Copying Huang

I have been following Qiang Huang's painting blog for some time now. His expressive brush strokes and strong colour contrasts are something I would love to be able to achieve. My own oil paintings of late have been improving, but I seem to have a fear of bold colour (which is something I struggle with in my watercolours, too).

This week I selected two paintings from Huang's blog and was determined to copy them. It was difficult, but I persevered and am happy with the result. I learnt a lot about colour and value, but especially colour! The colours I was mixing initially were nowhere near as strong as they needed to be. Completing this colour study exercise was very rewarding and enlightening. You can see my efforts and their details below.

After Huang's Warm Up:

Oil on board, 6x8

After Huang's Vibrant:

 

Oil on board, 6x8

There are a few problems with my paintings, but overall they work.  One paint I found particularly nice during this exercise was Michael Harding's Lemon Yellow. I never thought I would come to love the Lemon Yellow as much as I have - it's a wonderfully useful paint! :)