Playing with Watercolor

Daniel has been working in transparent watercolor for the last 20+ years and I've always admired his beautiful paintings. You can click here if you want to take a look for yourself.

Now I have to do a watercolor drawing and I'm trying to get a handle on how to use this rather difficult medium.

Many years ago, I took a two-day watercolor workshop Daniel was teaching in Oaxaca, but by now I've forgotten most of it. So, here I am again mixing colors and learning about transparency and such.

For this project we are to use a blue and a brown - doesn't matter which blue or brown.

With those two colors, we mix a neutral to work up a four-value drawing/painting and then add some of the blue and brown for color.

Last night I raided Daniel's watercolor stash and played with many different blues and browns.

Some of those combinations are just gorgeous! At this point I'm leaning toward Winsor Blue and Burnt Sienna (on the left, second from the bottom in the photo below), both from Winsor & Newton. They mix to become a beautiful neutral grey.

And here's the still life I put together. I was going to paint that vacuum tube radio that I drew for my graphite project, but I think it might be too detailed for me for watercolor.

I think this is going to be fun! We'll see...

Wishing you a beautiful Friday!!