Getting with grays

Mixing grays in any mediums can be real tricky

Mixing a variety of grays gives your shadows character, 

and your skies a deeper meaning

Mike Hernandez's impressionism

An artist with a fearless brush

To be artistic

Look for something poetic in the ordinary

Zero in on what draws the interest

That is the subject to begin with

Feel the mood of the sight

It can be something

as simple as dappled sunlight falling across a wall

Focus on that one thing

and keep everything else subservient to it

Hong Kong in a hurry

Timeless photos of Hong Kong

Colors characteristics as explained by Pam Coulter Blehert

Hue is the property which distinguishes red from green. If you ask “what hue is the sea?” the answer might be: “Aquamarine” or “ultramarine” depending on where you are (and the weather). Hue is determined by the wavelength of the color. The colors of the rainbow are considered hues. Browns and grays are not hues.

Value (lightness-darkness) applies to color as well as the gray scale. Yellow has a naturally light value and blue has a naturally strong (dark) value.

Saturation refers to how much pure pigment of the desired hue is present versus medium or other hue. You can de-saturate a pure color by adding white, gray, black, or the complement of the color. Saturation is often referred to as color intensity or chroma, although chroma has a slightly different meaning to a purist. (Visual artists don’t usually seem to pursue this distinction.)

Temperature refers to whether the color is perceived as warm or cool and is a relative term. Red may seem warm in relation to blue, but may seem cool if placed next to orange.

These attributes (qualities, properties, or characteristics) work together to create depth and composition on the two-dimensional plane.

There are some additional terms, such as “shade” (amount of black added) “tint” (amount of white added, and “intensity” (the brightness or dullness of a hue). But I think the main concepts it’s important for a painter to get are the first four

A photo of Adirondack Lake in Franklin County :

Sherry DeReuter, a student of Pam, painted this interpretation :