Mexico Resort, Mayan Riviera

Another from the Mayan Riviera collection, this one shows one of the room-complexes near the beach, it would be only a few steps from the sand (where I was sitting) and more importantly only a few more steps from the walk-up bar and the beach house where they put snacks every day. You can see a little piece of the boardwalk on the bottom right.

Capturing this shade of yellow is extremely difficult, and I was very surprised to have nailed it almost exactly as it was in the real scene. The problem is that yellow paint is very strong, and in your mind you want to use yellow to paint something yellow right? But it always ends up looking like a cartoon chicken or bathtub rubber ducky. The secret is start with a base of thin (slightly watery) purple, and then add some thin green (a touch of viridian for example). With this base, you can carefully add some yellow, I would recommend a weak pigment like aurelian, or if you don't have that, then very small amounts of a stronger yellow like windsor or lemon. The yellow is really the minor component of the mixture. The other thing that helps is to surround your yellow object with things that are complementary, and a little darker.... in this example the window frames are a deep purple-brown, and the boardwalk is a dark purple. These dark purple elements were added on purpose to enhance the yellowness and the luminosity of the yellow wall.

5x7" cold press. 2010