Why Are You Using Red?

Artists who take my workshops or join my mentoring programs (see Mastrius.com) often have one big question: How do you achieve such luminous, vibrant color effects in your paintings? That’s why my most popular workshop—and my on-demand online course—is called ‘Mastering Light & Color’.

Another common question is: Which pigments do you use? Many professional artists have favorite colors and brands they rely on for specific effects. Some follow detailed color-mixing strategies, and there are countless theories out there on how to achieve particular hues. These resources can be helpful, especially for aspiring artists.

But here’s a little secret—I haven’t studied any of those theories in depth. In fact, I’ve forgotten most of the color theory I learned back in university! So, I don’t offer formulas or “recipes” for painting trees, clouds, or flowers, or animals, or whatever. Why? Because every artist has their own subject matter, style, and preferences—and those evolve over time. I never used purple for decades, and now I can’t stop using it! Plus, paint manufacturers constantly introduce exciting new colors. So how do you navigate all that? Do you buy everything your budget allows? Stick to your favorite artist’s recommendations? Or maybe just rely on the popular method of mixing everything from the three primaries—sounds simple, right?

Instead of prescribing specific colors, I teach something I believe is far more valuable: the core principles behind creating vibrant, glowing color effects. These are the same principles I learned by studying the greatest painters of the past—and they’re actually the opposite of what most of us were taught about how to put our paintings together! In my workshops and online course, I cover seven essential guidelines that will help you unlock the full potential of color in your work.

That said, I do make two key recommendations when it comes to selecting your paints:

1.   Use only single-pigment colors.

2.   Separate them into transparent and opaque categories.

Based on these principles, Canadian paint manufacturer Tri-Art invited me to create three curated paint sets: Emerging Artist, Professional Artist, and Master Artist. These sets all contain high-quality professional acrylic paints, with more colors and premium pigments in the advanced collections. Below is the Emerging Artist set, an excellent and versatile selection for artists starting out in oils or acrylics:

Emerging Artist Collection

Liquid – Transparent/Semi-Transparent

  • Nickel Azo Yellow (PY 150)
  • Transparent Permanent Orange (PO 71)
  • Quinacridone Red (PV 101)
  • Transparent Red Oxide (PR 101)
  • Dioxazine Violet (PV 23)
  • Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG 7)
  • Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB 15.3)
  • Carbon Black (PBk 7)

High Viscosity – Semi-Opaque/Opaque

  • Bismuth Yellow Medium (PY 184)
  • Yellow Oxide (PY 42)
  • Pyrrole Orange (PO 73)
  • Pyrrole Red Medium (PR 254)
  • Raw Umber (PBr 7)
  • Chrome Oxide Green (PG 17)
  • Titanium White (PW 6)

This set is designed with a simple yet powerful concept: one transparent and one opaque version of each color family. The transparent colors are perfect for luminous glazes and veils, while the opaque pigments create rich, dramatic impasto effects. If you’re working in acrylics, I also recommend using liquid or fluid paints for the transparent colors and heavy body paints for the opaques.

Want to learn more about how the Old Masters used these principles? Check out my workshop schedule on the Events page at davidlangevin.com, or dive into my on-demand online course through Mastrius if you can’t make it in person.

Experiment, explore, and most importantly—have fun with color! Your best paintings are still ahead of you.