Painting from life always brings with it a certain set of challenges, but perhaps the biggest challenge is finding a way to recreate those vibrant, light-filled colors that saturate the air around us—all while using opaque oil paints.
Forget correct proportions and drawing skills; just getting the colors right feels like an impossible task. Or is it even possible to achieve bright, realistic “lights” and colors in an oil painting?
Well, as you’ll see in a moment, it IS possible. The trick lies in using contrasting complementary colors to fool our eyes into thinking the colors we see are more vibrant and more intense than they actually are.
In today’s video, Caroline Jasper demonstrates some of the basic ways that our eyes naturally search for colors where none exist, and how we can use that to our advantage. Take a look:
You can also get Caroline’s full oil painting workshop on DVD at Creative Catalyst.
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