When leaves turn color in the fall, it’s because they lose their green pigment (chlorophyll) and leave behind the other pigments that were always there but less intense than the green. Those maples that turn fire red in the fall always had fire red underneath the green, same with oaks that go orange and yellow and red in the fall, etc. So looking at trees in the fall shows you what colors nature uses to tone down her greens and and then you can copy her palette. 😊

@beesareLameWasps

11 ай бұрын

Wow, that is incredibly insightful and interesting, thank you Elisabeth!

@shellyparker8960

11 ай бұрын

This is very helpful!

@kazfarndon4990

11 ай бұрын

Mainly true however deep red leaves form because anthocyanins are chemically produced from stored sugars rather than the red pigment originally being present

@elisabethmontegna5412

11 ай бұрын

@@kazfarndon4990 thank you, I didn’t realize that! Does that contribute to the variability of fall leaf color from year to year (ie not as many stored sugars some years vs others)?

@kazfarndon4990

11 ай бұрын

@@elisabethmontegna5412 partly and also varying ammounts of chlorophyl mix with the red to produce different intensities

Wonderful demonstration and so thorough! You showed quite a few mixes I’ve never tried. Now I’m excited to play with my greens! 🙌

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Hey thanks Emily. Glad you thought so. Have fun!

I was just trying out cobalt green deep (pg 50) and yellow ochre (both Winsor Newton) today. When mixed to a nice olive green and applied to wet paper the colors separate with the yellow ochre spreading farther at the edges with a soft halo effect. Adding a little burnt umber to the preceding mix enhances the edge effect. Elsewhere in the painted region the separation causes subtle soft yellow olive areas alongside darker cool blueish green areas. Just don't fiddle with it. However you can spray, spatter or drop small amount of water to increase color variations. Makes natural looking background foliage.

Perylene Green is a useful paint for landscapes. It’s simply beautiful for distant trees and mountains. It’s also a very useful mixer.

I call that mixing style 'relative mixing' because you can start with a colour, then adjust it from that starting point, make it ever so slightly blue(er) or dull(er) or whatever.

This is an extremely useful video! I love the variety of greens you made, but it’s the last section where you mix puddles on the palette and mix on the paper that really brings out the melodies in all the paints that you use.

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

I really appreciate this video. I have been working through mixing up my own greens from primaries, trying to neutralize my ready made greens that I have got on my palette, & just figuring out how to get a variety of greens in general. You have definitely explained it to me easier than most other artists in the past. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us about greens.

@dianakoeppel3492

11 ай бұрын

Very helpful, thank you!

One of the most complete videos about green I have seen and I can tell you I have seen ¡LOTS OF THEM! Fabulous info, thanks a lot 👍🏻

I do make my own greens mostly. Muting it with the opposite of the color wheel. But, I love M Graham Hookers green because of the way it moves and spreads on semi wet paper. It literally makes it's own stems. It's not the color so much as the reaction. It thrills me to see what it's doing. For some reason I cannot get the same reaction when I make the same pigment mix that matches it. I don't have it on my palette but I still can't be without it because now and then I really want to to have fun and watch it do it's magic!

Fantastic video! Phtalo Blue+ raw Sienna/raw umber/yellow ochre make beautiful sea greens; cobalt teal + Quin.Burnt Orange make dreamy grey greens and brown greens

Another WOW.........Green is so subjective , even the same tree grown in a different part of the world is different in its coloring.........Here to fore, when I was stuck for a green I would use black and yellow with a compliment.......now I have a great deal more alternatives.......Thank you once again!

I cannot express how valuable this was. Thank you for going through this in so much detail. Now, I need to put together a mixing sheet for reference.

Really enojoyed the video. The last tip especially, I had never figured out myself before, so that was enlightening and I will definitely try and have fun with it. Thank you very much for the inspiration!

I’m a sap green lover, regardless of the brand I find so easy to add other colors to obtain the green variations I want.

Thank you, Steve! I am trying to put together a small palette for an upcoming trip and ended up ordering 10 more mini pans for my Art Toolkit so I can take more greens 😳lots of forest where I am going. This video was extremely helpful. Might take some other colors besides greens after watching this video hahaha. I did order a new green - Serpantine Genuine DS that is definitely going with me. As always, thanks for the inspiration!

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

You're welcome!

This is incredibly helpful. My focus this week is to get a mass of green to look like trees and bushes and not just blobs of colour. Thank you.

I usually add the complementary shade to tone down colours. these other techniques look really cool, I'll have to try them!

Thalo green (PG7) and Permanent Brown (PBr27) mix to a lovely muted deep green. PBr27 leans so red it works as a compliment of the Thalo green. Playing around mixing with WN Burnt Sienna (PR101) which is quite orange compared to PBr27 and DS Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97) (my preferred mix for a quin gold) give a range of sap green to brown.

I love all your painting exercises Steve. I'll be making a sketchbook green paint reference from this inspiration.

Great video! I learned alot and I'm looking forward to painting my Christmas cards with more interesting greens!

I am currently paint deprived, while I finish my move in the next few weeks, but I will def try these combos, as they are different from mine. One that I like to use with Thalo Green 7 is Pyrrole Red 254, it goes extremely neutral and also very dark. EDIT: and as I type this, that is what you use :-)

Thank you Steve for such an informative video! I will go practice this method of mixing greens. Just recently watched a couple of your color wheel videos, and they reminded me again of what an important tool they are for mixing colors, adjusting hues, etc. Thanks so much and have a Merry Christmas!

Pthalo green is insanely intense for me but I find it mutes down GREAT in mixes

This looks great to play with the colors. I go to a painting class where we paint mostly objects rather then landscapes. I am lacking in this knowledge. Thanks! It will be fun to play! It does make me want to try some of your paint selections.

Im sure you heard it before, but really, you are such a good teacher ❤😊❤

@mindofwatercolor

5 ай бұрын

Thank you! 😃

Very helpful! Now I just need to practice. Thks

Tlhank you for this Mixed my own peryl green.. good mixer

i'm not a seasoned green mixer , so i did read the comments and caught some nice intel . from your teaching to the comment section i realy ejoy that dynamic spirit .

This video was so amazing and I would love to see more like it. Super useful

Very useful and inspiring! Thankyou❤

Great instructional video concerning making varieties of greens and making them look like the greens in nature. Thank you.😊

This is incredibly helpful, Steve - many thanks for these reminders and inspirational mixes!

This is so helpful! Thank you. 🙏

I adore painting landscapes so I love to mix different greens and this was so helpful 😊

Steve, this is the most valuable watercolor KZread I’ve seen in a log time! Thank you.

FANTASTIC video!

Thanks, thanks! I started watercolor 3 years ago and found your channel early on. I have learned so much from you🙏

FABULOUS!

Thank you! You are a wonderful teacher! Whether we are beginners or experienced, I feel you inspire us all, to explore and discover. 🥰

Oh boy did I ever need this 😊- thank you - I really need to practice trees and this just comes in so handy 👩‍🎨👍🌲🌳

JUST LOVE THIS. I AM GOING TO MAKE A CHART USING THE METHODS YOU SHARED. I LOVE DOING LANDSCAPES BUT HAVE ALWAYS HAD TROUBLE WITH VARITY OF GREENS. THANKS!

Super interesting! Thank you!

I was really excited to realize that I do mix my palette like that. Thanks for the lesson!!

Perfect! I was just pondering this issue this afternoon, and how I know what to do! Thanks Mr. Mind!

Excellent tutorial!

What a great video! Thank you.

Wow Steve! This is so interesting! When you mix on the paper the results remind me of some of the beautiful specialty colors that separate. I absolutely love this! Thank you.

Love that! Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge with us!

This was so interesting and helpful. Thank you.

REQUEST: I'm wondering if you could do a video on WHAT to paint; how to choose a scene. I have always struggled with this. I'll see someone else's painting of a run-down house in the jungle and it's fascinating. Then they'll show their reference photo and I'm sure I would just gone right past it and never thought it was worth a painting.

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

That's such a personal choice though. Frankly I wouldn't know how to teach that. That fine tuned sensibility is one of the things that makes art, art. I know what you mean though. Some of the masters I admire choose scenes or compositions that are amazing and I think, "how in the world did they come up with that."

Timely video. The info is invaluable! Thank you. 💚

Outstanding tutorial. Thank you.

So informative!

Great video!

I mix most of my greens here we go- phalogreen bs with quinacridone gold or nickel azo yellow and/ or a bit of burnt orange or burnt sienna if you don’t want granulation. I use M.Graham’s Azo green with the phalogreen and can go darker with anyone really with perylene green or a darker complement. There are so many. I premix nickel yellow which is extremely light with phalogreen and make a bright spring green for my outside palette to use as first layers of bright greenery. Then the next layer depends if it is in the sun or shade and the next layer will be different. I glaze light blues generally phaloblue gs as a watery layer on cool sides. For greens that are causing a shadow over any other color it is important to carry that same green as the shadow or reflective color. I don’t generally mix my greens with blue and yellow. Azo yellow with a bright green is a great start with a bit of a red, quin red to coral red or burnt sienna work. I guess I first look at the green then I really don’t think about it. You get to the point that it just becomes second nature. I mixed greens with W&N Aqua green the other day and it is a beautiful botanical color and mixer. It is like a transparent turquoise/phalo blue so the colors that Steve mentioned work well. Quin coral was interesting. I always have a puddle of a red next to whatever green to be able to calm it in a hurry. Indigo also makes a fun green (here I said I don’t use blue) some companies have Lamp black which does make green the indigo I use mixes with many yellows and will make a green. I could keep going on and on but maybe someone else would like to. The only other thing I was going to mention is that sap green and Hooker green are nice convenience mixes, if you spike them with something then no one would know 😂

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Great ideas, thanks!

@ninner196

11 ай бұрын

@@mindofwatercolor I always enjoy your ideas Steve, it helps me knock my marbles around some more.

Thank you, Steve, this was so useful. I really love muted greens and I can’t wait to experiment with mixing.

Boy, am I late 😂. Looks like a great video! I use greens often.

Excellent and useful video! This one is so important for understanding how to bring character and life into the greens. Thank you for sharing your expertise, and the easy way you explain the process. I'm learning so much from your videos!

Excellent. Thanks

What a great video, thanks so much Steve. And I wondered what I would do today?? 24:11

Really helpful.

So well explained. Always learn something from your tutorials. Thanks.

Very interesting video, thank you

This demonstration was really useful. I am going to try some of your greens. Thankyou

Thank you. I am a beginner. Very helpful.

Fun ! I'm going to make some pages of mixes like this in my painting journal using my acrylics. Thanks !

🎉🎉🎉Thank you so much for these useful informations💥💥💥

Thank you for this video really useful.

Thanks!

On several of your videos, I’ve wanted to see your mixing palette. The palette view in this video was so helpful! Thank you! BTW…IITim.1:7 is one of my favorites! “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

Try Davinci Joyce’s Mother green. You paint in the green and drop your other colors in. It’s a similar idea.

Superbly informative video!! Just chock full of every tid bit of info, I think the only thing that you might have overlooked is the kitchen sink 🤣🤣

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Thanks. If your sink is green I might have you covered there too.😁

Very helpful. I have watched several KZread artists mix greens but when I try to mix mine the colors just don't seem right. You explained the process very well. Now I am going to practice what you've suggested. Thanks.

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

Schmincke has a PY129 hue called Transparent Green Gold.

@ninner196

11 ай бұрын

PY129 is sometimes called azo green or Daniel Smith has it also but it’s one pigment and it is wonderful. It waters down to a greenish yellow 😊

@awatercolourist

11 ай бұрын

@@ninner196 I’d love to try PY129, especially M Graham’s version. PY129 is such a versatile colour.

Hi Steve, I learn watercolour from your channel. You are the best watercolour teacher! Thank you for sharing your knowledge here. Can I ask a question about flattening the watercolour paper. What way do you think is the best way? Thank you in advance. ~Lucy

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

If you're talking about stretching before painting I don't usually do that. It's a preference. If it's very buckled after the painting I may press it under boards and heavy books. You can also iron watercolor paper if it's cotton and the iron isn't too hot. Spray the back of the painting with water then place a pillow case or towel over the painting and iron it on a low heat setting.

I love your color swatches. Can you share how you made them. I love all the information that you have on them. Also do you have a swatch card for the mixing of different paints. My problem I am not able to remember the mixes, or they don’t come out the same in the next mix. I love the information making greens in this video, but just want to be able to know what to mix each time.

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

If you mean the swatch cards I make them on a Cricut Maker.

Exactly what I needed! I’ve been trying to hone my skills in painting fir trees (our dominate evergreen here in western Washington State). I try for realistic colors, so getting the yellow green for the branch tips as opposed to the blue/ grey green interior foliage is a challenge. Then, using color to achieve atmospheric perspective, the challenge is even greater…all while keeping it painterly😱…it’s like juggling…too many balls in the air😂. I will rewatch this and take notes. I’m thinking of starting a new palette for just greens. How do you remember what color is what…I need to label them on the palette somehow. Anyway, thanks😍

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Repeated use is mostly how I remember.

@laurar430

9 ай бұрын

I feel your pain!

Good video. A Canadian artist, Emma Lefevbre (sp) is a very good KZread creator on mixing colors.

I just wanted to throw out my phtalo green, but will give it another chance after watching your great tips.

Wonderful lesson! Steve, I am curious now about the use of the word “convenience” in describing a color. I have always thought of convenience colors as those pre-mixed by a manufacturer from multiple pigments. Daniel Smith examples would be Sap Green, Jane’s Grey, Imperial Purple, Quin gold (the PO 48/PY 150 mix), etc. You used “convenience green” to include colors like perylene green and rich/azo green gold (PY 129). So…are you saying ANY green paint is a convenience color? And by that, we would then define any color on the palette now a single pigment primary as a convenience color? (because we can mix it?) I have been using what for me I guess, are colors I think of as primary greens….single pigment greens: green apatite genuine, serpentine, py129, perylene green because I feel like the colors are maybe a bit cleaner when I start adjusting them (versus starting with a 2 or 3 pigment mixed green from a tube). Interested in your thoughts, or if this has been covered before and I missed it, maybe someone can point me to the video where this is discussed 😊 BTW, my favorite green? Perylene green….if I could only have one on my palette, that would be the one. Such a perfect starting place for NW forests!

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

A convenience color is any color you might use frequently but would otherwise need to mix if you didn't have it. So, any green that would save you mixing time and effort (be more convenient to use) is a convenience green. The number of pigments has nothing to do with it. The definition of a primary is basic Red, Yellow or Blue, the colors that cannot be mixed from other colors. There is debate about which pigments represent the true primaries but the term does not refer to a specific pigment. In color theory terminology there is no such thing as a primary green. All greens are a combination of primaries yellow and blue (which again I realize can vary). By primary perhaps you mean popular, basic, essential or most useful.

Another important set of tips for developing a "toolbox" of greens. Thanks. Quick question, where can we pick up the Masstone sample cards you are using. Nifty little time saver (in the long run). Thanks again.

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

I make them on a Cricut machine. But Waffleflower has a stamp.

Hi Steve, I really enjoyed this tutorial and made some interesting greens today for my thistles. But what really has me intrigued is your watercolor Palette. I looked for it online, but its supposed to be for oil paint. How well does it work for M.Graham watercolors, because that is mainly what I use since I started watching your channel several years ago. That palette looks like it would be good for a small space. What can you tell me about it? Do you have a review for it?

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

I like it quite a lot for watercolor. No review but it's my main M. Graham studio palette. It has a cover also. This is the one. amzn.to/3qPtiaZ

@ewwwobbie

11 ай бұрын

Thanks! I think I will get it. Years ago you recommended M.Graham to me. I have many of the colours and love them all. So thanks for the advice. My problem is small work space. This palate would be a great space saver.

@ewwwobbie

10 ай бұрын

@@mindofwatercolor I got this palette! It is by far my most favorite palette ever. I really love it. It might be for oil, but you can't beat it for watercolor. I put only my M.Graham paint in it. I'm so glad I got it. I would never have known about it if I hadn't seen it on your tutorial. I've been looking for something like this for a long time!

A little off-topic: do you make your own paint sample cards? Are they printed on watercolor paper? Many thanks!

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Yes, make my own. I originally used a Waffleflower swatch card stamp and die cut machine. Now I make them on a Cricut maker machine.

@sreihart

11 ай бұрын

@@mindofwatercolor Hmm. I have a cricut and would love to see how you do this. I bet there are a lot of others that have one, or a similar machine as well :)

That was enlightening. How do you (or how often) clean your paint wells? I am afraid of contaminating my yellows with blues.

@Goldi-Luc

11 ай бұрын

I'm that way with the yelliws too, i keep a dab of each yellow on the mixing side of my pallete so i can mess it up instead

@ninner196

11 ай бұрын

If you take off the top what you like to mix then it isn’t necessary to be extremely clean. The contamination is always on top and when that dries just give it a spritz and wipe the top layer with a piece of paper towel or corner of a damp sponge. Your color will be fresh again.

@annevickers3307

11 ай бұрын

@@ninner196 thank you.

@Goldi-Luc

11 ай бұрын

@jenniefrench9194 i can't stand the paint waste doing that.i put my paint in full pans, so i take paint off the bottom half when i have a dirtty brush, then the top half is always clean. but i still keep double yellows since thats what i dip other colors into the most.

@annevickers3307

11 ай бұрын

@@Goldi-Luc good idea.

I really like your sample swatch cards. where can I find them?

@cathylawvick9751

11 ай бұрын

Waffleflower makes a stamp and die for swatch cards. Happy painting!

@sylviarogerson7662

11 ай бұрын

Very informative video. I learn so much from your channel.

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Yes I’ve used the Waffleflower stamp in the past, but decided to create my own Cricut template. That’s how I make them now.

Very informative . I am a beginner and use greens very often and did not know how to dull down my bright green…Where would I purchase these little color cards ?

@mindofwatercolor

10 ай бұрын

I made them. It's a stamp. waffleflower.com/products/swatch-stamp-set?_pos=1&_psq=swatch&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Hi Steve - wonder where you get those cards - with specs for each color

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

I make them. I use a stamp from Waffleflower.

I find it difficult to mix the green of eucalyptus. Do any of you have a good formula for that color?

@mindofwatercolor

11 ай бұрын

Perylene green might be a good starting point. Get an actual eucalyptus leaf to work from and adjust with a yellow or a blue to match.

🙏🌊🔱🫧🫧🫧

Great video!!