Folio 03 · Oil

Complementary Mixtures

Opposites on the wheel do not make mud; they make the most trustworthy neutrals in painting, and choosing which opposites decides everything. A strong pair kills fast and hard. A gentle pair drifts politely through gray. An unfair pair barely moves at all, and knowing the difference is half of color mixing. The Neutrals chapter met one kill already; this chapter maps the axes painters actually run: blue against orange for landscape, yellow against violet for old gold, crimson against green for the glazing dark, and magenta against green because the modern primary deserves its own plate. Every mixture here is two tubes and a decision about who leads.