View Single Post
Old 01-28-2007, 10:20 PM   #3
Alexandra Tyng Alexandra Tyng is offline
UNVEILINGS MODERATOR
Juried Member
 
Alexandra Tyng's Avatar
 
Joined: May 2005
Location: Narberth, PA
Posts: 2,485
Thomasin,

Cadmiums are great in shadows, but all you really need to do is mix them with their complements, rather than making a separate mixture of burnt sienna+ultramarine blue and then adding the cadmium.

cad yellow light+ultramarine violet
cad yellow deep+ultramarine blue
cad orange+ultramarine blue (=more violet grey)
cad orange+pthalo blue
cad red light+pthalo green

The greys achieved this way can be as light or dark as you wish, or as cool or warm as you wish.

The shadow color should also contain the color of the object itself.

To add reflected light, ideally the paint in the shadow should still be wet. Whatever the color of the object that is reflecting into the shadow, that same color could theoretically be used to create the reflected light.
As far as greens go, I use a lot in my landscape paintings. The ones I prefer are:

Phthalo green: extremely strong pigment, transparent and dark, bluish, can be used sparingly for very light, clear greenish-blue colors.
sap green: dark, transparent, good for nature, foliage, etc. especially when mixed with siennas and umbers, cools when mixed with white. chromium oxide: opaque, covers easily, cool, soothing, great for foliage of eastern white pine and other cool leaves, very cool and grayish when mixed with white. Nice basic green when mixed with sap. I think that, of these greens, sap is the only one I would tend not to use in shadows. As Allan said, getting the right value is all important--reflected light should always read as part of the shadow.
  Reply With Quote