Category: Watercolor

Creating My Own Watercolor Palette

Books abound about colors to use and to choose and why and wherefore.  The fact is that to understand them you have to use them.  Years ago, my palette was filled with the traditional cadmiums and earth tones and blues and such, and I am very comfortable with them.  I still love those colors as they are old friends with history and familiarity.

Today I decided to choose 18 colors.  Some are new-to-me (like quinacridones) in the past year, and some are old buddies, like the earth tones.  Here they are, as arranged on the palette:

  1. Burnt Sienna (Holbein)
  2. Burnt Umber (Schmincke)
  3. Raw Umber (Winsor & Newton)
  4. Raw Sienna (Daniel Smith)
  5. Quinacridone Gold (Winsor & Newton – last bit, along with Daniel Smith)
  6. Hansa Yellow Deep (M. Graham)
  7. Perinone Orange (Daniel Smith)
  8. Quinacridone Rose (Daniel Smith)
  9. Alizarin Crimson (M. Graham)
  10. Carbazole Violet (Daniel Smith)
  11. French Ultramarine Blue Fine (Daniel Smith)
  12. Cobalt Blue (Daniel Smith)
  13. Manganese Blue Hue (Daniel Smith)
  14. Colbalt Teal (M. Graham)
  15. Green Gold (Daniel Smith)
  16. Hooker’s Green (M. Graham)
  17. Sap Green (Holbein)
  18. Lunar Black (Daniel Smith)

Some of these paints are old and little is left in the tubes.  I took a chance and mixed two different brands of Quin Gold together – it might be interesting to see their differences when I use them on paper.

All of these colors sit really nicely in the wells except the Cobalt Teal, which is very runny and puddles.  I want to use it up and try a different brand – I have a tube of DS sitting in the wings – but it produces an extraordinarily beautiful green when mixed with Quin Gold.  Having used neither color in the past, that was a fun surprise.

Other new colors include Green Gold, Perinone Orange, and Carbazole Violet.  I’ve never had a violet on my palette until this past year!

When you think about it, modern chemistry and color chemistry affect us everywhere we are, from the colors of our clothes, to neon signs (replaced now with LEDs), to food, to who knows what!  Thus, it makes sense to use modern colors in a more modern watercolor palette.  Additionally, many of the colors made today are much more lightfast, which means less if any fading, compared to the more traditional colors.  A watercolor of 100 years ago was probably far more vibrant then than it is today.

Old friends include Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Manganese Blue (now a hue)), Hooker’s Green, Sap Green, and Lunar Black.

It was really difficult to choose these colors – like a lot of painters, I read about or see a color and go off to buy a tube.  There are some that are incredibly beautiful – but for a travel palette, even 18 colors may be a bit much.  For myself, I prefer to have a stable of greens rather than mixing them a lot.  I haven’t really taken the time to do it as the Sap and Hooker’s have been in the color stable for a long time.  Green Gold is totally new to me this year, so I thought I would include it.  This forced me to narrow down my blues and reds to a degree, as well as the addition of the Perinone Orange and Carbazole Violet.

Over the next several days I plan to use these colors, perhaps make some swatches and grids to see how they react to each other.  A “good” artist is inclined to do that . . . me, I get antsy unless I make it a goal!

Tomatoes Gouache

These last few days have been hectic – appointments, rushing around getting things done, cooking for a bunch of people.  As a result, Inktober has (hopefully) temporarily fallen to the wayside.  Despite the craziness, I wanted to do something, paint or draw something, and thus, some Tomatoes Gouache, recipe for which is quite simple:  tomatoes and gouache; to make, just paint.

I wouldn’t eat them as the fiber content is not quite the right kind.

Cheers!

Sunday Morning

This morning I had one goal in mind:  paint.  With a gloomy sky here on the California coast, the damp and cold penetrate you to the bone.  Once it leaves, it’s a great big sunny day ahead!  So, while waiting for the fog to dissipate, I took a few pictures of a bouquet I put together of chamomile flowers and small, red carnations in a rectangular glass base.  I didn’t do a value study because I wanted to look at the colors – light, dark, and so on – to see what I could produce.

I penciled in the basic drawing, took some notes of the colors and mixed this and that, testing them on a scrap of paper.  Looking at the vase, I saw the different shades of color through the glass with water and without water, as well as the water line and edges of the vase.  Chamomile leaves are multi-lobed and floppy; carnation leaves are rather spiky.  Chamomile flowers are happy, daisy-like flowers, and quite small.  Carnations are upright.  Both are really lovely!

Process was like my last two flower paintings – start with the large areas of color and move into details.  Overall, it worked here, until I started getting into the hodge-podge of leaves.  I think I should have simplified their masses of color, but I didn’t.  I like the negative painting I accomplished for the chamomile flowers, as well as the edges along the bouquet where the white flowers have to merge into something.  The carnations were far more difficult than I thought, and once more, I made something more complicated and tight than I would like to see as “my” style.

Nonetheless, I feel that this painting is a moderate success.  I was patient and let the washes dry, working from lighter to more dark, thinking about white space and negative painting.  And I still have a bouquet of flowers to enjoy!

It Gets Overwhelming

Returning to watercolor is becoming an obsession, and the more I look at the work of various watercolorists, the more I become mentally deluged with images and colors and styles and painters.  It is a seriously crazy-making experience!  Like photography, most of what I do is really not good at all – from downright awful to meh – but it also becomes rather distressing.  That’s when a break is necessary, like making chocolate gelato or going out for a hike or looking for a new pair of shoes.  Just do something different to break out of the ruts of daily life.Focusing on “direct watercolor” – painting without any preliminary drawings or value studies – is sort of what I am trying to do on a daily basis.  This is from a photo, and the study was windows and reds and buildings.  The proportions are off, and that feels like failure big time.  The colors were all the dregs on the palette, so most were muddy and not interesting, but determined not to waste paint, why not?  I also used a water brush, and that can make colors even murkier if you don’t squeeze out excess water.

Another direct watercolor painting, this time limited to a 1/2 inch flat brush for everything.  The colors are cleaner, for sure, but the contrast of light and shadow are off.  The fun part was learning that yes, you can paint with only a flat brush.

I admit, I rather like this one, because I like its brightness.  However, after I finished it, I got a good laugh over my totally unrealistic chimney (or whatever that thing is) on the top of the building in the upper right.  What dimension is that in?!

I think I am going to return to this one again, as it is from a photo I took a couple of years ago along the coast.  The bluffs are really intense.  The problem lies in rendering the ocean and beach below them – lack of depth and overworking.

This is a WIP – from a black and white photo to consider light and dark.  I am going to try to work on this one today, or the one below, which is from a macro photo of a dahlia or similar flower.   I started this one in my Friday afternoon watercolor class.

Lastly, sometimes just a quick interpretation can give a lot of satisfaction.  There is something about light-colored walls on a brilliant day, colorful flowers – here, a rambler rose – and dancing shadows.  I would like to do this one again, too, on a bigger piece of paper and a more formal and finished work.

Covered in Paint

A workshop all day Saturday, playing with Yupo (a plastic paper) and masking fluid.  What did I accomplish?  A familiarity with two unknown – unfamiliar – items.  I produced not a thing worth talking about, and truth to tell, if a friend at the workshop hadn’t shown up, I would have been down in the dumps – I FORGOT TO BRING MY PALETTE OF PAINTS!

Oh, well.  But, it did get me rolling, and this has been a weekend spent immersed in watercolors and studying techniques by watching videos on YouTube, specifically, those by Rick Surowicz.  I followed two of his, one called “Creek’s Edge” and the other called “The Inn at Brandywine.”  His stuff is great.  The question is, will I carry his lessons into my own paintings, not copies?

So, here is what I did this weekend – the first is the “Creek’s Edge” and the second is my rendition of the “Inn at Brandywine.”