Written by 
Not talking color theory, or about “mud” (when control is lost over the painting and warm and cool is in the wrong place). I’ll just share how I painted this picture out of my imagination, and painted the really warm next to the really cool colors.
The most important thing I have learned along the way is use separate brushes for warms and cools. Imagine an old public service announcement with Uncle Sam holding up two brushes and saying, “keep them separate.” Even if you wash them with thinner, there will still be residue color left and the brush is, what I call, “compromised”. I keep two or three of every size brush. I will share the brushes I use in a future post.
I have a very intense warm light from the sun, coming in from the back left area of the picture, where it is breaking through the storm. I could just have made the opposite side very dark shadows, but the figure might get lost in the dark background, so the other option is to push the colors very cool. I also noted to bring the very warm light through the mantle on the other side, and make the hair a more reddish as it would be warmer from the light as well.
kyle henry art 