Green

Greens

Green is one of my eternally favorite colors. In my opinion, most mixed greens lack greeness, if that makes any sense. The best greens are already made, and then modified with other colors, such as the addition of more yellow or blue, or even red. The clarity of viridian, Hooker’s, and sap just have a lot to offer.

Traditional greens are mixed from yellow and blue, and in watercolor, you can use cerulean and cadmium yellow, burnt sienna and ultramarine, and all other yellow-blue combos. Some pigments are more “settling” than others, which can be more transparent, and this will affect the final color quality.

Maybe I just need to work on mixing them more . . . but can you really get such a clear green as sap?

Practicing

First of all, apologies for the big copyright in the middle of the pictures, but hopefully it will act as a deterrent to theft.  Probably not.

Leaves 2

That said, I have been working a lot on just thinking about painting, and how to do it without creating a big mess.  Patience and mindfulness and focus are necessary.  These are not my virtues.

Nude Study

I’ve been looking at videos, re-reading books, and reviewing palettes and formulae for colors.  I have also been working on drawing and brushwork.  Sumi-e does help, as the movement of the brush, even with color, still plays an important part in creating a painting.

Astrolomeria

There are other tools for painting as well.  I used some watercolor pencils for fine lines, as seen in the onion.  I used pencil drawing to lay the foundation of the nude.

Onion

Some progress has been made.