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Tuesday September 29 2015
Fun trying new color technique.
I love heading in a new direction once in a while. Several years ago I struggled with coming up with muddy colors in watercolors. I found much of the problem was found in using what is called sedimentary and opaque colors.
My limited understanding of opaque colors is some colors are not transparent or do not allowing light to pass through. When I apply a glaze of one color over another instead of allowing the two colors to reflect a third color it only dulled it. A example would be, a glaze of a transparent yellow over a blue and would then see green.
Needless to say I became familiar with transparent colors and was having lot of fun. Then on a YouTube video they were using a very limited pallet of opaque colors. So now what to do, for this artist was suggesting I use the taboo opaque color. Here's where I found the fun begins. If we are willing to risk failure to jump into a unknown area we always grow. For heaven sake what have I to lose, its only a small piece of watercolor paper and of course risking failure. Oh come on just risk it all and have fun.
The colors that were suggested was Cad Lemon, Cad Red Light, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber. Here is something else interesting, several of these colors are also what is called sedimentary. Webster says it means formed by the deposition of sediment, as in certain rocks. For us it simply means some of the minerals used to form certain colors like Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue contain very, very fine sediment.
Now is this good or bad? I would suggest some things can be both good and bad. It really comes down to using this understanding to your advantage. This little painting to the left was done in a very wet on wet method, meaning the paper was very wet as I painted.
Keeping in mind that these are not transparent colors I starting with Cad Lemon at the horizon line and then moving to Cad Red Light. This was done very carefully as I allowed these colors to mix on the paper. The real test was adding Cobalt Blue. If the two are worked one over the other you will begin to get a muddy look. Even worse if the blue mixed with the yellow you will get green and that would not be very realist for a sky color. But if the red and blue are allowed to gently flow into each other it works well. The fact that these are sedimentary colors meant they left a very slight grainy look. I liked it. I had copied the lady's piece doing the video to get the feel of using new colors before I went out on my own. It was just a small card size. I often experiment with very small size canvas. It doesn't feel as intimidating so how.
My limited understanding of opaque colors is some colors are not transparent or do not allowing light to pass through. When I apply a glaze of one color over another instead of allowing the two colors to reflect a third color it only dulled it. A example would be, a glaze of a transparent yellow over a blue and would then see green.
Needless to say I became familiar with transparent colors and was having lot of fun. Then on a YouTube video they were using a very limited pallet of opaque colors. So now what to do, for this artist was suggesting I use the taboo opaque color. Here's where I found the fun begins. If we are willing to risk failure to jump into a unknown area we always grow. For heaven sake what have I to lose, its only a small piece of watercolor paper and of course risking failure. Oh come on just risk it all and have fun.
The colors that were suggested was Cad Lemon, Cad Red Light, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber. Here is something else interesting, several of these colors are also what is called sedimentary. Webster says it means formed by the deposition of sediment, as in certain rocks. For us it simply means some of the minerals used to form certain colors like Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue contain very, very fine sediment.
Now is this good or bad? I would suggest some things can be both good and bad. It really comes down to using this understanding to your advantage. This little painting to the left was done in a very wet on wet method, meaning the paper was very wet as I painted.Keeping in mind that these are not transparent colors I starting with Cad Lemon at the horizon line and then moving to Cad Red Light. This was done very carefully as I allowed these colors to mix on the paper. The real test was adding Cobalt Blue. If the two are worked one over the other you will begin to get a muddy look. Even worse if the blue mixed with the yellow you will get green and that would not be very realist for a sky color. But if the red and blue are allowed to gently flow into each other it works well. The fact that these are sedimentary colors meant they left a very slight grainy look. I liked it. I had copied the lady's piece doing the video to get the feel of using new colors before I went out on my own. It was just a small card size. I often experiment with very small size canvas. It doesn't feel as intimidating so how.
This was so much fun I decided to use the same colors again but in a different landscape. To get some darker blues I had to introduce Indigo blue.
Fun, just plan fun is all I can say.
My last thought on this is to say that God said we were created in his image and this might mean his powerful ability to create is found in his created humans. Why do some of use just have real fun creating? I don't know. Actually I'm not sure what I do is creating as much as I'm trying to put Gods creation on paper as it just plain WOW's me and add the emotion that comes to my mind as I observe his creation. So be WOW with the beauty around you and remember that all creation lives to testily to its creator.
Until Next Time
Cloud Watcher
Katheen Jones
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