Does the term "limited palette"
leave you confused and wondering what it REALLY means? It seems obvious,
doesn't it.......a painting with just a few colors. Until you start to
plan the colors for your painting and then you end up holding your head
and wishing for the "painting fairy" to arrive with some answers!
The painting that I finished today was
inspired by the unusual colors that turned up in my photograph. There
were actually just two colors: a very unusual "pea green" and violet.
I have listed the colors that I chose that would fit into a limited palette with those two pigments in the next paragraph.
First, let's look at the "green". It is so unusual that I knew I wouldn't be able to mix it. I remembered that when I made the 3" color charts of all 279 tubes of Daniel Smith watercolors, that there was a green that might just be right. I pulled out my color charts. Sure enough! There is one called Duochome Pearl Green that was very close to the color I wanted to use for the light struck areas of the beach. Here's where you find it: http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-640-040
First, let's look at the "green". It is so unusual that I knew I wouldn't be able to mix it. I remembered that when I made the 3" color charts of all 279 tubes of Daniel Smith watercolors, that there was a green that might just be right. I pulled out my color charts. Sure enough! There is one called Duochome Pearl Green that was very close to the color I wanted to use for the light struck areas of the beach. Here's where you find it: http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-640-040
"Sea, Sun and Sand "
22 x 30" image
My two major pigments were Daniel Smith Duochrome Green Pearl and Dioxazine Violet
http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-261-570-029.
The other pigments that I used were:
The other pigments that I used were:
Greens: Viridian Green, Sap Green, Cobalt Teal
In the Violet "Category" - meaning that they are all on the "RED" side of the color wheel, and near each other: Quinacridone Burnt Orange and Cadmium Red Light.
And one other pigment: Holbein Verditer Blue. You can find it here:
http://www.cheapjoes.com/holbein-artists-watercolor-verditer-blue-15-ml.html
I used this opaque blue with a touch of cadmium red light to mix a neutral mauve for the shadows of the rocks. I wanted to keep the rocks back in the distance.
And so, I actually used 8 tubes of pigment. But the overall color dominance is violet with green as the secondary color.
For this painting I used a full sheet of Arches 300# cold press paper.
And one other pigment: Holbein Verditer Blue. You can find it here:
http://www.cheapjoes.com/holbein-artists-watercolor-verditer-blue-15-ml.html
I used this opaque blue with a touch of cadmium red light to mix a neutral mauve for the shadows of the rocks. I wanted to keep the rocks back in the distance.
And so, I actually used 8 tubes of pigment. But the overall color dominance is violet with green as the secondary color.
For this painting I used a full sheet of Arches 300# cold press paper.
First I mixed up large puddles of the green and violet, making sure I had more than I thought I would need.
I wet the entire sand area with a large hake brush. i made sure the entire surface of the paper was really wet and then I brushed vertically and horizontally with the brush to remove the excess water. This resulted in the 300# paper being thoroughly damp all the way through.
I wet the entire sand area with a large hake brush. i made sure the entire surface of the paper was really wet and then I brushed vertically and horizontally with the brush to remove the excess water. This resulted in the 300# paper being thoroughly damp all the way through.
I
loaded my 3" Golden Fleece brush and painted the shapes of the Green
Pearl pigment on the sand first. Then I put down the violet shapes,
letting the edges of my strokes meet the green shapes so that they
merged. I wanted the effect to be changing areas of wet sand, with
natural looking edges.
The
violet was a little too intense for my liking and so as soon as I put
it down, I quickly added a light wash of viridian green - right over the
wet violet wash. I did not lose the violet color, but the green
neutralized the violet a little so that it was not as "bright" and was
more pleasing to my eye.
While
the sand was still wet, I reenforced the values of the green and violet
by "wet glazing" a few wide strokes of pigment on some part of the
original washes. I really needed the sand to be the correct color and
value as I wanted to add the dark shapes of seaweed while the paper was
still damp and so there would be no going back in again once I had added
those shapes.
By
painting the seaweed and debris with a brush loaded with thicker
pigment (less water) applied to damp paper, the forms "sit into" the
paper and look natural. If they are painted onto dry paper, they can
have a "pasted on" look which isn't appealing to me.
If your paper dries too quickly and you have missed the moment for the wet on wet application, let it dry completely, and then dampen the paper again and start anew.
I think it's important to add little dark marks of the beach debris in patterns that look spontaneous and "natural" (I've used that word three times, quite deliberately as I feel it's most descriptive of the effect that I want in this painting).
I've also included some violet and orange in the seaweed. The pigments were allowed to mix on the paper so that when you look closely, you can see the different colors sitting beside each other. This gives a lively surface even thought the overall shape reads as a greenish-brown.
If your paper dries too quickly and you have missed the moment for the wet on wet application, let it dry completely, and then dampen the paper again and start anew.
I think it's important to add little dark marks of the beach debris in patterns that look spontaneous and "natural" (I've used that word three times, quite deliberately as I feel it's most descriptive of the effect that I want in this painting).
I've also included some violet and orange in the seaweed. The pigments were allowed to mix on the paper so that when you look closely, you can see the different colors sitting beside each other. This gives a lively surface even thought the overall shape reads as a greenish-brown.
The
figures are quite small, and yet they become the subject of this
painting. They also provide "scale", giving the viewer a sense of the
distance from the foreground to the far-away rocks.
There is no definition of features, just shapes of color so that the figures would stay in the background. |
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I'm excited to tell you that I've been invited to teach a watercolor workshop in Spain in September 2015.
For information, please visit the website and scroll down to the bottom to the September dates.
If you have a question, please send me a comment. I'll be sure to respond.
'Til next time, happy painting! Evelyn |
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