Painting with Grays


The use of grays in a painting does not need to be dull and boring. The proper use of gray makes the accent colors really sing. Sometimes paintings that have too many intense, bright colors just look too garish. It is best to mix your grays with complimentary colors you are using in the painting. Some artists will mix their left over colors up in a gray for safe keeping later.

Winter Fox
9" X 12"
The painting of the fox in the forest I used a complimentary scheme of yellow and purple. The colors were muted down using those two compliments into a range of grays.

Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich
Anders Zorn
1913
From the book: ‘Anders Zorn; Sweden’s Master Painter’, I scanned a few of his paintings that had extensive grays.
Fish Market in Saint Ives
Anders Zorn
1888

Summer Vacation
Anders Zorn
1886




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