8934 Color Mixing and Values
Jerry Yarnell – Inspiration of Painting PBS Television Series

This essential lesson focuses on the core foundations of painting—color mixing and values—giving you the tools to create stronger, more realistic artwork across any subject. In this beginner level acrylic painting lesson, Jerry walks you step-by-step through these critical concepts in a 76 minute session on an 18x24 canvas, showing how mastering color and value can dramatically improve your results.

You’ll learn how to mix clean, vibrant colors while avoiding muddy results, along with how to control hue, intensity, and temperature for better harmony in your paintings. Jerry demonstrates how warm and cool colors interact, and how proper mixing leads to more believable and visually appealing results.

Special focus is given to understanding values and how they create form, depth, and light within a painting. You’ll explore how to use value changes to define shape and structure, and why value is often more important than color when creating a realistic image.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll gain a strong foundation in color theory and value control that applies to acrylics, oils, or watercolor. This is an excellent study for beginners and experienced artists alike, providing skills that will improve every painting you create moving forward.