For many years, I've been a fan of Robert Genn who left us too soon in late May of 2014. His daughter, Sara, continues to re-publish his
popular Twice-weekly Letters that fans received during Robert's lifetime. They are packed full of integrity and wisdom.
Recently, Sara re-sent Robert's letter about the myth of formulas for getting exact colors. (See it HERE.)
A formula is an exact list of ingredients or a precise method for achieving something. In our kitchens, they are recipes. But the best chefs often ignore an exact recipe and will add a bit of this and a dash of
that. They know their ingredients and know by intuition and imagination how those ingredients affect one another.
Master painters know their tube colors in the same way. They know the value, the hue and the degree of saturation of each tube like a mother penguin knows her chic. And they know there is no Holy Grail for achieving
one color or another. There is the beginning and the adjustment.
Review this Quick Tip from two years ago to get some clues about that. (The course I refer to in
the video is moved from the lessons' website to our new Academy which will open very soon!)
We painters work with a visual language so learning how to visually recognize the hue, the value and the saturation of each of our tube colors gives us independence from formulas.
There is no Holy Grail for mixing any color.
Enjoy a weekend of discovering your tube colors!
During my Language of Painting series, I explained the role of our visual elements. If you'd like to review those roles to better understand the behavior of elements, here are the links to each of those
discussions: Color --Value -- Shape -- Texture -- Size -- Line and Direction
You can access the archive of all my newsletters (as well as the Quick Tips and other stuff) at any time by going HERE.
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