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the most meaning relative to the work at hand.

Exercise For Sublime Color Mixing:
Begin with two large pools of complementary colors of the same temperature, such as Cadmium Yellow Light (a warm yellow) and Ultramarine Blue (a warm blue) and mix 5 variations between them, from yellow-green to blue-green, paying careful attention to separating them enough to be recognized as a unique variation. By adding a pin drop of blue into the yellow, then a tiny dab more, then a little more, each variation will be clear. After you have 5 clear color variations between those two, create one in between each (there may be many more than one), until you have 10 variations. Now look at those colors. Are they clean and unique? They should be singing. If they aren't singing, you are to immediately find the correct light to see the variations properly, or rush outside, close your eyes, and take 10 deep breaths while telling yourself you are a master of color you doubt! If the colors exist - and an infinite amount of colors exist - then you can identify them.

When you open your eyes you will see nature as you may never have before. Return to your exercise, choose two more colors and continue. Combine as many pairs of colors, creating 5, then 10, or more variations. Gradually you will begin to feel the changes in your blood. Go outside again and look at something in nature. Make a ring with your thumb and forefinger and look as if through a magnifying glass. See the infinite variations. The same colors you see are available to you for painting. There is no barrier between your mind and your brush. Remember to use plenty of paint, at whatever density of pigmentation you can afford, and mix enough color before you paint to get the main shapes roughed in. Painting, as opposed to drawing, is more of a relationship of shapes and color, than of a series of lines. One can paint with charcoal. Remember that colors have values and that good gray values can look like they are colored.
Next time you go to paint, mix your colors and take a nap.
When you get back to painting you will be ready and clear.

Learn more about this author, Gabriel Boray.
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