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Sandy Breckenridge’s career as a maker, designer, and artist span over 40 years.

Stepping Into the Foreground

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Wheat stalks in the foreground
A picture with a grassy foreground of a farm and Mt. Baker’s snowy cap in the background. I took this picture in Mt. Vernon in Washington state.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” Vincent Van Gogh

The foreground of a painting acts as an invitation to allow the eye to move comfortably to the focal point.

In a way, it is a promise that the viewer will enjoy the journey. An inviting foreground is like an eye-catching welcome mat against a front door. It makes one eager to ring the bell, gain entry, and explore the internal spaces.

If the foreground is out of balance or lacks harmony with the other planes in the image it can be compared to a home lacking curb appeal. If there is too much clutter upfront the viewer can get lost in the distractions and lose interest before discovering your intended feature of the painting.

Two Brights and One Dull

Painting palette, mixing foreground colors
2 Bright Colors + 1 Dull Color mixing examples for creating foreground colors.

When choosing the color hues for this first visual field two bright colors and one dull color are blended, adding a little white or black (if needed) to match your reference scrap. This process ensures the foreground has the necessary intensity.

The foreground color choices are richer in value and intensity than the middle ground or background. The percentage of detail increases, too. Additional warmth can act as an invitation. Another option is even larger brushstrokes to suggest to the viewer’s eye the foreground plane is closer.

Too much detail in the foreground can also distract the eye from establishing an enticing relationship with the focal point.

Increasing Color Values in the Foreground

How to mix paint hues for the middle groundWe previously learned the color’s scale percentages in the background are best between 20 and 35. In the middle ground, the range is between 40 and 55. In the foreground, we step up the percentages between 45 to 70 percent.

Some compositions may defer from the suggested values. They could be as much as 100 or as little as 10 percent which depends on the reference scrap.

Layering the Foreground

The painting’s foreground usually includes natural elements like tree mounds and roots, rocks and boulders, textured soil, varied grass mounds, water, natural vegetation like weeds, grasses, and flowers. Sometimes a man-made element like a swing, bench, or bicycle is added for interest as long as it does not take away from the focal point.

In our next post in this series, you will learn how to lay down a base foreground foundation to give the impression of texture, color harmony, shadow, and atmospheric depth. After this step, additional layers of detail bring the foreground to life.

Be sure and check back soon for our next tutorial lesson.

Table of Contents for the Perfect Palette Series

  1. The Many Hues of Color
  2. Best Palette Colors to Build Depth
  3. The Double Primary Palette
  4. Painting Blue and Cloudy Skies
  5. Mixing Colors for Painting the Background
  6. Painting Mountains
  7. How the Middle Ground Creates Harmony
  8. Stepping Into the Foreground
  9. Laying Down Foreground Foundations: Rocks, Tree Mounds, etc.

The Double Primary Palette

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Vibrant painting of glassware

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” —Georgia O’Keeffe

I can really identify with O’Keeffe’s quote. Do you find color enlivens your feelings and senses?

The colorful image below illustrates how to set up your personal artistic palette. To make things easier, you can purchase a container setup just like the image. A well-known one is the John Pike Watercolor Palette Plastic Palette.

When working with acrylics, I like to use a palette container that has a lid and a liner. It helps me keep my paint fresh until the next painting session. If your medium of choice is watercolor, there is less concern because the paint is still workable after it hardens.

I actively use the Double Primary Palette image when painting digitally. For instance, if I want to create a landscape painting I’ll upload the image as a reference layer and use it for blending the colors to accommodate my painting. Then I can record the blended colors as I build out the palette.

I place blobs of colors with my chosen brush in the middle of the palette, use my blending brush until I get the desired outcome. Then I can easily erase the mix and make room for the next. This comes in really handy for creating custom palettes and it also helps build color awareness and skill.

Blue Skies, Cloudy Skies, and In Between

The keys for painting any type of sky are also illustrated on the palette. A typical blue sky is a combination of Winsor Blue added to white, with a touch of orange. Cloudy skies start with combining various percentages of gray with other dull colors.

Creating Color Harmony

The Double Primary Palette

Have you ever noticed how some paintings just look flat? The eye knows something is missing. The illustration may be perfectly laid out to capture the artist’s intent but something feels off.

When blending color, remember to enhance the hues by adding red, yellow, blue in every color you mix. The other day I was painting a vibrant fuchsia-colored bougainvillea bush. I had the light just right but something was missing. When I added a little hint of orange with the various pink tones I had mixed, the bush began to pop on my canvas; the painting came alive.

In the next few posts, you’ll learn more about:

  1. Mixing and applying blue and cloudy sky hues
  2. How to lay down backgrounds and mountains
  3. Middle ground mixes, including trees
  4. Foreground mixes and examples, including rocks

Table of Contents for the Perfect Palette Series

  1. The Many Hues of Color
  2. Best Palette Colors to Build Depth
  3. The Double Primary Palette
  4. Painting Blue and Cloudy Skies
  5. Mixing Colors for Painting the Background
  6. Painting Mountains
  7. How the Middle Ground Creates Harmony
  8. Stepping Into the Foreground
  9. Laying Down Foreground Foundations: Rocks, Tree Mounds, etc.

Best Palette Colors To Build Depth

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Field of Flowers
Example of how to build depth through color (hue) intensity.

“The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.” — Alberto Giacometti

Are you ready to break out your creativity in the New Year?

In my first, Free Design Tutorial post, I introduced thirteen perfect colors (plus black and white) to build a rich artistic painting palette. As you practice painting with this palette you’ll also be training your brain to identify color intensities and how they work to build realistic depth.

The pigments in these colors perfectly mix when painting watercolors, oils, acrylics. The next several posts will include easy-to-follow formulas that detail mixing directions according to where they are going to be applied.

The palette consists of seven bright colors for building depth in the foreground and middleground when they are used correctly with the six dull colors. The dull colors are used in the background.

The Seven Bright Colors
7 bright colors for building your palette

Tip: Be sure and purchase higher quality paints. Sometimes the cheaper paints are not mixed in proper portions and they may lack luminosity.

I have included a six-digit combination of numbers, which is called a HEX code or reference, that represents the letters and numbers that define the mix of red, green, and blue (aka “RGB”).

This is the most accurate shorthand sequence so you won’t have to figure out the RGB values. There are plenty of free conversion tools online if you want to learn more about how the codes are created.

If you create digital art, the HEX codes can be entered into most painting programs to form your palette.

The seven bright colors are:

  • Windsor Blue
  • Burnt Sienna
  • New Gamboge
  • Windsor Red
  • Windsor Emerald
  • Cadmium Orange
  • Mauve

The Six Dull Colors Plus Black

Most of the color names in this palette are universal. Alizarin Crimson is sometimes referred to as Rose Madder. Mauve may differ in hue between different manufacturers, so seek the richest color of Mauve or pick one that matches the RGB code for the color I have specified.

The six dull colors, plus black are:

  • Alizarin Crimson (Rose Madder)
  • Naples Yellow
  • Yellow Ochre
  • Raw Sienna
  • Burnt Umber
  • UltraMarine Blue
  • Ivory Black

A Note About White: I haven’t listed white as one of the colors. But also pick up a tube of bright white or a specific white that is designed to work with your chosen brand and medium.

In the next Free Design Tutorial post you’ll receive a guide for setting up your palette. It makes mixing colors easy and includes a tonal range key for creating the sky and clouds.

Table of Contents for the Perfect Palette Series

  1. The Many Hues of Color
  2. Best Palette Colors to Build Depth
  3. The Double Primary Palette
  4. Painting Blue and Cloudy Skies
  5. Mixing Colors for Painting the Background
  6. Painting Mountains
  7. How the Middle Ground Creates Harmony
  8. Stepping Into the Foreground
  9. Laying Down Foreground Foundations: Rocks, Tree Mounds, etc.