COLOR PATTERN 1: COMPLEMENTARY

Most of us learned about this color pattern in school, but there's so much more to know about this beautiful pairing! The complementary color scheme consists of opposite colors on the color wheel: purple and yellow, magenta and warm green, etc.  Did you know that no matter which complementary pattern you choose, mixing the colors together will dull them down and neutralize them?​ If you add equal parts of each color, for example, blue and orange, you'll get brown! This ability to neutralize makes this color pattern so interesting; it's how you can paint a beautiful, dynamic beach scene with just white, blue, black, and orange! ​That's also what makes this color palette simple to work with because as long as you understand how the colors will interact, you can create a gorgeous color scheme with them!

COLOR PATTERN 2: ANALOGOUS

One of my personal favorite color patterns is the analogous pattern! This pattern consists of the colors grouped directly next to each other on the color wheel. What I love most about it is that no matter which colors you mix together, they all feel harmonious and tend to stay vibrant. They may neutralize a bit, but not to the same extent as complementary colors. This color pattern can feel really dynamic, especially when you play around with the contrast between light and dark in your work! Palettes using this pattern can also feel playful and bright due to its vibrancy. You have to be a bit careful with this pattern, though, taking extra care that your colors have varied light and darkness. Otherwise, everything will all look too similar and feel flat. Palettes like this are where a strong understanding of contrast can come in really handy. If you'd like to dig deeper, check out our Foundational Studies Course 1!

FOUNDATIONS 1: VALUE In the course, you'll learn how to balance light and dark to create a beautiful piece of art. You'll also learn how to shade pieces to add dimension, control your paintbrushes, and mix different values properly! LEARN MORE ABOUT FOUNDATIONS 1

COLOR PATTERN 3: ​SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY

The final color pattern we're going to discuss today is split complementary. It's made up of one color on the bottom and its complementary, as well as the two colors on either side of the complementary, making a Y shape on the color wheel. This makes the color pattern very visually interesting and allows for a little more range than the other two patterns we've previously touched on. Like the complementary scheme, this palette can neutralize itself, but like the analogous pattern, it also has an excellent capability of vibrancy! I'm an avid user of this palette because of its range. What I love about it the most is there's just about nothing you can't do with it! You can paint portraits with it by using red, orange, yellow, and blue. Yes, blue! The blue can easily neutralize the brighter, warm tones and give you a gorgeous, rich skin tone.

DO YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND COLOR THEORY EVEN MORE IN DEPTH?

FOUNDATIONS 2: COLOR THEORY ​Our color theory course will take you through choosing colors for the subject of your paintings and how to avoid muddy and dull colors when blending. You'll also learn a fourth color pattern to complete your palette repertoire! get FOUNDATIONS 2

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THE ROUND BRUSH

Behold, the brush of all brushes, the classic round brush! This brush can fill, line, detail, and blend, which is exactly why I believe that if you only own one kind of brush, this should be the one! That's also why we include this brush in our painting kits!

THE FLAT BRUSH

Flat brushes are an absolute dream for filling in large areas of solid color, which is my personal favorite use for them. Another great thing about them is that you can also use them to get really crisp edges on your painting, especially when using a soft body acrylic paint.

THE FILBERT BRUSH

These brushes are the perfect choice for softening and blending paint, especially for subjects like clouds, skies, and skin. And while it's not its selling point, they can also be used to fill in large areas of color.

THE FAN BRUSH

Fan brushes are the kind of brush most of us either love or hate. Still, it's undeniable that fan brushes are great for achieving textures that other brushes can't as efficiently. If you'd like to learn more about using fan brushes specifically, check out our post about them!

THE LINER BRUSH

This brush will help you to pull lines with ease. It can take a little getting used to because, at the start, the length of the hairs can feel unstable, but the biggest tip we have for this brush is to pick up a fluid acrylic medium! This will help the paint flow for precise, smooth lines.

THE ANGLE BRUSH

Like the round brush, the angle brush is a versatile choice, from coverage to blending to details and getting gorgeously crisp edges just like the flat brush; it's a smart pick for your painting arsenal!

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NO MORE BORING BOARDS

​ I am IN LOVE with these two beautiful boards on Etsy. I can't imagine how stunning these would be for a party spread; they will surely be conversation starters! You definitely could pick up a board from Amazon or Target, but it's so much more special when it's handmade. Speaking of handmade...

HOW ABOUT A CHARCUTERIE BOARD MADE BY YOU?

MEET OUR CHARCUTERIE BOARD MOSAIC KIT! Imagine your friends and family asking where you got your gorgeous board and getting to tell them you made it yourself! This kit has everything you'll need to make a beautiful mosaic charcuterie board from start to finish. When you purchase our kits, you'll receive the following: Grout Tiles (if you have specific colors in mind, shoot us an email before ordering, and we'll work with you to execute your exact vision) Glue Paint to finish the border of your project A Brush Detailed instructions to guide you ​

Mosaic Charcuterie Board Kit $34.99 Get the Kit

ADORN YOUR BOARD

From Thanksgiving to New Year, so many gorgeous ideas for charcuterie spreads exist. You don't have to go quite so ornate, especially if you're on a budget, but making a beautiful presentation is so much fun! We have loads of ideas saved to our Pinterest that you'll definitely want to check out! ​

WANT ALL OF THE INFO YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE A FLAWLESS MOSAIC CHARCUTERIE BOARD?

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​Fan brushes have an interesting shape, but how exactly should you utilize that shape? It can be tricky to know how you're supposed to use fan brushes when other brushes are far more straightforward, especially when a few wrong moves with a fan brush could make your whole painting look super awkward! In this post, we'll cover what fan brushes are and aren't great for, so you can use them whenever they'll suit your painting best.  ​Let's start with... When you shouldn't use a fan brush. 1. You shouldn't use fan brushes to cover large surface areas. Loading up lots of paint on a fan brush will just drag it down. Fan brushes are very light and delicate, leaving lots of little gaps in our paint if you try to cover your surface with one.

Fan brushes are great for getting clouds soft, fluffy, and nicely blended. To achieve this, you'll want to paint on your sky before worrying about your clouds; you can paint a solid sky or a gradient like I did here! I prefer to paint clouds by painting on a couple of little blobs of my lightest color on my background while it's still wet using a round or flat brush; then, I take my fan brush to feather out and soften the bottom edges. Use a relatively small fan brush for clouds to get in there with it and have more control. ​If it's still looking a little off to you, keep playing around with it, layer more of your highlight and shadow colors on top of your previous blends, and feather it more gently. Remember, clouds don't need to be perfect; they need to look puffy!

Now, let's get into trees, specifically evergreens. Fan brushes are best for painting evergreens like pines, spruces, and firs, just because the branches and needles grow out of them in more straight lines than other trees. You'll want to use a larger fan brush for your branches because it'll make it much easier to make everything look naturally spaced! Once you've used a small round brush to paint your trunk, use your fan brush to paint on their branches by holding your fan brush straight up from your canvas with just the very tips covered in paint.  The thing that makes fan brushes perfect for this is the way the brush's hair separates organically when there is paint on this brush; it creates a really natural-looking spacing between the spots where the needles would be.

​These brushes are fantastic for achieving texture in grass and brush! In general, they're wonderful for natural scenes and landscapes; you can even use them to add stars to paintings or sparkling highlights on water. However, right now, we're talking about brush; as you can see in the example, fan brushes make grass look natural and easily create fabulous texture. Instead of just tapping your brush on your surface as you would with trees, you'll want to make quick upward strokes and lift off fast.  For bushes, you'll want to combine how you paint clouds and trees, so start off with a more fluffy, blended base of your base color, then go over the top and tap on highlights and shadows. This technique will give you beautiful, soft bushes!

WANT TO DIG DEEPER? If you're ready to delve into painting even more, check out How To Choose A Background For Your Painting. Our guide shows you how to use color theory to choose a background color that will work beautifully with the rest of your painting! I'M READY TO LEARN MORE!

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RELATED POSTS

Acrylic paint is incredibly versatile. If you want a more textured look that is more well-suited for an abstract or impressionist painting style, you can get heavy-body acrylic paint to give your art well-defined brush strokes and buildable texture! Check out this video on Pinterest for an example of a gorgeous painting with texture using heavy-body acrylic! Fluid acrylic paint is another option and ideal for acrylic pour art. You've seen the paintings online of paint being poured onto a canvas - that's fluid acrylic paint!

CUT OUT THE GUESSWORK, GET A KIT!

Acrylic paint is fast drying. Unlike oil paint, which can take days or months to dry completely, acrylic paint can dry in minutes. That said, if you are going for a more textured look with thick paint, it may take a couple of hours to dry completely. Either way, you can speed up the process with a blow dryer! If you're drying thicker sections of paint, it can also be beneficial to use a blow dryer on the back of your painting surface. Avoid adding a lot of water to your acrylic paint, as it will make your paint dry much slower.

Acrylic paint can be used on various surfaces, from canvas, wood, denim, and specific paper types. The great thing about this is that acrylic paint is excellent for canvas paintings, murals, window paintings, painting clothes or shoes, and so much more! You'll want to do your own research on which variety of acrylic to use on your surface of choice before you get started. ​Sometimes, you'll need to prime or varnish your surfaces with certain mediums to make your painting more durable.

FALL IN LOVE WITH MORE KITS!

SPOOKY SUSTENANCE We love that not only is this snack tray  by @helleorbeck on Instagram super cute and easy, it's also pretty healthy! All you need to make this crazy cute spooky fruit is some edible eyes, some icing in a small piping bag or squeeze bottle, and fruit of your choice! Add marshmallows and chocolate-covered raisins, berries, or nuts if you want some extra sweetness! If you want a savory platter, check out this charcuterie board with SKELE-TONS of options  that kids and adults alike will love. If you'd like something thing that requires a little less assembly, you can make some of this harvest snack mix! If you're looking for more variety, check out this list from Delish for everything from snacks, appetizers, meals, and desserts!

DISTURBINGLY GOOD DRINKS Now it's time to get to drinks; this is such a fun party to brainstorm because there are endless options, so here are our favorites! This Fizzy Potion Punch pictured will surely be a hit at your party! We love it because it is non-alcoholic so anyone can enjoy it. And it's straightforward with only four ingredients! If you want a drink recipe that's more fun than spooky, check out this Orange Halloween Punch recipe. It's only two to three ingredients, and it's so cute! Or, if it's a little cooler where you live, you could make some Halloween Hot Chocolate! ​

DEADLY DECORATIONS These vintage inspired party plates and napkins from @bonjourfete are to die for! They do a great job of transporting you back in time with their classic quality. If you're looking for something spookier they have many options! You can pair them with these cute DIY paper bats and this easy photo backdrop! Do you need even more decor ideas? Check out our Halloween Party Pinterest board with over 50 pins with GOURD-GEOUS and GHOULISH options handpicked by us!  our extra spooky pinterest board!

CUTE COSTUMES Coming up with new costume ideas every year is a breeze for some. Still, it can be a challenge for others, especially when you want something unique. However, you can't have a Halloween party without some sort of costume, so here are our favorite lists of costumes depending on your vibe! This list from Good Housekeeping has 99 great options for couples, singles, and groups, including this fantastic Bob Ross and Happy Tree couple's costume. If you're looking for ideas for the whole family, check out this list of general family costume ideas and this list of Disney-specific costume ideas. You'll love these ideas specifically for kids, too; our favorites on the list are the swan, garden gnome, and mushroom!

DON'T WASTE YOUR EXTRA PAINT! A great way to use your leftover paint from your kits is to get some mini pumpkins from either your local pumpkin patch or a craft store and paint little designs on them with what you have left! If you think you may need a little extra of any colors so you have more creative freedom, we recommend getting black, white, and orange acrylic paint! We love what @girlfriendsguidetoteaching did here with her two year old daughter. They used fingerprints to make the ghosts, pumpkins, and spiders then she went in with a brush and drew on eyes, legs, and stems. How adorable!

IT'S TIME TO BREW UP A NEW PAINTING!

OUR GUIDE TO AN EXTRAORDINARY LOKI VIEWING AND PAINTING PARTY! READ MOR E

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LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED

WATCH PARTY INVITATIONS

Template: Floradada

Sure, you could just text your friends inviting them to your party, but wouldn't actual invitations be so much more fabulous? We love invitations like the one linked because once you purchase it you can actually use it as many times as you want by editing it for all of your different parties! With this invitation specifically you can edit the colors of the text to fit whatever you're going to watch! And when you add your customization, be sure to add to the invitation that they'll get to paint during your party - it'll make them even more excited! ​

MAGICAL DECORATIONS 

You don't have to go all out, but having a few simple Loki touches will bring everything together in the most magical way! We love these garlands by Tips De Madre. If you're looking for something simpler, stick to more neutral decorations in the classic Loki green and gold, even a couple of green, gold, and black balloons or tinsel garlands will bring everything together. Make sure that all of your plates and utensils fit the theme, too; you can't go wrong with coordination, and your guests will notice!

Photo Credit: Tips De Madre

FOOD IDEAS

Digital Downloads: SunshineParties ​If you really want to wow your party guests this concession stand set up will be sure to do that. I mean, I'm in awe and I'm not even there! Just like the invitations above all of the words on these downloads are customizable, so you can adjust anything you want to. The setup is perfect offering your guests a ton of variety if they're not into the party mix. You could also set up Adult Lunchables like these for each guest to enjoy! We like to make every one a little different for parties, so there's something for everyone. Plus, if you're like me and love for everything to be on theme; you can pack them with finger foods that fit the color scheme of green, gold/yellow, and black! I would do cucumber, broccoli, cheddar and gouda cheese, crackers, hummus, black olives, and chocolate for a little something that's sweet. All of those are usually a hit!

Photo Credit: Tiffoodie We can't get over how good of an idea this party mix is! Not only is it extremely simple to put together, but there's enough variety that everyone will love something in it..  The only things we would add are popcorn, because no watch party is complete without it!  Photo Credit: Magical Weddings on Pinterest

LOKI INSPIRED MOCKTAIL RECIPE

Drink Recipe: Polka Dots & Pixie Dust

This mocktail recipe is just stunning and so simple and it's actually adaptable if you do want it to be a cocktail, you'll just substitute ginger beer or Sprite for champagne!  Take a look at this fantastic recipe by Polka Dots & Pixie Dust! You'll want to have a medium to tall glass like in the drink photo to the left so that the gradient effect in the drink is very visible, we recommend these disposable cups on Amazon! If you're looking for another couple of options you could also just serve Sprite or La Croix (LimonCello is a favorite of ours!). Or if you're looking to get a little more fancy this recipe has lemon slices on the top pointing up like Loki's helmet and we can't get enough of it!

YOU CAN'T HAVE A PAINTING PARTY WITHOUT A PAINTING TO MAKE! Your kit comes with the following: Pre-sketched canvas Two paintbrushes Acrylic paint in all colors needed ACCESS TO FULL VIDEO TUTORIAL! GET THE KIT!

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