Red and Green Warmup Exercises

I have a few quirks, a few hang-ups and a few things that just generally rub me the wrong way. One such hang-up is the “Christmas Combo” - red and green. I never liked those colors together. A few years ago, it was a slow day in the studio so I squeezed out a long line of red and a line of green, plus black and white. I painted only with this color combination. By the end of the day, after painting a series of small sketches and several larger canvases, I can shamefully claim that I LOVE red and green together!

Red and Green Bouquet
24x24 acrylic on canvas

 
Red & Green Color Combinations

So try this - whatever your hang-ups and superstitions are, face your painting fears head on and set out to do a series of paintings based on your self-imposed limitations.

Here’s another one of mine: I just can’t get behind the colors of sepia, umber and brown (Hey, it’s my problem!) And yes, I know individual burnt siena, raw umber and sepia are beautiful unto themselves… when used in a landscape painting, I feel they just suck the life out of the scene. So wouldn’t you know it, my students, upon graduation, gave me a present: A large box of all their tubes of brown paint! I had no choice but to do a body of work based on brown, black and white. I LOVE browns… go figure! Face your fears.

Started off with Browns

Brown Background