COLOUR MIXING - WATERCOLOUR ( PART 1)

I recently held my very own workshop!!!  Yes, honest.  Talk about stress. But I heard in our little art club that people didn't know about warm and cool colours, transparent colours etc.  So, I plucked up the courage and gave it a go.

I was very influenced by two artists in particular.  Hazel Soan whose workshops and holidays I have been on and is the Queen of Colour Information, and Colin Ratcliffe who was a tutor at Higham Hall in the Lake District who passed on the setting out of your palette and separating cool from warm colours.

Here is just some of the information that may be of use to one or two of you.

FIRE & ICE Here’s the notorious colour wheel, that I like to think of as Fire and Ice. Bright reds and yellows against the iceberg colours, some colours veering towards fire and some towards ice. Eg. alizarin veers towards blue on the wheel where Ultramarine veers towards red.  I use mostly transparent colours to avoid mud.  I am going to ignore staining and non staining, and lifting colours, that’s another story!

BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND BY HAZEL SOAN (QUEEN OF COLOUR).                                    

1. Collins 10 min Watercolours by Hazel Soan  (which explains all aspects of      watercolour, wet in wet/ colour mixing/ people etc) I think it’s great value for money.

2. Hazel Soan’s Watercolour Rainbow, which is a definitive watercolour ‘colour’ book.

3. Learn Watercolour Quickly – Hazel Soan (see chapter 3)

COLOUR  Cool veers to green/blue and Warm hints of red

Here’s my palette with warm colours separate from the cool, so I don’t have to think about where my cool colours are so that I don’t get a bright mix if I don’t want one.   Transparent colours are the darkest (apart from yellow), you can hardly tell what colour they are e.g. Pruss, alizarin and modern names like quinacridone and permanent.  Opaques are the lighter creamy colours and are heavier pigments, which makes them opaque you more likely to get mud. E.g. Cad Red. & Cobalt. Similar colours may be trans or opaque with different manufacturers so always check.

NB If you put 2 cool colours you will get bright mix, 2 warm a dull colour, cool and warm softer colour.  Will make sense I hope.

Tubes v half pans. Tubes are softer and easier to mix sometimes you have to scrub the half pans. But pans are easier to carry.  Best of both worlds I squeeze tubes into pans.

Artists v Students.  Colours are the same, main difference is the stronger pigment in the artists so you need less to mix your colours.

WATER

Control of water is most important. Lots of water and the paint moves and spreads more.

Less water and the paint won’t spread as far.  Lay lighter colour down first and add second colours alongside, same wetness, the second colour pushes away the first. If you want to add a deeper controlled colour like a spot, wait til the shine goes off the paper and drop in thicker paint, the thicker the less it will spread.

I recommend 2 pots of water, one for clean water, so you are less likely to get mud.

Big v small brush.  Large is quicker, looser, less control of water good for wet in wet.

Smaller brush need less water so more control, good for details at the end.

Be bold with your colours. Watercolour dries much dries lighter than you expect.

Milk, cream, butter are the consistencies of paint, from washes to laying in thick colour into an already wet wash.

COOL & WARM VARIANTS OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS

Cool Red                     Alizarin -          Perm. Rose

Warm Red                   Cad Red -         Vermillion, Pyrrol Scarlet (mostly opaque)

Cool Yellow                Aureolin -         Lemon Yellow (opaque), Transparent Yellow

Warm Yellow              Ind. Yellow -    Cad Yell, Hansa Yellow, New Gamboge

Cool Blue                    Pruss -               Pthalo Blue, Winsor Blue

Warm Blue                  Ultra -               Cobalt (opaque)

                                    Raw Sienna –    Cool

                                    Yell. Ochre  -    Warm (semi opaque)

COLOURS I CANNOT  DO WITHOUT

MISCELLANEOUS INFO

Try and have a limited palette when painting, it’s more harmonious and easier for colour mixing.

Opaques are useful at the end of the painting for highlights and for oomph.

2^nd wash pushes away the first

Ways to mix your colours/put a dry layer over another dry layer on paper/blend on paper wet in wet/mix in your palette

List of Transparent/opaque/warm/cool/colour mixes (I treat semi opaque as opaque)

NB Some makes are slightly different so you need to check.  My notes are based mainly on Winsor & Newton.                                           

TRANSPARENT: (least likely to get mud if you use only transparent colours)

They’re darker and look almost black in your palette.

Warm Colours

Burnt Sienna

Burnt Umber

Indian Yellow

Sap Green

Ultramarine

                                                 

OPAQUE:  Chalky colours, more likely to cause muddy colours. Generally brighter in your palette       

Warm Colours

Cad. Orange

Cad. Red

Cad. Yellow

Cobalt Blue

Light Red                                            

Sepia

Yellow Ochre

                                   

Cool + Cool = Bright

Warm + Warm = Dull

Cool + Warm = Softer colour

Opaques are good for adding highlights and oomph at the end of the painting so don't ignore them!

 Cool Colours

Alizarin Crimson

Aureolin (Yellow)

Permanent Rose

Prussian Blue/Pthalo Blue

Raw Sienna

Raw Umber

Viridian

Cool Colours

Cerulean Blue

Indigo

Lemon Yellow

Paynes Grey    

Titanium White      

Here are the examples I asked them to try using their own mixes.  With some suggestions for colours which you might be able to read on the sample sheet.

Sorry my notes are a bit here and there, and in the end I have passed on to you most of my knowledge.  Hope it helps just one more person.

I will do another short post, with some suggested colour mixes.

.Remember you’re an artist like a musician or a poet.  You are here to entertain not record pictures exactly the same as a photograph, so take risks, change composition and colours. Let the colours flow into each other. Let your imagination run riot.  Have fun.  It’s playtime!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Remember, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

THE END OF RED!!!!

Boy did I have a good time painting things in my new vibrant semi opaque Daniel Smith Pyrrol Scarlet. Thanks people for your challenges.  Here are the last of them. Will it really be the last of my red subjects ........... for now yes.  So here they are with the names of the challengers.

 Scarlet Woman from Lyndi Lou Lou I have named her Scarlett Pyrrol the Prima Ballerina

Then you get one bright spark that says something odd like Blood, and this is what I came up with. Thanks Keith Hornblower!

 Red Shoes (chickened out and did only one) Sharon Whitley and Joan Violet Stretch

 Tomatoes, Beverley Wells

 Red Wellies, yep done this week and it's not really worked, but I don't mind showing you any way.  My challenge as I suddenly thought of something red that I hadn't done.

These were included in the nickers challenge from naughty Beverley Wells.  

Well this shows you what fun you can have with just one colour.  I was experimenting along the way with layers, mixing slightly with other colours, dropping a little of another colour in, using it neat and trying to assess the strength and opacity of this delightful colour.  Now I am redded out!!!!!!!!!  Now I need a glass of red wine (oh no haven't painted that, but then it isn't this bright red, oh dear what am I to do).

DANIEL SMITH PYRROL SCARLET

Boy have I had fun, with a little help from my virtual friends.  I got this new colour and on facebook I just mentioned that I had pyrrol scarlet and wondered what to paint.  Yes, you guessed it out of the blue got some great suggestions, and I managed to do every one.  I will post them in two batches for your perusal!  I found it very inspiring to have these suggestions and I painted subjects that I would never have thought of myself. Hope you enjoy sharing them with me ........

Red and more red and more red -  Batch 1

 This was my idea. To paint a red banana just because ............

 This is also was my idea and was found on Painting Colourful Birds for Fun on facebook

 Someone dared me to do knickers! Yes I dared.  Thanks Beverley Wells

 A Red Letter Day, thanks Ngaire Magalotti.  You will find out what the invitation was later.

Red London Bus, thank you Val Downie

I will put links to the above artists who have blogs on my last 'red' post to thank them for their help.

It's very much like Cad Red as you can see and is semi opaque.  I tried neat paint, running other colours into the paint, two or 3 thin washes.  Really trying to experiment with it's qualities.  And how often to we get to paint in red?  More to follow..................

WARM & COOL COLOURS

For those of you who struggle understanding warm and cool colours, and which ones to use, here is my method.  It is based on a palette by Colin Radcliffe, who used to be a tutor at Higham Hall in the Lake District (uk).  He separated his colours into warm and cool. So, if you didn't want really bright greens you did not mix two cools together but a warm and a cool. e.g.Two warm colours or two cool colours make a bright mix, if you mix one of each you will get a more muted colour. Colin would call these bright colours deck chair colours.   Or if you want to place a warm colour in a painting next to a cool one, if you look at your palette you just pick one of each. Easy peasy, set out for me so I don't have to think about it!

If you want to know which of your colours are warm or cool then the company that makes the paint you use probably will list them on it's site.  Winsor and Newton have oodles of information about their paints,  Go to  their Resource Centre. Artists Watercolour Spectrum Lists.  It shows warm,cool,transparent,opaque and granulating colours. There is also one headed Composition and Permanance, which is far more technical, but if you are interested in pigments you may like to read this list too.

I have really simplified this as I put it on my facebook page and I really think I went on too much. So I will show you Colin's palette followed by my version. And before anyone points out that Light Red is warm, I have followed Colin's method here and I am not going to change it now. But I have slightly as I use an equivalent transparent red brown by Daler Rowney (which is most like Light Red). Oh dear, the pics downloaded in the opposite order, so mine is first, followed by Colin's.

Polly's Colours
I have omitted the Sepia as I am fed up with it breaking up and dirtying other colours , so at the moment I have  an empty space. I do have other colours but they are either in another random palette or in tubes, but these are by far the colours I use most and if I paint en plein air this is the only palette I need. 

Colin Radcliffe's Palette (Liz Deakin Palette)

This is only the method I use, but it may help people new to colour mixing who struggle with warm and cool colours, which I did until I went on Colin's course. Ofcourse, I am always fascinated how other people set out their palettes too.

Now everyone, cross your fingers that this awful winter is going to end soon!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS Just noticed I've had 5000 people looking at my blog!  Oh thank you so much all of you for taking the time to see what I am up to. I am so very thrilled.