Colour theory

JackEb said:
That may be the case but unless we take one of his courses we will never know.
Its not unheard of for someone to take a technique, tweak it so it works well for their intended use and then give it a name to diferentiate it from other techniques. This applies across everything, not just airbrushing.
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I guess thats the point :)
Just seems to be kind of a "thing" with airbrushing.
But you don't typically see acrylic painters naming tinting after themselves, Or calling double loading a brush the bob ross method or using layering to make fire and then copyrighting a name for it.
Just a different business I guess
Hasn't been around for hundreds of years So I guess you can do that.

Dibs on mixing black into trans paint, It's now called the robbyrockett muting method. :D
 
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Robbyrockett2 said:
Anyone else have the same idea that dru blairs buffering thing is just what the rest of the world calls tints?
Which just mimics pastel techniques.
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Nope, airbrush has different issues than regular hairy brush painting, like the shifting of the colours that’s doesn’t happen with hairy brush, His website explains it if you go there,
 
Also regarding the post about using Complimentary colours to darken, that’s not true, it de saturates the tone not darken it, eventually all the way to grey, use sepia/blue Violet for darkening a colour :) only a suggestion,
Also Dru’s colour theory isn’t about blue n yellow making green, it’s more about shifting the colours, to where you need them to go, also bearing in mind how the shift from using an airbrush will effect it,
Hope this helps,
Marissa done a great spread on colour theory in 2 issues of SBs magazine well worth finding them on the digital site :)
 
musicmacd said:
Nope, airbrush has different issues than regular hairy brush painting, like the shifting of the colours that’s doesn’t happen with hairy brush, His website explains it if you go there,
Click to expand...
Since when does color shift not happen with a hairy brush?
I'm sure drus method works and i'm sure it's a great thing to learn but i'm unconvinced that the issues are really different than using glazes or blending one pastel over another on the page. In the case of the buffer method tinting glazes.
All I have to go off is his website, but I really don't see any new information there.
Maybe If i knew more about it I'd see how "buffering" is somehow a different process than tinting.
That's just where i'm at for now, I could certainly be wrong but i'll have to pay for at least three classes before I'll know.



musicmacd said:
Also regarding the post about using Complimentary colours to darken, that’s not true, it de saturates the tone not darken it, eventually all the way to grey, use sepia/blue Violet for darkening a colour :) only a suggestion,
Also Dru’s colour theory isn’t about blue n yellow making green, it’s more about shifting the colours, to where you need them to go, also bearing in mind how the shift from using an airbrush will effect it,
Hope this helps,
Marissa done a great spread on colour theory in 2 issues of SBs magazine well worth finding them on the digital site :)
Click to expand...

I Know that's a great suggestion but in my defense;
That post was just talking about grade school primary color theory and basically avoiding black to darken paint unless you want a muddy color. Doesn't apply to transparents unless theyve got white in them or the black is not truly black but you know what I mean.
It's super basic I know but thats what I still do most of the time, I havent gotten into heavy realism or Illustration though
I'll probably apply more of the cool stuff when I get better with the AB control.

Thank you for adding that
I'll look into the magazine bits too, I'm actually certain that anything you've found helpful probably is.
 
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I have to add too I think you @musicmacd , actually have a better natural sense for color than your teachers. I don't have a clue if you could teach what you do or if it comes down to talent but to me theres something you do that I've not seen anywhere, and thats seeing the work on a monitor. I can only imagine in real life.
 
Robbyrockett2 said:
I have to add too I think you @musicmacd , actually have a better natural sense for color than your teachers. I don't have a clue if you could teach what you do or if it comes down to talent but to me theres something you do that I've not seen anywhere, and thats seeing the work on a monitor. I can only imagine in real life.
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@musicmacd has certainly put his own spin on his learnings from Dru :)
 
Robbyrockett2 said:
I have to add too I think you @musicmacd , actually have a better natural sense for color than your teachers. I don't have a clue if you could teach what you do or if it comes down to talent but to me theres something you do that I've not seen anywhere, and thats seeing the work on a monitor. I can only imagine in real life.
Click to expand...

I wasn’t trying to belittle or anything like that, just trying to give you an idea of how Dru taught me, the Buffered method is just making your own Opaque colours as close as possible to the target colour,

As for the hairy brush, I can paint a pure white line over black paint without it shifting to blue.
 
Robbyrockett2 said:
This is good advice. I learned to paint trucks first then when i started doing art it was for work and every day was a different system ,different substrate, different intended environment and I had the fortune to be working beside people who already mastered it. A lot of what I've done for years applies to this. Still, I try to keep it simple because airbrush is airbrush and I'm trying to learn it.

But I do like to experiment, sorry Malky
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There is no harm in experimenting if you enjoy doing it, for the rest of us it's good that there are people who do experiment and share their findings so we can learn from their efforts, but as I said the question for each of us is whether or not we want to paint or experiment with paint and tools, I personally want to paint, if I wanted to experiment I woukdnt buy an airbrush at all I woukd just buy a load of parts and try to crate one, but even doing that, it would be wasted time if I didn't know how to use the stuff I created in the first place.


Jimmyfingerz said:
Sorry to be a pain Music, i’ve looked everywhere for a link to no avail, do you have a link you could share please?
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To access it, I'm sure you need to subscribe to the online version of Airbrush Step by Step magazine, you can't view any of it without subscribing.

You can find it here.
 
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I think i’m going to buy some cheap acrylic paint just to learn the basics pf colour mixing over the weekend then buy some createx to spray when i’m paid.
Probably be a bit cheaper that way and i’m not too fussed because i’ll buy the student grade of acrylics which are about £2 a colour.
I think it will help me get my head around the colour wheel and how to mix.

Just a quick question rather than start another thread, is there a brand of acrylic paint people would advise go buy that you can just thin yourself and spray so
i can learn about thinning paint too for the airbrush?
I mean the type of paint you buy in tubes as that is what I pretty much have available around me.
I think windsor and newton is probably the main brand I can buy off the shelf. Would this be a good brand to experiment with with for mixing and thinning?
 
musicmacd said:
I wasn’t trying to belittle or anything like that, just trying to give you an idea of how Dru taught me, the Buffered method is just making your own Opaque colours as close as possible to the target colour,

As for the hairy brush, I can paint a pure white line over black paint without it shifting to blue.
Click to expand...


Just my point of view here;
artists have been using white or yellow ochre mixed in glazes to get the perfect color since the 1500's.

I can paint white over black with no color shift with the airbrush too, same way you do it with a hairy brush, lay it on thick and give it crisp edges.
Anytime you do blends in any medium you deal with color shift, it's not new or unique to an airbrush.

Dru may have his own way of teaching it, but it's ancient methods . If it were new it would qualify for more than just a trademark of the name.

I still want to do a class, obviously theres value there, I just think the whole; applying ancient art methods to airbrush and then trademarking your name to it is kind of hoky , It's not just Dru doing it though.


@Malky , you make it sound like I don't have a clue how to paint and wont learn because I experiment.
I'm definitely not fantastic at it but I think I've been picking up airbrushing at an ok pace.
 
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Jimmyfingerz said:
I think i’m going to buy some cheap acrylic paint just to learn the basics pf colour mixing over the weekend then buy some createx to spray when i’m paid.
Probably be a bit cheaper that way and i’m not too fussed because i’ll buy the student grade of acrylics which are about £2 a colour.
I think it will help me get my head around the colour wheel and how to mix.

Just a quick question rather than start another thread, is there a brand of acrylic paint people would advise go buy that you can just thin yourself and spray so
i can learn about thinning paint too for the airbrush?
I mean the type of paint you buy in tubes as that is what I pretty much have available around me.
I think windsor and newton is probably the main brand I can buy off the shelf. Would this be a good brand to experiment with with for mixing and thinning?
Click to expand...

You really have to be very careful with cheap acrylics, these are usually heavily pigmented and definitely not intended for airbrush use, although you can thin the paints you CAN NOT thin the pigment meaning they can cause harm to your brush if you need to try to clear subsequent blockages, just a heads up so you won't be so shocked if it doesn't work.

The reason, or rather another reason I suggested practucing with the paint you intend to use, and I shoukd have mentioned this in my earlier post, each different brand when you mix colours will produce different results, by that I mean if you mix blue and yellow CI to get green, mixing blue and yellow Com-art to get green will give you a different green altogether, it is virtually impossible to to carry what you know about one brand to another, another reason I stated that each system is an education in itself.

Mixing from a colour wheel is the basics, the complicated stuff cones when the colour you need isn't on the wheel and you have to guess it based on the closest colour that does appear on your wheel.

Having said all that, at the stage you are at now I wouldn't be worrying about colour mixing yet, you have to learn to control your brush and get your pressures and reductions down to a point where you are confident enough to just grab your brush and paint almost without thinking, don't try to get too far ahead of yourself, I know from personal experience that disappointment breeds frustration which could be the difference between success or simply throwing in the towel as I have several times, I want to help you avoid the frustrations I had by asking you not to do the things I did, so please just take one step at a time and enjoy your journey.
 
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