The Indian Artist: The Trials and Tribulations of Color Mixing

Good morning everyone! I hope that you all are well and had a relaxing spring break. I am definitely not ready to get back into the swing of classes, but I think at this point the best tactic is just to fake it until I make it. Today I wanted to share a video that really helped me when I started getting more into oil painting.

I have an issue when it comes to creating and working with skin tones. I am easily able to do portraits when the subject is any other color than a simple skin tone. I have done a few blue monochromatic studies, my piece “The Festival of Colors” was done in every color under the sun except for skin tones. Seeing as I am able to capture human likeness in other colors proves that I have a solid understanding of anatomy, light, shadow, and tonality. However, for some reason, whenever it comes to painting natural realistic skin, I have a hard time.

I recently started a piece in which I am doing a portrait of a woman dressed in traditional Indian garb putting on an ankle bracelet. I decided to challenge myself to create a proper portrait to get better at color mixing with oils and understanding skin tones.  The following video really helped me wrap my head around approaching color theory and mixing hues.

 

Florent Farges goes into incredible detail on the color wheel that he himself created, how to use it, and the theory of color mixing. For any of my fellow artists and oil painters out there, check it out and let me know if it helps you as well!

As always if anything that I discussed in this post stands out, or if any questions arise please feel free to comment and share your thoughts!

 

Looking forward to next Monday!

 

~ Riya

Instagram: @riya_aggarwal.art

Personal website: https://theindianartist.weebly.com/

 

Riya A

My name is Riya and I am currently a Senior at U of M studying Molecular Biology with a double minor in Art & Design and Sociology on the pre-med track. Art has been a huge passion of mine from a very young age and in the final iteration of my column, I look forward to sharing my passions as they connect to my culture, medicine, and art.

Leave a Reply

Be the First to Comment!