Mastering Impressionist PAINTING Techniques: Part 3 - The Power of Color and Light

hello and welcome back to my studio in this the third part in the impressionist painting technique series we're going to start the exciting subject of impressionist color so join me in this video as you're going to learn a lot about impressionist color and how you can use that in your own paintings my impressionist color is really such an exciting topic there is some scientific background to it the Impressionists were right in the middle of the Industrial Revolution as well so there's a lot going on in the industries which also influenced the development of paint and painting materials then there was the whole Rebellion against the old master style of painting so what do they use to replace the colors and techniques used by the Old Masters so the impressionist really made such a fundamental change to painting and it's no wonder it is still such a popular topic today so let's dig down into some of the interesting things about impressionist painting color we're going to look at Luminosity what colors we should still use today the use of black or not as a color in your painting and broken color does it work should it be something we still use today or can we adapt it so let's get into the subject of impressional color in a bit more detail and the impressionist movement was characterized by an emphasis on capturing the fleeting and changing colors of nature rather than depicting objects in a realistic way so this approach to color perception led to changes in the use of color itself color was no longer just an object of property of the object being painted color now became a subjective experience influenced by the lighting and atmosphere of the moment so to catch these fleeting and ephemeral qualities of color the Impressionists use loose expressive brush strokes and bright luminous color and this bright luminous color captured the nuances of light and Shadow as they perceived it in the moment the moment in time a mood or the feeling of the scene this is what they were after so this is how to use color color must try to help communicate this perception of the moment the light and atmosphere to the person viewing the painting So this approach opened up new possibilities for the use of color and we need to ensure that we actually are using color in this emotional way so broken color we've heard that term before and I've referred to it in the introductory series video now let's have a look at the impressionist use of broken color the idea is to place for example complementary colors adjacent to each other and this are they based on the scientific understanding of how the human eye perceives color when complementary colors are placed side by side the eye perceives a visual vibration that enhances the intensity and Luminosity of both colors so this broken color technique is how the Impressionists try to create vibrant and Lively painting surfaces another big step in the impressionist movement and use of color is the discovery that Shadows are not simply black or gray but actually contain a variety of colors including blue this was a scientific discovery made in the mid 19th century based on the work of a physicist called James Clerk Maxwell who demonstrated that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors now in Shadows you get a blue glow of light and this was proven in these scientific discoveries so the Impressionists used this knowledge to incorporate blue tones into their shadows and create a more natural and Atmospheric effect in their paintings so light and Shadow this is a big deal and it was a new approach so instead of using traditional methods of shading they used color to capture the changing effects of light and Shadow on an object and they did this by using complementary colors which are the colors opposite on the color wheel of course and placing these next to each other we get that vibrating luminous color we spoke about earlier but they're also used warm and cool colors and this is a really such an important lesson we need to remember warm and cool colors create depth and dimension in your painting warm colors red and orange for example and yellow appear to come forward in a painting and cool colors such as blue and green recede so by using the warm colors in the foreground and cool colors in the background The Impressions created the sense of depth and dimension in the paintings now you'll find when you use these warm and cool colors and you treat your shadows as more than just a dark spot on your painting you will find your paintings come alive just by adding some cool dark blues and blue violets into your shadows the Luminosity of your paintings will be transformed so try that if you're not sure now this brings me on to another interesting topic is the impressionist attitude to black paint Now by and large black paint wasn't lost completely but the Impressionists were not a fan of black paint certainly not as much as the Old Masters were so they kind of abandoned black paint partly based on this scientific discoveries I mentioned earlier and that they believe that shadows and darks were not just black but rather composed of different colors that were affected by the surrounding light so in a warm sunny day the Shadows are going to appear cool and cool colors need to be used not just a black shadow but use cool colors to create a vibrant and bright color area within the Shadows now traditionally the Old Masters would have used a very dark color burnt umber or black and made the Shadows dark and the impressionist part of the rebellion was to reject this traditional approach and they didn't want dull or lifeless images with just these black holes in the painting but they wanted vibrant and Lively color so they adopted brighter and more colorful colors for their paintings and by using blue and other colors in their Shadows they created a greater sense of depth and atmosphere now another big deal in the time of the impressionist was that this was the middle of the Industrial Revolution and new discoveries were coming onto the market all the time and one of these was new colors so big difference between the Impressionists and the Old Masters is the use of these new colors coupled with this was the invention of the paint tube which allowed the artist to go outdoors and paint more easily so with paint tubes the Impressionists could go outdoors and face nature directly and use these new ideas about color and this led to the use of vivid colors Blues greens and pinks came into impressionist painting and we didn't really see that in the old Master paintings examples of new colors cobalt blue and emerald green and these allowed the impressionist to experiment with more vibrant and luminous color and create those shimmering and vibrating color effects now we have the benefit of almost a limitless choice of colors but for an impressionist kind of painting today a good palette to use is a small palette and the following colors are a good palette to use titanium white cadmium yellow lemon or yellow light and a warm color like cadmium yellow deep your Reds could be cadmium red light or naphthal red and a cool red like alizarin Crimson ultramarine blue and Cerulean blue and yellow ocher and burnt sienna a and you can consider adding Viridian Green as well because there are certain colors that are more difficult to mix the correct vibrancy of green and Viridian may just be the thing you need to create those special colors good quality student paints are great to practice on that's why they're called student paints but when you feel more confident start adding artists grade paints as well and I suggest something like a Rembrandt range of paints those are really good value and good quality and I have some videos on reviewing those paints as well one of the topics mentioned quite often is Luminosity of color what exactly is Luminosity in the context of the impressionist paintings Luminosity refers to the appearance of light and the effect it has on colors so we know that the Impressionists we're interested in capturing the change in qualities of light and the way it transforms a color and they use broken color and brush Strokes to create this Optical mixing of color and this gives the impression of Luminosity so by placing small dots or Strokes of contrasting colors next to each other they created a vibrancy and Luminosity not found in traditional Blended painting techniques used by the Old Masters it is that glowing sense of light coming from the color that the impressionist wanted to describe not only direct light but also the Half Light and shadows now how successful was this broken color technique and did it actually work as they intended it to or believed in theory or no not entirely the human eye is just too complex we weren't looking at the painting and seeing another color magically being mixed optically consider the extreme form of broken color in pointillism those paintings by George zura well they still look kind of stuff don't they so not entirely successful but still an extremely interesting painting and that was the real success of the impressionist broken color approach a lively colorful interesting painting surface that was just so compelling and had the emotional content that is that our feeling and our understanding of the scene we knew what was going on we felt it and I think that is the profound success of the impressionist use of color now it's this aspect that I'm going to take forward into part four of the series when we move into the post-impressionist and more contemporary use of impressionism and you'll see just how we've taken the essence of impressionism and brought that into a more contemporary use and something more relevant for us today perhaps so you decide that for yourself but don't miss part four and make sure you've subscribed to this channel so you in time to see that as it is launched well I hope this series so far is proving interesting to you and you're learning a few things that you can apply maybe it stimulates some ideas and some changes you want to make to your painting that's what this is all about and don't forget I've got a free course for you up here you can also find out about my impressionist painting course in the description below where you can really get stuck into impressionist painting techniques and apply them to your work today so check that out if you're interested in getting into the subject a little more deeply well until next time and in part four we will be talking about impressionist killer once again so until then enjoy your painting and cheers for now foreign

Channel: Malcolm Dewey

Views: 15,310

Keywords: painting tutorials, painting for beginners, painting ideas, loose painting style, oil painting tutorials, impressionist painting tutorial, impressionist painting techniques, impressionist painting for beginners, impressionist painting landscape, impressionism brush strokes, impressionist style painting, impressionists painters, how to paint like an impressionist painter, how to paint like an impressionist youtube

Id: 7aQP1X8grRw

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 27 2023