Thursday, August 18, 2011

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!!

7 comments:

  1. Those are good colors for what you have as a subject. I think you'll be able to get a lot of variation with them, and still have that neutralness that is in the photo.
    I am, of course, excited to see how it works for you and have complete faith that you'll get it under control. (well, not too much...it *IS* watercolor!)
    Enjoy~~the composition is lovely!

    XXOO~~
    Anne

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  2. I was lucky enough to learn colour theory a long time ago and I've spent many a happy hour making charts and doing my own experiments with different colours together. When I buy new colours, I always have a play with them to see how they get on with my 'old' paints! Happy watercolouring!xx

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  3. silke, i love water color and when i paint i use watercolors but i know nothing about theory or mixes or anything, so how you are learning this medium fascinates me.

    i always think there that spirit lies beneath the surface of watercolor paintings.

    love
    kj

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  4. Oh, das ist spannend. Danke fürs Erklären und Zeigen. ich freu mich schon auf das Bild! Und ist der Knöchel wieder ganz okay?

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  5. Schöne Spielereien, liebe Silke. Schaun wir mal was dabei herauskommt.
    LG Sabine

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  6. Much good luck, Silke! I know you will do a fine job. You assembled a perfectly lovely still life to paint from!

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  7. Liebe Silke, bin schon sehr gespannt! Wusste gar nicht, dass man vorher die Farben erstmal mischen muss und wissen muss was da heraus kommt. Ich hätte es einfach probiert. Viel Spaß!

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