Pocket Point – Neutral POW!

Most artists look at neutral colors such as flesh tones, and think, “it’s light brown”. Then they attempt to make these colors using brown pigments and white. It’s ok, but colors made this way are lifeless. There are reasons why, and alternatives that look much better. Read on to find out how to teach warm neutrals using the P O W method:

Purple | Orange | White

Warm neutrals seem like they should be rather sedate, but they should have life in them. They should have a little POW.

P is for Purple, O for Orange, and W for White. This is a simple memory device to remind students not to rely on brown pigments mixed with white.

This is easy to spot. Students painting an entire desert or portrait with only two colors on their palette: Sienna brown and white. Gahh!

First, complement something you see in their work that looks good to you. Point out that they are painting with only two or three colors on their palette. That’s like trying to make a colorful drawing with only two crayons, or two markers. You really want all the marker colors you can get! Then ask if they would like help with mixing their colors, specifically mentioning the amazing POW method. This should be intriguing enough to get an invitation.

If a student does not want help, then you probably can’t convince them to change their method anyway. If you really think they need help and would be happier afterwards (they are visibly frustrated), then ask them this, “do you trust me?“

1. Get a medium/small brush or ask to borrow the student’s brush. 

2. Find a spot to mix on their palette and ask permission to show them on it.

3. Make orange using 2 parts yellow and 1/2 part red. Red is so much stronger than yellow that you need up to five times more of the yellow to make orange. Add a little more red if needed.

4. Add purple and white together in a spot next to your first one, and then add that to half of the orange. Vary the amounts, adding bits of purple and white to half of each successive color, to make several versions of your neutrals all arranged in a string of mixes so you can see all the colors that were made.

• More purple will make it look brown and even plum colored. 
• To make a more putty colored neutral, you need to cool it down. Add phthalo green and white to make a light green. Then add that to one of your warm neutrals a little at a time, to show how it changes it. 

POW

“Imagine mixing mud and milk together. Well, unfortunately that’s what mixing white paint with Sienna or Burnt Umber is like. The brown pigments are made from earth, just like mud. They’re dark colors too, so while they’re very useful for mixing darks colors, they just don’t do as well for light colors.

To make light colors you need to start with a bright color. All colors look best if you start bright and then you either lighten or darken them. To make a light or medium neutral like sand or any kind of flesh tone, remember POW. It stands for Purple, Orange, and White.

You can make every kind of warm light neutral by starting with orange, and then using purple and white.

Here’s how this works. Start with orange by mixing a bit of red into a lot of yellow.

Now add some purple and white together to make a light purple. Purple is too strong by itself, and we need white anyway. Mix a bit of this into part of your orange, and voila! we get a light warm neutral.

• More white makes it lighter.
• More purple makes it browner – up until it becomes a purple color – then you have too much purple.
• More yellow is needed for lighter versions of any warm neutral.
• More red makes a warmer shadow version, especially with a little more purple.

Warning: too much purple in a flesh tone will make a bruise color, so if you are trying to darken a flesh tone, always add more red and some yellow before adding the purple.