I'm still fairly new to all this (only got 3 paintings under my belt), and I've just tried doing a fourth today that has resulted in a number of frustrations (mostly because I don't know why what's happening is happening).

I tried painting Winter Mist this afternoon as it seemed a fairly simple (to my mind) painting to attempt, and I wanted to try a snowy painting. These are the problems I ran into

Colour

In Bob's video, he says he made the grey for the sky using the Van Dyke Brown, Prussian Blue and White, but every time I tried this, with varying amounts of the different paints, I ended up with basically blue. I even tried just putting in the smallest amount of blue, and still I ended up with a blue colour

These are my attempts on the palette

At no point did any of them look grey. In the end I went for a little midnight black and white to try and get a grey (and even that I would argue resembled purple more than grey.

The next issue I had with colours was when it came to the first set of mountains, that for reasons unknown to me, they ended up green. I did what Bob said, and used brown and blue.

Nothing I could seemed to make a difference. I even tried just putting straight Van Dyke Brown on the mountains, but as soon as I put some white on, the colours all went off again.

So in Bob style, I tried to treat this as a happy accident, maybe I can just cover how green they were with clouds, which brings me onto my next issue.

Clouds

I cannot get them to work. This is the third time I've tried them now, and they don't do anything remotely like Bob gets. For a start, I can load the fan brush full of white, but almost the second I start doing my little circles, that white is basically white + sky colour and I end up with zero definition in my clouds. In one of my paintings, I thought this might be because I used too much paint in my sky, but I really tried reducing how much paint I used for the sky in the next painting, and I ended up with the same thing. The problem I then get is, when I go to top the brush up again, I'm no longer getting white on my brush, because the colours are all mixing again.

The other thing I'm fairly I've never seen happen to Bob when he does clouds, but does to me every time, is the fan brush ends up clumping up in bunches (it ends up looking a brush with 5 massive bristles on it).

So coming back to the aforementioned Winter Mist painting, I tried doing clouds to cover the base of the mountain, but all that did was push around a light green colour, so I thought I would tap the brush (which is what you can see in the picture), and, well, that didn't work either.

In the end, I've given up with this painting, but I could really do with some advice as to why the things I'm seeing are happening. What is it I'm doing wrong?

In re: blue, Prussian blue is a synthetic pigment and extraordinarily powerful. It takes very, very little. I see Bob spread it around like butter and I wonder how he manages to not turn everything blue. As he says of bright red, "It'll eat up your whole world in a heartbeat." Remember, it's always easier to add more than to subtract.

In re: black, it's actually a very, very dark shade of blue or indigo. That's why it can be mixed with cad yellow to make a green.

    scottisafool Ian is right that Prussian blue or even phtalo blue are both strong colors. When you add brown to blue it becomes greenish blue first. I would suggest to try and create 50-50 mix to calm it down more to gray. But it will never be gray as if you mix real black pigment with white. It will always have some tone to it. This will work better to your advantage as it enriches the pallet.

    Now the bob’s black is achromatic black meaning there is no black pigment in it. It contains alizarin and phtalo green mixture which gives slightly purple tint with white. This is what happened with your color.

    If if you would want to have gray made from black pigments you need to get black color like lamp black, ivory black, etc. Even though they will have slight warmth or cold when mixed with white.

    You have wonderful eye to see these slight color variations so build on it as it expands your pallet and brings variety in the painting. Do not try fully replicate Bobs paintings. There is difference in how camera was passing light plus it was many years ago so color on the screen may be offset on the screen from what you supposed to see in real. Just check with your own self if you like your color more and go with it.

      Mountains: since the sky is made with mix of alizarin and phtalo green any greenish tints will be amplified as they are contrasting to each other.

      In this painting if you would proceed with black from Bob throughout the painting it would give a united appearance to the painting.

      Color mixing is incredibly interesting area of the art and more you paint better you become with it.

      There are very interesting discoveries how pigments work and you will discover them all!

      I can recommend exercise if you are very interested that will work as wonderful guide for you in future and will show capabilities of the paints you have.

        Clouds: check if there is way too much liquid white underneath as a first why.
        To address second why (I see a lot of overblending) - Try to keep as less pressure on the top of the clouds like you hold a feather not a brush. And with that feather in your hand just give a very gentle swipe.

        Many things in Bobs method rely on pressure variation and when he says no pressure this means just tips of the bristles gently touching very top layer of paint on the canvas.

        I hope my answers will help you to get where you want, don’t hesitate to ask more.

        Sunnylady Thank you for all your replies, some of the information there was really useful (especially how the Midnight Black is comprised). I have since tried doing another painting, and although I'm still not 100% happy with the clouds, at one point I was (until I blended), so I think this gives me even more information on what I need to learn and what I'm doing wrong in some places.

        I'm also beginning to think that some of the issues I've been having is not using enough paint, certainly I think this is the case when it comes to adding my highlights.

        Clouds: check if there is way too much liquid white underneath as a first why.

        With regard to this, I am, however, quite confident that I'm not putting too much on. When I do the fingerprint test, it's just my fingerprints that have the paint on it.

            Check YouTube channel : Painting with Yovette, she explains many techniques from Bob as certified instructor.

            Also I really suggest to check Diane Andre on Bill Alexander channel as she is a wonderful teacher. I will find couple of links for you.

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