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Creating a monochromatic painting using a single colour is a fabulous lesson for artists. Choose a dark colour of paint, and mix it with titanium white to be able to use a range of values in your painting. This is a great exercise for beginner because it teaches how to focus on the importance of values in your painting, and how little the actual colour matters to understand form. You can paint anything in any colour and as long as you keep the values and the form correct, it will be interpreted as the subject.
Painting using a monochromatic colour scheme is also a great way to practice painting form and value without adding the complication of different colours. It’s a great stepping stone to get familiar with certain aspects of painting as your grow to be more comfortable with the medium.
It can also help fuel your creativity. Choosing a colour that isn’t the local colour of your subject can inspire you to break free from using traditional colours for your subject.
In this project, I will paint an apple using purple. You’ll see that it is still easily identifiable as an apple despite apples never being purple in real life.

Choosing a single paint colour
When you are going to paint a scene using a single colour, choose your colour wisely. Select a colour that is a dark value straight out of the tube. This could be a dark purple or blue. Avoid reds, oranges and yellows because you won’t be able to get much of a value range from them.
I recommend:
- Dioxazine purple
- Indathrone blue
- Indigo blue
- Prussian blue
While you can also use a black hue, or a darker grey or brown, choosing a colour that wouldn’t be found in a black and white or sepia photo is a wonderful lesson.
The monochromatic painting project
Watch me paint a monochromatic apple on my YouTube channel.
Get your own
Pick up supplies for a monochromatic painting at your local art supply store or on Amazon:
US
Canada