Choosing Colors for Pastel Painting

Video Transcript

"Before we create our ground, let's take a look at our subject matter. In this case I've set up a still life. When, and the reason that I've set the still life up and the reason that I'm taking a, going off on a tangent, is because the color of the ground that we choose is going to be somewhat dependent upon the subject matter that we have. This particular case we've got a subject matter where we've got a lot of greens. I want to bring out the greens in the floral arrangement, in the flowers. And we've got a green on the back, on that back wall. And because the greens are the primary colors that are going to be the ones that we want to pop forward, I'm going to use a color in my background that will form the surface of this background painting that is the opposite of the color that we want to focus on. Our primary color in this is green, we've got a lot of blacks, we've got a couple of blues, and we've got some reds in the foreground, but, so I'm going to paint the opposite color as my background and that opposite color is going to be reds. Then the greens will pop out. If I were doing a portrait for example where reds are the primary colors and oranges, then I would use a green background the opposite of red. So, that's just something to think about. Now let's take a look at our still life."