Darkening Yellows

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

  • The fundamental difficulty in working with yellow
  • Using Value & Chroma to represent light and shadow
  • Three ways to darken yellows to represent shadow
Yellows are light in value and often very bright.

The combination makes it difficult to create the effect of shadow on yellow objects. This watercolor lesson shows three ways to darken yellows. All are effective at representing shadows in different ways.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

  • Watercolor Paper – with a grid of 1″ squares – eight squares wide, enough squares tall to practice on all your yellows
  • Paint – Yellows, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, A Violet hue – Thalo Violet, Dioxadine Violet, or a mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson

DOWNLOAD : FINISHED COLOR MIXING GRID

Lesson requires a WATERCOLOR ESSENTIALS or MASTERCLASS Membership.

Practice Darkening Yellow

These four lessons have yellow subjects that have areas in shadow. Ideas from the color mixing chart above are used to darken yellows in each.

yellow irises watercolor painting

Paint Yellow Irises With Control & Freedom

Darker, Color Shadows

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Lemons in a decorated bowl. Image from a watercolor painting lesson

Painting Lemons In A Light Bowl

Darker, Cooler Shadows

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lemons and plums in a watercolor still life painting

Lemons And Plums Still Life

Darker, Warmer Shadows

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