SANDRA’S TOP TIPS FOR EXPLORING COLOUR

• Make colour charts with the paints you already have. Understand how each colour tints to white and tones to black.

• What neutral colours can you make from each combination of yellow/ red/blue – can you make black, grey, brown?

• Mix an orange, green and purple from red, yellow and blue. If your primaries lean warm or cool, they affect the secondary colours. That’s why a warm/cool for each of the three primaries can give you almost any colour you’d need.

• Read the fine print on your paint tubes. Know which colours are transparent or opaque. Try mixes with just transparent colours, then try some with just opaque colours.

• Paint manufacturers’ websites have detailed information about all the colours they make. Look at: michaelharding.co.uk or winsornewton.com or gamblincolours.com for helpful technical information.

• In most cases you don’t need the most expensive colours to mix the colours you need, but do buy artist-quality paints.

• Transparent colours mixed with white result in brighter mixes than opaque colours mixed with white. This can be useful when painting bright flowers.

• Try using lighter value opaque or semi-opaque colours to lighten when you can. Be judicious in using white to lighten as it can deaden a mix or look chalky.

• Use a neutral grey paper window or View Catcher to help you evaluate colours and values. Really know the basics of hue, value, and chroma.

• Vary your palette colours. Experiment with a limited palette to see how far it will take you (it’s OK to add a colour if you need to). There are many ways to mix the same colour.