You often hear people bemoaning the appearance of muted or ‘muddy’ colours in their paintings. In general, we all want clean vibrant colours. Muddy colour is the affectionate name given to muted (dull or grey) colour.
When you were hoping for clean vibrant colours, muddy or muted ones can be disappointing.
But these muted tones are not poor cousins of the vibrant ones - far from it. They have a beauty all of their own and can be used quite effectively to tell a part of the story in your watercolour painting.
Colour is one of the things we painters get most excited about - of course!
Colour might attract as to paintings and definitely calls to the painter, but it is not what makes the painting make sense - value does that.
Let me show you how. I’ll also tell you how to alter values in watercolour and tell you something about the colour wheel that just might surprise you.
If you love painting flowers as much as I do you probably also love all the colours 🌈 you get to use when painting florals.
Luckily that doesn't mean you have to buy tonnes of colours (unless you want to), because of course we can always mix a whole range of hues.
Except one.
Actually, I know what you are thinking…
If you have a painting that is a little ‘meh’, and are looking for a suggestion on how to improve it, read on… a pop of complementary color theory might just be worth a try. There is also a video example….