Day 11 – Color Temperature Play

Warm vs Cool Contrast

Technique level: Intermediate
Duration: ~30-40 minutes

Objective:
Today is all about using color temperature – the dance between warm and cool hues – to bring depth and subtle drama into a simple object. Your subject: a curled autumn leaf or a snail shell (or both if you’re feeling ambitious).

Materials:

• Cold press paper
• Round brush (size 6 or 8), small detail brush
• Pigments: a warm-cool pairing of each primary (e.g., Ultramarine Blue + Cobalt Teal, Burnt Sienna + Quinacridone Gold, Alizarin Crimson + Scarlet Lake)
• Optional: pencil for light sketch

Steps:

1. Choose Your Subject:
   • A curled-up leaf with crisp folds and soft shadows
   • A snail shell with spiral curves and shadowy ridges
   • Or sketch both into a little nature vignette
2. Sketch It Out (optional):
   Lightly pencil in the shape(s). Don’t overdo the lines – just enough to guide your paint.
3. Warm Light, Cool Shadow:
   Pick a light direction. Use warmer tones (golds, siennas, warm reds) on the lit sides of the subject.
   Use cooler tones (blues, purples, cool greens) in the shadows.
   The trick is to layer them gently – don’t just outline shadows; paint with translucent glazes.
4. Glazing Pass:
   Once dry, add a few transparent glazes (warm over cool or vice versa) to deepen the contrast and push form forward. A warm glaze over a neutral base makes it glow; a cool glaze behind a shape pushes it back.
5. Details (optional):
   Use a fine brush to suggest ridges, veins, or shell texture – stay loose. The contrast in color temperature is the main character here.

Focus:

• Don’t aim for realism – aim for temperature drama.
• Let colors mingle a bit at the edges – cool and warm bleeding together gives that organic, lifelike feel.
• Watch how warm colors advance and cool ones recede – even in tiny objects.

Bonus Prompt:
Try painting the same subject twice, reversing the temperature scheme. What changes in mood or depth?