Colors
This week in classes we were talking about "local color" (not the, ummm, interesting people that walk around downtown). Local color is the true, or natural, color of an object without regard to highlight and shadow. The point of the lesson was how to keep the objects interesting with some color changes on the surfaces. The wonky little cup was painted in a mix of hansa yellow and new gamboge, and then while it was still wet, I added some red and blue. Color can also be added as a "glaze" when the paper was very dry.
The primary color squares show how much more interesting they are when the other two primaries are added to each one. For example, adding yellow and blue to the red square makes it a little more lively, yet it remains very red.
There are no hard and fast rules for adding color that isn't really there - that's the fun of it. With floaty pigments or transparent glazes, the possibilities of watercolor are endless. What are you trying out this week?