit side by side, and cancel each other into harmonious neutrals when they are mixed.
Mixing a grey from three primaries
A simple exercise: mix the three primaries into a neutral grey. I use Cadmium Red Deep, Manganese Blue and Gold Ochre rather than pure primaries, plus Titanium White, which I find stronger than Chinese White.
Mixing complementary pairs
This one is about discipline. On a three-by-two grid drawn in permanent marker, we mix six pairs of near-opposites until they cancel out, then add white to bring all six to the same tone.
Getting the most from two colours
How much can you get from two complementary colours? On a grid of eight squares, using only Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, we change the proportions, let the water spread the mixing on the paper, and add white.
£8
One-time payment. Lifetime access.
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Questions about this bundle
What is in Urban Sketching: Colour Mixing & the Palette?
5 short video exercises: My palette; The colour wheel and complementaries; Mixing a grey from three primaries; Mixing complementary pairs; Getting the most from two colours. It costs £8 once and you keep lifetime access.
Do I need to have done a painting workshop first?
No. A bundle is a separate, self-contained set of exercises on one skill. If you later want to see skills like this used in a whole painting, my painting workshops do exactly that.
When can I enrol?
Enrolment opens soon. This page will show an Enrol button when it does.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, within 14 days of purchase, as long as you have not gone beyond the introduction or first lesson, because by then you have received the digital content. Email mike@artyfactor.com with the bundle name and the email you enrolled with. The full wording is in the Refund and returns policy.
How long do I have access?
It is one payment of £8 and you keep lifetime access.
Where this leads
Want to see the whole picture?
This bundle covers one skill. My painting workshops show how skills like this come together in a finished painting, one stage at a time.
Explore the painting workshops