Many novice painters have a lot of trouble matching the colors they see in real life. This can be incredibly frustrating when trying to replicate a real scene, or even just go back into an existing painting for a second pass. But accurately matching a color is not just about replicating something so you can imitate it. The ability to break down any color you see into it’s essential parts, understand and decipher those individual aspects, is an immensely valuable lesson that is paramount to any good color mixing.

Draw, Mix, Paint is a series of instructional lessons by master oil painter, Mark Carder. We’ve spotlighted some of Mark’s videos here on Muddy Colors before, but I felt this was a particularly good one to share. In this video, Mark demonstrates how to break down any color you see into it’s essential elements (value, saturation, hue), and how to replicate those traits in a sensible, and logical manner. It is a surprisingly thorough video, but I think the lessons learned will not just help you better match colors, but change the way you think about mixing color in general.

On a personal note, I’d like to mention Mark is using his own brand of artisanal oil paints, Geneva, which I can honestly say, are quite beautiful paints. They have a buttery texture that many mainstream brands of paint cannot match.