Summer colors

Day 22 - summer colors 

Nothing says summer like an ice cold slice of watermelon! That red, juicy color is so much fun to paint in watercolor!

Day 4 of World Watercolor Month - 4th Free Watercolor Video

Just for World Watercolor Month, I have made 5 short YouTube video tutorials on easy how-to watercolor techniques and I will post them here each day. That way you can learn how watercolor works as you do your daily practice. Follow this link to today's free short video tutorial.

Today is Day 4 and I imagine that by now you may have created some lovely color swatches and then some rather grungy puddles of "mud". So as long as we are going to make muddy colors, let's make some glorious ones! Grey can be be a luminous color. Watch the video for tips on how to mix them.

Watch today's YouTube video for tips on mixing grey colors in watercolor with the 3 color palette. 

Let's Practice!

Watercolor Mixing Grays with a Limited primary palette of just three colors. You will need:

1. Fabriano Artistico, Arches or Saunders Waterford 140# watercolor paper 
2. Pentel waterbrush, 1/2" synthetic flat watercolor brush
3. water in small plastic cup
4. 3 small tubes of artist's quality watercolor (squeeze a bit out onto a saucer or make a DIY tiny travel palette and use the lid for mixing.
5. Colors: Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Rose, Phthalo Blue (green shade)

Value vs Color

Think in black and white to succeed in color. 

For quite a while now, I have posted a feature on Sundays as a prompt for casual painters. It is intended to encourage and inspire. Sometimes that's all it takes to get you going, get you over to the kitchen table with your collection of art supplies. If you have been checking back on Sundays and thought that I forgot all about you, please be assured that I have not. I trust you came along on vacation with me to Hawaii for a few weeks. :) Aloha!

Ready to dig into your creative projects again? Here's something to consider:

"Value does all the work and Color gets all the credit"---That's a saying with which we artists are familiar. The two paintings on the easel here are shown in grayscale to illustrate that point. Scroll down to my two previous posts to see them in color.

If you have some previous projects of your own, try taking black and white photos of them. The ones that seemed most successful in color are likely to be the ones that read well in black and white.

Sunday Painters, Loosen Up!

This could keep you busy for a month of Sundays! I grabbed some random supplies from the studio to play around with today. I have some ideas to give you a bit of practice with color mixing, water ratio, pencils vs paints and more!

Watercolor Techniques in a Nutshell!

1. If you're a bit worried about color, start with working out value, the relative light and dark pattern you need for any sketch or painting. Choose three graphite pencils of varying value. Harder ones are lighter and softer ones are darker. Now one at a time, see if you can make the same light, medium and dark values with each one. Practice crosshatching small 1" square sections on a piece of sketch paper. (Copy paper works, too) You'll have to control the pressure, depending on which pencil you use.

2. Now make similar little squares with your watercolor, mixing Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue to get neutral midtones. You'll have to control the amount of water as well as the balance of warm/cool color to get the results you want.

3. Choose three tubes of watercolor, each color intrinsically light, medium or dark. Practice using the paint almost full strength, choosing a subject suited to these three colors and values. Check your results in black and white or grey scale. The above examples are referenced from a previous challenge and show how loose you can really get!

Tip: Have you been drawing lines around things to make them look more realistic? Unless you want "tighter" paintings that look like coloring book pictures, keep it loose. Squint! Draw general shapes lightly with pencil, then paint with a good pointed brush, using value and color to get the definition you desire. Keep detail to a minimum.

About Sunday Painters posts: Especially during this summer, I have been posting weekly inspirations for those of you who like to play around with art at home. These are not meant to be lesson plans or complete exercises, but just a jump start to get you going. Please let me know if these ideas are giving you a little boost to practice on your own. :)

Value vs. Color

Black and White iPad photo of preliminary washes

I have passed by this barn for years and wanted to paint it, but the location does not allow for easy access.

You never know what's going to happen to barns, and I am determined to find a way to paint it before anything changes.

Here's what's on the easel. I know I won't have time to do the entire painting today, so I'm only going to show you the preliminary washes in black and white. That's what I'm usually thinking about at this stage anyway. More tomorrow.................................