As is true for most of us who paint, I have extra tubes of paint that I don’t use often. I decided to evaluate a few extra tubes in my drawer with a few quick mixing studies.
I’ve learned to mix my own greens. I’m still not very skilled, and I’m learning every day. I had a tube of cadmium green light and chromium oxide green in the drawer and decided to mix them with my four principal yellows: yellow ochre light, cadmium yellow lemon, cadmium yellow light, and cadmium yellow middle.
It was a useful exercise. I can’t say that this yields any greens that I can’t get any other way using my regular tube colors but it was quick and easy and it’s nice to know that these tones are readily available. Quickly. I will probably still stay away from chromium oxide green because it just to me is a deathly green that seems to be out of place whenever I’ve used it in paintings. Employed in a mix, however, it might work.
A few days later, I went on a hike and took a couple of photographs. I wouldn’t paint these scenes, necessarily, but I noticed that the range of greens in the two scenes would be covered by this mixing study with maybe a few minor adjustments.
California Paintings 