Session #7:

To correct the middle ground area (right above the grasses), mix a silvery grey using PBgs + QR + Yellow Ochre, then lighten with ZW. Remember that acrylics dry darker so you need to keep lightening the colour beyond what looks right when the paint is wet. This silvery grey appears on the left then, above it and on to the right, mix a muted yellowish green using QNAG + PBgs and again lightening with ZW. Notice that adding the Zinc White makes the colour become more neutral (greyed), the more ZW you add, the more neutral.

Above this section, a sandy colour was created using a lot of YO, a little QR and a lot of ZW, with just a smidge of PBgs to grey the colour. 

NOTE: This is a tricky mixture as it can easily be too dark or (like mine) a little too red etc. When trying to correct a mixture, look at which way it “leans” then add a little complement. For example, (knowing that the three PRIMARY colours are Red, Blue and Yellow) if your mixture just looks too GREEN (blue + yellow), introduce a little RED to the mixture to grey it. If it is too ORANGE, introduce a little Blue, etc.. Most important word here is a LITTLE. With practice, this gets easier, I promise. Apply this sandy colour and its slight variations horizontally in the background. Mix a light blue using Titanium White with a tiny bit of TBgs and place where the water winds in around the sand formations.

Using the same light blue, let it join into the land mass on the upper left – even though one is water and one is land, the eye joins them. Mix a light plum colour from combining PBgs + QC + ZW and, using expressive brush strokes, sweep in the lighter parts of the iris blossoms – lightening it sometimes, making it pinker or whiter other times. Revisit the sand colour by remixing from our combination of YO, a little QR and a lot of ZW, with just a smidge of PBgs to grey the colour – this time using much more white to keep it more neutral and lighter. Overpaint the original colours until it looks softer and more neutral. Make a dark grey using PBgs + QR + a little YO, then paint the small vertical shapes in the distance and the lower edge of the sandbar on the upper right. Be careful to paint around the long foreground shapes neatly.