How to Avoid Mixing Mud with Dreama Tolle Perry

If you want to avoid mud, Ep.18 guest Dreama Tolle Perry knows you need a system that starts with your palette and ends with your painting.

Mud happens for all sorts of reasons. And so the solutions need to address each of those.

Put it to Practice:

First, you’ll want to make sure that you set your palette up in a way that keeps opposite colors away from each other. It’s amazing how quickly a little green into your red can flatten the color.

Next, you’ll want to make sure your brush is clean. Some artists choose to use one brush for warms and one for cools. Or one for lights and one for darks. Think about what works best for you.

Third, be decisive about what strokes you want to make and go in with a plan. Because oils take a long time to dry, you want to be careful about disturbing the lower layer by adding too many upper layers. This will create unintentional blending, which will increase your chances of creating mud.

Finally, if you lay a stroke down and don’t think it works, pause before you make any changes. Think about what part of it doesn’t work and why. Don’t immediately go in with another stroke because maybe part of it works and part of it doesn’t. And with a little consideration, you can change only what’s truly needed.