Diane, girl you’re the best ever I have heard this far. Thank YOU JESUS for blessing us with her knowledge. I’m so glad I’m subscribed to your Channel. GOD Bless you Diane and Roger. 👩🏽‍🎨🙏🏾😘💕

"Those are two questions, eventually I'd like to hear answers." This gave me a good chuckle. You don't get to see Dianne call someone out every day with that laid-back, "live and let live" nature she has. It's perhaps a bit off topic but this reminds me of some of the artists that I have been watching of late who seem to have thrown all color theory out the window. They will typically have 3 base colors on their palette, perhaps a red/blue/yellow or maybe a red/blue/green depending on the subject. They might mix yellow with red to brighten it or get an orange, or red with blue to get a violet, or yellow with blue to brighten it or get a green. What you won't ever see them do is mix a color with it's compliment to desaturate it. They descend into this madness of adding black and then white and then more black and then maybe more of the base color and back and forth until they finally arrive at their destination looking a bit like someone who lost their way. Then as stunning as the realism of their paintings may be, they have this hard, sterile, flat, industrial feeling to them. They lack the beautiful color harmonies that you get using compliments to desaturate or with a mother color. I find it hard to even watch people who work like this and I'm constantly wondering how much better their results would be if they added using complimentary colors to their arsenal of painting skills.

This has been a missing piece in my learning! Adding a little bit of warmth to offset the 'coolness' from white is so valuable! I've already seen an improement in my mixing. Thank you Diane :)

No one can explain how colors works as you!!!! Thank you for sharing it ❤️

Thank you very very much. Iwas having trouble to ligth red……….didnt like the pink rosé i got when mixing the red with white. Your tips are really valuable. 🥰😍🙂

Thank you Dianne ! Do I need to say that I love colour mixing :D . You probably know that by now. Always wonderful tips

To someone at my lower level, she deserves a star on Hollywood Blvd - one of the best ever color lessons.

This was probably the most valuable video I've ever seen! You explained everything so well and solved a problem I've been having for years. Thank you so much!

Thank you. Old masters might have compensated for the white using this method but they also used a different white- lead white. It behaves so much different, it is more transparent and already warm. The titanium white of today is the most opaque and cool white ever. Another solution is to use the more transparent zinc white,, but with caution as in oils, if applied too thickly, leads to cracks. Every mix with zinc white should be applied thinly. In waterbased techniques zinc white does not have this problem. Otherwise one cand add some zinc white to titanium white and make an intermediate white. You can also make a color, if not lighter, instead more transparent by adding chalk (calciun carbonate). This is well documented in old masters techniques. You take calcium carbonate and add enough drops of oil to it (cold pressed linseed oil) so it has to consistency of tube colors. You can add that to your titanium white or any other color and see how different it behaves. I know it sounds weird to use chalk to eliminate the chalky look, but chalk stays transparent when mixed with oil- as opposed when mixed with waterbased binders. And finally, one last method to really not use white at all it's to paint indirectly. Make a monochromatic underpainting (here you use white as white,) and then glaze with pure color. You control the intensity by glazing with a lot of pure color or just a whisper.

You saved my life. Binging all your videos now.

The timing of this tip is really serendipitous. Just this morning I was struggling with exactly this problem trying to lighten a blue green/turqouise colour and here's you handing me a solution just like that. Thank you! 🙂🙃😀

A very useful lesson, many thanks to you for your work and that you share your experience!

Thank you very much, it answered my questions and even questions. I didn’t know to ask

Another ah ha moment! Warm the white to lighten a colour. Your videos are so valuable. Thank you.

The most useful art instruction video I can remember watching. I enjoy adding white when I swatch, because the change of hue is so dramatic. I don't understand exactly why white has this effect, but it couldn't be more evident from Dianne's demo that yellow is required. I wonder if it has to do with tinting strength. I recently did a grisaille (brunaille?) with raw umber and I was surprised by how grey it turned when I added white. It makes sense now.

If only I could click ten times or more for this video clip! What an expert rendition of colour mixing, I am amazed!

A great question and such a clear and useful answer. Something I have never heard before, beautifully demonstrated. Thank you Dianne

Dianne, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate all the hard work you put into making these videos. I'm very much a novice painter, and I've learned so much from your channel! Every time I have a question, I've found an answer here. I'm in the planning stages of a painting that's very important to me - a memorial for my daughter who passed away last year - and all of your advice and tips have been invaluable in helping me work through roadblocks and problems. You are a wonderful teacher and a joy to watch!

Thank you! 🥰

Thank you I really enjoyed your demonstration - you made this concept really easy to understand. Dianne 🙏👏🌸

Thank you so much for this Dianne. I found it very enlightening and so well explained and looking forward to putting it all into practice!🙏

Thank you Dianne, your efforts and videos are always appreciated!

Very useful tips that do not seem to be obvious. Thank you!

This is such an amazing lesson Dianne - it has made me think in terms of light temperature when adjusting to lighter values, and it is so helpful to me! Adding green to ultramarine as it lightened never occurred to me! (as you say, it has yellow in it!) I'm so grateful to you! 💙

Having completed a year long painting programme myself under the Tuition of someone who studied at the academies in Italy I have to say Diane you explained this very well indeed. To any beginner painters out there this is invaluable knowledge to improve the look of your oil paintings.

Dianne you are the best teacher ever....and so good in your teachings... thanks.

Thank you so much Dianne. These color mixing tips are so helpful. I always learn so much from your quick tips.

I love how well you clarify your explanations.

This was a fascinating and very helpful Tip Dianne. I enjoy you so much.

Thanks good video!

Thank you for your clear and concise teaching.

Wonderful Dianne! I worked with a teacher who just abhorred using white but never taught us what to do in any other way to lighten paint. Your quick tip will mean a lot to my struggling! Thanks a lot!

You always do an amazingly thorough job of explaining things!

These tips are wonderful Dianne! Saves us a lot of time and paint in figuring all this out ourselves!❤️

Invaluable - thank you!

I loved this video. It helped me understand color lightening much better. I went to your website and found your library of wonderful downloads and purchased 7 of them! I’m excited to start watching them. Looking forward to learning .

If my value presentation commands the use of white, then I use white! But I absolutely do NOT take my brush and put it anywhere near my canvas until my colours are mixed correctly on the palette (this is all colours, not just lights). I''ll usually overshoot the colour on purpose, knowing that I can add small touches of Transparent Oxide Brown, Ivory Black or plain Ochre to the mix, to bring substance back to the colour. I have no valves, no tube colours "off limits", no fear. Because my source material is communicating to me exactly what it wants. A lot of this "fear of milk" comes from certain pockets of the internet and militant communities who "know the right way" - i.e. have a formula . Should you be applying white with common sense? Yes. But not to the extent that you're developing a phobia of it. Because let me tell you, many of the London plein air painters I know use a lot of milky colours, but the results that they yield will be among the best paintings you will ever see. Sometimes, it's exactly what's required for the impression to work. Colour mixing is a game of intuition. You WILL know instinctively if something is off or isn't working. Don't let a painting succumb to it while you still have time to fix it.

Dianne. This is such an important tip. Thank you so much.

Extremely interesting, thanks! Rembrandt have a transparent white - how and when would you use it ...or wouldn't you? Don, Cape Town, South Africa.

One of your best lessons. Cleared a lot of questions. Thanks.

This is very handy information! Thank you for sharing. 😙

Dianne, I saw your paintings in your website, they are divine! I see your KZfaq channel focuses more on tips and instructions for artists. But I hope and wish that you create many more beautiful paintings as you did before, for us your fans and also for your pleasure of creating :)

Thank you..Had a hard time with lightening greens.

This concept is essential! I also have the same problem with the colors looking chalky. Thank you so much for this class, Dianne!!!

Thank you Dianne, this helps me a lot!

I also noticed the chalky appearances in my paintings while using white alone in my paint to lighten in some instances. Thank you for this lesson. It is a great point in using with yellow and other colors with white to transition to a lighter value.

Loves the way you explain everything. I got good teacher after a long time.

perfect... what a wonderful explanation

Wow, I had no idea! This makes an amazing difference. Thank you Dianne 😊

Excellent explanations and guidance in lightening the value of hues! As always, your videos are so helpful! Many thanks!

Fantastic tip for portraits and landscapes!

The blue seems to go into almost a pastel.Seeing you pull out and blend the white alone and then adding green clicked,makes complete sense. Nature doesn't throw white into something to lighten it. Thank you!

Eye opener, so useful thank you Dianne!

Thank you so much for this. Really helpful. I guess I knew intuitively that white has to be used to lighten but to do it smartly. As you presented, the secret is in not adding white directly but to warm it before mixing into the base color. I especially liked your tip for painting sky color with FUB and a premixed Viridian and white mix. You're the best.

amazingly bright - easy when u know how - thank u definitly 💕

Thank you Dianne. Excellent information regarding warming white and yes I will certainly practice and see what happens. Many thanks.

An excellent tutorial! I struggled with chalky color for a long time until I developed a keener sense of color temperature, but only after years of painting.

You are excellent and I just love your videos. Do you make on sketching too, would like to see that too.

Every video has something new to me. Thx so much!

Having no formal instruction, I have plodded along a few years thinking that there must be some way to darken and lighten without white and black. Very obvious when watching the video. It just never clicked. Thanks again.

Beautifully explained. Thank you I needed this!

Thank you so much

Thanks, Dianne. This was so so helpful. I will look for one of your courses on color.

"light might not work this way or inks dont work this way, but paint works this way" wow that is amazing

Wow what a great lesson, have wanted to know that or 50 years, thank you so much,you are awesome. sandy

Amazing tip. Thank you!

Thanks a lot Dianne...God bless you 🙏

thank you. very informative Diane.

Thank you so much, this video will help to improve my paintings

Such valuable info. Thank you

Sometimes I will paint using a lightly tinted white-green or yellow etc, but then at the end if I want a certain area to pop white I will use a little of my Holbein Foundation White. This is lead paint and is as white as white can be. Recently finished off some chickens this way and they have survived and been given more dimension.

It was a very interesting lesson that solved my color blue problems. What is an alternative for Hansa Yellow? The paints I can find in Greece are Talens and W&N.

Hi I'm your new subscriber... This information is so helpful and to the point!... Thank you Dianne!!

I like the way you say "yellow"!

Very nice. Thanks. Does it also apply to watercolor, as water inseitead of white paint

Thank you! This is tremendously helpful!

Great information, thank you for sharing ❤😊😊😊😊

I recall reading that the old masters would use a pale yellow ochre - that has no added white - to lighten their colors. This would be a yellow ochre light. Apparently by adding a little yellow ochre light to most colors it unifies the whole painting and adds to that "museum yellow" look you see in almost all old master paintings.

Gosh that is great did not know this wondered why my sky was not so great thankyou

Wow! What a difference! Thanks 😄

Wow - this was really new to me -- can I assume that we can do this to all colors on the wheel? I think I need a chart for this...do you have one ? I am going to try this out today with various colors. thanks again for all your tips

Excellent!

I feel like purple is the color that you can lighten by simply using white. It makes sense, since you lighten blue with a color to its left in the color wheel, and red with a color to its right in the color wheel. So, the color in between blue and red can't decide where to go and just stays where it is. I also like to lighten up colors with a layer of transparent white on top. I painted a night sky with Prussian Blue and some violet mixed in. At the horizon, I mixed in white the standard way. Around the moon, I painted the halo with transparent white. You'll get a different, less saturated color by doing so.

Thank you. Like

Wow! That’s great info. I can’t stand chalkiness and now Zi know how to avoid it!

O goodness Diane, I have been struggling with this for much too long. You just made my day. Thank you for a game changer for me. Do you have a video(S) I can buy which cover gradation / lightening all the colours on the colour wheel. How can we lighten yellow, orange or red ? Thank you

Thanks for posting!

Thank you, Ma'am, for this crucial lesson. Also, is Mid Green a good substitute for Viridian?

How do you store paint? How long will it store for? What colors and brands for those colors do you prefer? Does your palette dry out? Can you Mx water soluble oil paint with regular? Thank you for all your lessons.

Thanks Dianne. Will you please show us how to obtain tropical water in a painting. 😊 Gerry

Thanks a ton for this video.. very informative 🙏

This was so helpful, thank you!

Your demonstration is great as always. Can you please make a video on transparency of colours. I know you have one but it doesn't explains what it do to colour mixing. I mean to say that what we make of transparency other than glazing which is very obvious thing to observe. Some people say transparent colours mix to give darkest colours. How it affects the mixture? How to take transparency into consideration while mixing colours? I have failed to find a reliable answer to this. Can you please help.

Good tips and well explained. I've found that whenever I've had workshops that the majority of students want to begin with white right away which most always leads to disaster.

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Theoretically, you could do this going the opposite direction for the color values, instead of using black and ending up with a grayish muddy result, correct?

Great video!!! I’m new to your channel and I must say it’s the most clear and helpful one out there. Thank you for being very generous 😊 I have a question, this yellow white mix can be used with all colours to get a lighter value?

Thank you thank you!!!!!

So glad I found your channel. 'Real' Tips!!! Thank you!! Are you painting in oils or acrylics?

how to use white in a shadow? thanks kindly.