Painting Shadows with Complementary Colors

Series Summary

The art of watercolor painting has been practiced since the time of Egyptian antiquity in the form of fresco wall painting, a process in which water-based pigments were applied to wet plaster. Watercolor painting also has a rich history in Chinese and Japanese painting, and has been used to add color to manuscripts in cultures throughout the world. What we think of as modern watercolor painting began to develop in the 1500s with Durer's landscape studies. The popularity of this medium spread and spawned many disciplines of watercolor painting, including the 17th century British school, and California style of the 1920s.

In this free video series, our expert artist will show you watercolor painting fundamentals. Learn about types and colors of watercolor paints, types of paint brushes and types of watercolor paper. Learn how to splatter paint, use the salt technique and create a gradation of color. You will also get tips on painting wet in wet, painting hard and soft edges and painting foliage. If you are interested in watercolor painting, let our expert show you everything you need to know about this wonderful hobby in this free video art lesson.

Video Transcript

"So if you're trying to get shadows and skin tone, you'll add the compliment of that orange tone. The compliment is the color across the color wheel. When you add that color it dulls it down to grayish brown. So red and green are compliment to each other. Instead of adding, when you want a darker red, my suggestion is get the red dark as you can. That is put the least amount of water in it if you can. And if you start adding green instead of black. Black starts killing the color whereas the green starts subduing the color. There's a difference. And you need to try this out. But to you give you an idea you can add a little bit of cobalt which is the compliment of orange to the skin tone and it looks like skin in its shadow without dulling it. If you add paint gray to it, it gives it a different look. See a different look. Which you might like. But this is a more subtle look."