MUD: THE “BAD” KIND

Often times painters say, “My painting is muddy.” Or “My colors are getting muddy.” Or, “I can't work on this any longer because I'm just creating mud.”  This typically happens with oil painters, but it can happen with acrylic work too. Generally speaking it is not the “mud” color that is necessarily the problem. There are usually three reasons why paintings look “muddy.”

1.  The most common reason is that the VALUES in the painting are off. Very often the painting is stuck in mid-values with no contrast of darks and lights. Usually it is mostly the lights that are missing. This condition creates a “muddy, grey day” feel as there is no feeling of light in the painting.

2. The second reasons is there is not enough color intensity (chroma) in the painting. This condition usually happens because of over-mixing colors, HOWEVER, it is more likely that the real culprit is #1...the lack of values. There are MANY lovely paintings that are completed solely with neutral colors. Color intensity is usually not the true problem, only part of the problem.

3.  The third reason that a painting can feel muddy is a bit less obvious. If the edges are too soft and undefined in too many areas, this can create a muddy feel. Typically this goes hand in hand with the value problem noted above. I love soft edges in general but in some cases they are simply lost because of less drawing experience and timidity of the artist.  We all go through that at some point as we learn. It is just good to note that the color may not be the sole culprit, but, also, the edges and the drawing.

MUD AND ACRYLICS

Since acrylic paint dries so quickly artists don’t typically end up with mud at the end of the day or even while they are painting. I believe that the lack of neutral colors in some (not all) acrylic paintings is actually what makes them appear less rich than oil paintings. It can be easy to “over-saturate” an acrylic painting, although there are many people who like high chroma paintings and there is certainly nothing wrong with that approach! But if you have been wanting a richer more balanced acrylic painting you might try mixing some “muds” on purpose to experiment with in your work. At the very least, you may want to mix a few complements together to get some neutrals to include in your work.

DEMONSTRATION

Fixing A “Muddy” Painting

Watch here as I take a “muddy” painting and turn it into a painting with light and color.

Please Note: Each video in this course has its own unique password.

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Muddy

Back on the Relativity Road for a couple of miles…

NEUTRALS AND RELATIVITY

The old Masters, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Delacroix and even Vermeer did not have the bright colors on their palettes that we have access to today. Yet they were still able to make gold shine and candles glow with their very limited palettes. Most of the colors that they had to work with were neutrals to begin with! They were all masters of the “Theory of Relativity.” With exceedingly good skill these artists controlled the Values and Chroma (see the definitions above) in their extremely limited palettes to make the most of the colors available. They knew that placing different colors next to each other could give the illusion of brightness, shine, and light, or conversely of shadow and dusk. Let’s take a look at these Masters of Color and Illusion. Click on any image to see larger.

OLD MASTERS RELATIVITY EXAMPLES

1. Rembrandt Van Rijn “Man With the Golden Helmet”

To the right we see an amazing Rembrandt. You absolutely BELIEVE the light shining on that helmet just like it would be in a photograph, yet it is all created with paint. Dull and bright “yellows” (not really very bright at all compared to our modern paints) along with dark and light values masterfully placed next to each other create the illusion of not only a Gold helmet, but a light source on that helmet.

2. Leonardo Da Vinci “Portrait of a Musician”  

Again we have not only the sense of light on this musician's face and collar, but the glow of the paper that he is holding. The light appears to bounce off the canvas right back at us, just as if the light of the candle was truly hitting that paper and shining into our eyes. (Remember this was candle light he is representing, no electricity!) All done with a handful of actually quite dull colors (relatively) placed next to lighter, “brighter” colors. And believe me, there was no Indian Yellow in site!

3. Eugene Delacroix “Liberty Guiding the People”

The light on the shirt of the fallen! Need I say more?

4. Jan Vermeer “Young Woman with a Pearl Necklace”

Sheesh, Vermeer could make paint glow like no other. Again, this yellow may look bright but it was not as intense as many of the colors that we now have available. Vermeer just made it look brighter relative to the colors he placed next to it, and surrounded it with, in the rest of the painting. And that ribbon…(I didn’t even mention the pearls)

5. Gerhard Richter “Two Candles”

If you have ever seen one of Richter‘s Candle paintings in person it is nothing short of astonishing. Yes this is a painting. And, yes it looks this luminescent in real life, not just on the computer. And it is 110 cm x 140 cm which is fairly large. It is hard to believe that it is not a photograph even in person. But it is paint and a perfect example of the “Theory of Relativity” hard at work.

I had to include this to show what can be done with very few colors, muted colors, and the contrasting light “brighter” flame colors. It truly is amazing what paint can do.

The “bottom line” here is that color can be very deceptive. How we see it depends on very many factors. We have seen that light can affect color and now we see that surrounding colors affect color. The trick is to learn how to use this all to our advantage.

Albers spent a big portion of his life studying these color interactions and teaching his students to see them as well. His book, "The Interaction of Color" was reproduced around the world in different languages with many examples of plates like the ones above. It is actually very easy to read and quite understandable. YOU are actually at the right place and time in this color universe, however, as there is now an iPad App that Albers would have flipped over. The Interaction of Color is now available as an App (created by the Albers foundation) that YOU can play with and discover these color interactions on your own. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you purchase this App to learn more about color relationships. Plus it is just darned FUN! I believe this is only available for the iPad and not a tablet or phone yet, but we can hope that they will develop these platforms in the future.

PROJECT “THIMBLE”

Using A “Thimble Full Of Red”

Please Note: Each video in this course has its own unique password.

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Thimble

• VIDEO LENGTH: 41 minutes

In this demo I use neutral colors and a some of my muds to create a painting. Doing this emphasizes the intense red that I use on the figure's dress. The neutral colors make the dress appear even more vibrant, and in contrast, the bright red turns the neutral colors into beautiful "supporting actors."

**Remember, the Cadmium Red is in many of my mud colors here which helps to harmonize this painting.**

For your next Project use several of your left over muds to create neutralized paintings. If you don't have any muds, mix some up.  Make one of the colors in your mud the "thimbleful" color in your painting.

NOTE: The “Thimbleful of Red” does not need to actually be red—it can be any vibrant (chromatic) color.

Paint colors on my palette are from left to right:  Black, Van Dyke Brown, Ultramarine Blue, Emerald Green, Titanium White, Titanium Buff, Yellow Ochre, Cad. Red, Burnt Sienna, Two Mud Piles.