Painting with a Triad

Demonstrations from Today's Class

A triad is a variation of the three primaries  -  red, blue, and yellow.  For this demo I used quinacridone red, ultramarine blue, and hansa yellow.  We were just trying out different ways of getting the paint on the paper.

The little peppers are sooo cute  -  very small (about an inch and a half) and very bright.  They say they are sweet, but I haven't tasted them yet.  So  -  if these very small peppers are sweet, what happens with the rule "the smaller the pepper, the hotter pepper"?  I know very little about peppers, and I liked that rule.  It seemed simple enough, but now  .   .   .

Are you sketching today?

Using Cobalt Blue

Color Mixing in my Sketchbook

I have probably posted small geraniums a million times, but  .   .   .  here are some more.  I haven't used cobalt blue in a long time, and I think I've really been missing out.  In real life (as opposed to photographing and posting) the cobalt blue in these mixes really glows.

I used cobalt blue and quinacridone red on each of the geraniums and switched out the yellows - using New Gamboge, Hansa Yellow, and Quinacridone Gold. 

There are some beautiful roses on my work table just waiting to be painted.  They are kind of a cantaloupe color.  Gorgeous!  I guess I am a little intimidated by the color and I am not a rose painter, but they aren't going to last much longer.  What would happen if I failed?  We all know absolutely nothing would happen!  I would have had the fun of splashing around in paint.  I would have loved drawing them and looking at the lights and shadows of that wonderful color.  Just go do it.

What holds us back?

Day Two

 Triads

 Today in class we played around with various triads.  We do this every once in awhile.  I feel it kind of simplifies things  -  gets us back to basics as far as color mixing is concerned.

A triad is the use of the three primary colors - red, blue, and yellow  -  or some variation of the primaries.  A very basic triad is ultramarine blue, quinacridone red, and lemon yellow.  A stronger, more dramatic triad might be pthalo blue, quinacridone burnt scarlet, and quinacridone gold.  Using a triad (as opposed to using the whole palette full of colors) sets the mood of a painting, and makes for a pleasing harmony of colors.

It has been very dark and raining all day.  I have little princesses in sparkly dresses here today, playing Christmas carols ( ! ) on the piano.

Summer Kick-Off

This is a Demo from my First Friday in June Summer Kick-Off  

Watercolor Sketchbook Journal Workshop

We had a great group  -  such fun.  The weather was fairly cooperative  -  a little bit of everything from one extreme to the other, but not bad.  From past experience, I think I can accurately say that the first Friday in June is always QUIRKY.

This page in my sketchbook is showing how to just let the colors mix on the paper without mixing on the palette at all.  When working with a very small palette, sometimes we run out of space for mixing and may not have extra water for cleaning off the palette.  So besides giving interesting and pleasing results, mixing on the paper is convenient.  I was using very basic colors  -  ultramarine blue, hansa yellow, quinacridone red and a little manganese blue and cobalt violet.  There is a little bit of a learning curve to figure out how to have enough water to let the pigments float around and mix without flooding the sketchbook page.

So here we go  -  that was the Kick-Off  -  the beginning of a very busy summer full of classes and workshops.  I am soooo looking forward to it.

At the top of this blog there is a tab that links to my classes.

Color mixing

Clay Pots

This was Thursday's class demo.  We were mixing terracotta colors on the paper. We're thinking spring and summer here  -  have to be ready to paint flowers and pots.

We were using different variations of the primary colors  -  reds, yellows, and blues.  Some were allowed to mix on the paper, some were mixed on the palette, some wet into wet and some on dry paper.

I used to paint these pots of flowers by the hundreds and sell them matted up in 10 X 10 white mats. They are fun to do, because no two are ever alike.  This kind of makes me want to do them again.

It is snowing here and overcast.  A couple of grandkids are making forts under my classroom/studio tables, so it is bright and cheery inside.  The Christmas carols they're singing are kind of getting to me, but I'll keep my mouth shut.

More Persimmon

As promised
Persimmon Art

I don't know what it is about this fruit, but I am absolutely fascinated by it. Well, I do know what it is - it's the color for one thing - with a little yellow in the highlights and a little blue in the shadows. The green of the leaves is such an earthy green. The center/stem is just a mixture of the fruit color and the leaf color together.

The texture of the fruit is SMOOTH and shiny, but with kind of a dusty residue on it.

I am FAR from being a mathematician, but there is some Fibonocci thing going on here with the shape and size and position of the leaves and stem. They make a fantastic pattern when they are all lined up in a display. I only bought one ($1.48), but I did a little sketch on the journal page of how I remember them looking there in the produce department . They were in a slanted bin.

The colors I used were pyrol orange, hansa yellow, manganese blue, and a little quinacridone gold.

Okay. I guess that's it for my obsessing over the persimmon. I may still obsess, but you won't have to hear about it.

Hmmm - how do we tell if it is ripe?