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

Mixing Colors for Painting Backgrounds

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Landscape Mountains Lake River

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” — Edgar Degas

The background of a painting creates the atmosphere for the entire artwork. The success of the subject matter comes to life as the viewer steps into the background, becomes engaged, and is guided to the point of focus.

A close up of a flower, a bowl of fruit, a mountain cabin on a lake, or a distant star on the horizon all need to relate to a harmonious background. Closeups, still life, portraits, and landscapes are all sustained and strengthened by the background’s visual story.

The background forms the stage and is a big part of what the artist is wishing to convey. It should complement the middle ground and foreground while infusing light, depth, harmony, and visual appeal.

Planning Your Colors

Before you rush into painting the background, do a little prep work. By now you should have the Double Primary Palette set up and are ready to begin mixing paint hues for the background application. You have your scrap in hand and an idea of the composition of your painting.

In the same way you learned how to mix the correct value percentages for blue and cloudy skies, the base mixes for this area of your painting will start with primarily these 4 dull colors plus white.

The four dull colors are:

  1. Ultramarine Blue
  2. Alizarin Crimson
  3. Yellow Ochre
  4. Naples Yellow

At times your painting’s background will also need to include the other two dull colors: Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna that are also used when painting cloudy skies.

Mixing background colors
Example of how to mix background colors, keeping the hues in the range values between 10 to 55 percent.

Follow the plan as you see illustrated above when using these four dull colors and create three mixes of blue, red, and yellow as your base background colors. You can also use this same technique using the two other dull colors if needed.

As you apply the paint to your canvas, the mixes are blended again according to your scrap or your color guide plan.

To keep harmony always mix by adding a little red, yellow, and blue to each mix.

Remember, the background value should never exceed 55% or it will become too dominant. The viewer’s eye will get confused and your painting will lose its sense of atmosphere.

Applying The Background Paint

How to mix background palette colors

It’s important to always think in values as you see in a greyscale based on degrees of ten. As you move from the background forward, always add 10% detail as you get closer to the middle ground. The above sample painting is the background slice of a larger image.

The next tutorial will provide instruction on painting background mountains. These majestic structures need additional instruction before we move to the middle ground paint colors, values, and their intensity.

This is the fourth post in the Double Primary Palette Series, to start and the beginning click > the Art and Illustration Table of Contents.

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

If you would like to start at the beginning of this series visit > Art & Design Tutorials Table of Contents