More work today on the next leaf of the composition. Whew there's an awful lot of green! I'm using a mix of cobalt blue, lemon yellow and a touch of Indian red. Too many pigments will turn it to mud, as we've discussed many times before. I'll be going back with a darker, redder shadow color in the valleys, and a yellower green surrounding the highlights. It is interesting to me to realize that the only place you will really see pure green in the finished painting is in the middle tone areas. This is because the shadow areas will be a dark complementary color, and the highlight areas will be washed out, to the point of no color at all in some cases. So I tell myself not to get too worried at this point that the painting is just a big, boring blob of green. If I flag a little in the days ahead, mixing up endless puddles of green paint, please remind me to hang in there!
Onward!
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