A couple of days ago Audrey was painting at her easel. She’s been really into mixing primary colors to make secondary ones and mixing colors in general: red and blue make purple, red and white yield pink, etc.
But this time she started out with a big, dark grey blob- mixed primarily with black and white. She thought if she added additional lighter colors on top of that dark grey blob, the color would change to something else or brighten, so I listened as she said, “Let’s see what happens if I add some yellow…hmmm” followed by a small, disappointed sigh, and on and on with each color as the dark grey mass grew. I had to explain to her that at least with this kind of paint and paper, once she laid down a really dark color- no amount of other colors would really change it. We’d have to paint on the portion of the paper that was still white- and I took a brush and painted a few strokes of purple and a few of green.
Despite how much I want that “turn” and need something to change- it feels just like this…the lighter colors just don’t show up on top of the dark ones. At some point you just need a clean piece of paper.
yes…clean paper is a good idea.