Know How To Darken and Lighten your Colors

One the of the important things you can learn from painting colored value scales is what colors can be added to your base colors to lighten or darken them.  I learned a lot about this while painting my color wheel over the last 3 classes.  Here are some of the basic combinations and if you don't have these exact paint hues, you can substitute another as long as it's in the same hue, value and temperature range.

Cad Yellow Light = Darken with Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna and Raw Umber
Cad Orange = Darken with Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber
Cad Red Light = Alizarin Crimson
Permanent Green Light = Viridian
Thalo Blue = Ultramarine Blue
Violet = Ultramarin Blue, Alizarin

Some of the darker colors such as Dioxazine Violet, Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson straight out of the tube are already a 2 value so not much darkening is necessary. 

You can add Complements or Black to darken these further.  Some say to avoid Black at all costs but if you use it then use it sparingly.

Create a Value Finder

I created my own value finder last week and I've been keeping it with
wherever I go. I've been caught a few times by curious people and
they have no idea what I'm doing.

They probably think I'm picking out paint colors for my house.

I'm trying to train my eye by guessing values of objects I come across
throughout the day and then I hold it up to see if I'm correct. This
is definitely nerdy-artist behavior but I don't care as long as my art
improves.

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Sent from my mobile device

Paint your own Color Wheel

I've been enjoying my classes with Stuart Dunkel and we've been working on creating a color wheel for the past two sessions and discussing color theory and mixing as we go. We're working around the wheel starting with the Yellow and working around in order to the Blues.

In all honesty I'll getting tired of doing the wheel but I have learned a great deal in creating it and it's something I can keep handy in the studio for reference or for when I have my own students.
If you've never painted one then I highly suggest it.

PS - I hope I finish tonight because I want to work on something fun!