More Fresh Colors

Based on added interest in fresh colors, let me add a few more tips:

In addition to keeping the palette clean (remember to tip the palette) and wash water clear, and add bright or high key colors to white paper, not over other colors, let us add "layers of paint".
When i began painting, I normally had well over five or more layers of paint application because i was unsure of my approach and obviously inexperienced. In recent years, I strive to have one to three layers of wash maximum in order to have clean colors. When overpainting, remember that you run the risk of creating 'grays", a combination of all three primaries (red, yellow, and blue) or combinations such as red over green (blue and yellow) etc.  this is fine as long as the gray has good color and is desired. It becomes a problem when the grays become confused or over mixed and the gray starts trending toward "battleship gray"--no color, neutral, washed-out. so be aware of the colors that you are overpainting onto and remember that this act of glazing will produce another version of the color combination. bottom-line, try to limit the layers of color. one way i use to avoid this is to kick up my color value in first washes and not have as many weak early washes. In doing this, I focus on the center of interest and shadow shapes first. if that is working, I then can add lighter backgrounds and other supporting washes that are less critical.

Happy painting.