Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Does anyone have an oil paint color mix for khaki?

I am working on an oil portrait of my father when he was 35 years old in 1956. He is wearing a khaki color shirt and pants in the photo I am using as a reference. I can not get the color of the shirt and pants to work. Any suggestions?Does anyone have an oil paint color mix for khaki?
White to start with; add small amount of yellow ochre; then modify with ONE of the following in very small increments - whichever looks like the khaki in your photo:


burnt umber for a tan khaki


raw umber leans a little more toward yellow


tiny touch of ivory black to darken the value





You have to experiment with this, and also realize that the shadows and lights will have to be adjusted.











All of these are added very slowly to the white. Adjust to the value; khaki is really quite light, so be sparing with the colors.Does anyone have an oil paint color mix for khaki?
My suggestion is that you find an article of clothing the color you want and set it up so you can do a value and color study of the highlights, mid-values, and shadows. Khaki is like white, it tends to reflect and absorb colors from the enviroment and should not be painted with one single hue.





Here are a couple of paintings I did with khaki clothing in them:





This is the first one I ever did, over 30 years ago when I had very little art training:


http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii267鈥?/a>





You can see from these that I have learned more about color:


http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g172/l鈥?/a>


http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g172/l鈥?/a>


http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g172/l鈥?/a>


http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g172/l鈥?/a>





See how each one incorporates a few different colors along with the sandy/tan color your think of as khaki? It is your choice of color for the shadows and highlights that will determine what combo reads ';khaki'; for your painting. That is why I suggest you study real fabric in lighting similar to your subject is in for your painting. But you have to really look at the color, and not just assume it is a dark brown because khaki is tan!

No comments:

Post a Comment