Yes, it becomes complicated, even with colors (or values) that should be simple. Like white. When I bought my first tubes of oil colors, Titanium White was on the list. And that's all I thought I needed. White was white. The idea of a warm white or a cool white was nonexistent, and opacity and transparency's importance was probably along the lines of my interest in Laguna Beach.
Equally nonexistent.
Elephant (2010)
Meet my beloved Elephant. This little still-life from Contemporary Painting is still one of my favorite pieces. He's tiny. He's cute. And that's really all you need to know to love him. The point of Mr. Elephant is that he was painted with Titanium White. This particular shade (even though it's technically not a shade) is very bright, very luminous, very opague, and very slow drying. When you mix it with other colors to create lighter shades, it makes those colors more opague and creamy looking. A general rule of thumb is that the lighter a color is, the longer it is going to take to dry, especially depending on how thickly you are applying the paint/what medium you are using. To me, this picture doesn't even really show how bright and happy this little guy is! And I believe that's partiality because of the Titanium that I was using at the time.
(Try to shield your eyes from the horrible flash in this photo. It was dark outside.)
At this point in my painting, I no longer use much, if any, Titanium. It's a classic color, but I mainly reserve it for painting over old paintings because of the opacity. It's thick and covers over colors really well.
On Monday, I will talk about Flake White and also share some links that have more technical information when it comes to choosing colors!
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