We've all been languishing artistically during the last few months and those lessons we have been following have inevitably been online or from books. If we made the effort. Today, as there's a whiff of spring in the air, we're planning on making an effort.
Hazel Soan told us years ago that we could go anywhere with a palette of six or seven primary colours: two blues, two reds and two yellows and maybe one more. But I remember her showing me some fast sketches that she had done in ONLY THREE COLOURS. Let's be generous and think four colours.
By the way, at the end of this blog you'll find details of a great little and inexpensive book by Hazel.
Above: French Ultra, Permanent Alizarin, Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Yellow Medium.
The key to using just three, or four, or five colours - rather than a rainbow of colours - is to get to know how they mix together, how much of each to use to vary the colour, how to use your white paper in watercolour to get that transparency or highlight and how to get a freshness of application without overdoing it. Just think how little you'd need to carry if you were able to paint al fresco with so few tubes or pans.
You need to consider your colours: Are they warm or cool? Are they opaque or transparent? How do they mix together? Are they permanent or not? (No point in putting in your shadows first in a soluble colour if you are going to put lots of washes on top! And no point in hoping to lighten Permanent Rose or Prussian blue later. They are... permanent.)
Those of you who are more familiar with acrylic and oil will probably remind me that white is an important colour for reducing the tone. And black for increasing intensity.
So, the suggestion this week is PAINT what you like (a flower, fruit, some veg, a beach, a face, a copy of something from a magazine or internet - whatever you have to hand) in just FOUR COLOURS if you are using watercolour and if you are using acrylic or oil, you'll be excused for using a fifth colour as you don't have the white paper. But maybe you're a genius and can still do it in four!
You can draw it first. Or not. It's entirely up to you.
This is a fun exercise. And, while experimenting it might be an idea to make a little colour chart - something like the one below.
This time the idea for the presentation is also different.
We all know how to take a snap of our work with a camera/iPad/phone but this time we want to see those four colours (tubes, pencils, pans) laid out on the side of the picture so we can see just how YOUR simple palette can produce a variety of colours. If the name of the colours doesn't show, just write them in the email.
The photo below shows how you could include your colours and your pictures.
The deadline for inclusion on the blog is 30 September so please forward your work to noninichols@gmail.com.
Above is a screen grab of the cover of one of Hazel Soan's most popular books - 10-Minute Watercolours. It has a different cover in different countries so as long as it is by Hazel, it's a winner.
It is simply one of the best little books I have ever bought - and I go back to it time and time again. It is available from Amazon (maybe from Loot?) but, better still, you can get the digital form of this book for less than R100 from Amazon and have it on your computer, smartphone or smart pad.
This week we're thinking simplicity.
Remember Hazel Soan's blog from a few weeks ago? She mentions the very few colours she uses to achieve this picture above. And how effective they are when used simply. A cool blue, burnt sienna, yellow ochre and violet. The wonderful thing is that the colours are fairly unreal: when did you last see a blue elephant? Or blue dust? The choice of colour doesn't really matter - the tone does - and Hazel has created an atmosphere where we don't stop and say, hey, the dust is really blue in Etosha? It just doesn't matter because the diversity in tone and harmony of hue has created an atmospheric picture.
Well, here is today's artistic challenge and it is one to help us all learn something about the simplicity of mixing colours, be it watercolour, oil, acrylic or pencils (though the last is the hardest!).Hazel Soan told us years ago that we could go anywhere with a palette of six or seven primary colours: two blues, two reds and two yellows and maybe one more. But I remember her showing me some fast sketches that she had done in ONLY THREE COLOURS. Let's be generous and think four colours.
By the way, at the end of this blog you'll find details of a great little and inexpensive book by Hazel.
Above: French Ultra, Permanent Alizarin, Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Yellow Medium.
The key to using just three, or four, or five colours - rather than a rainbow of colours - is to get to know how they mix together, how much of each to use to vary the colour, how to use your white paper in watercolour to get that transparency or highlight and how to get a freshness of application without overdoing it. Just think how little you'd need to carry if you were able to paint al fresco with so few tubes or pans.
You need to consider your colours: Are they warm or cool? Are they opaque or transparent? How do they mix together? Are they permanent or not? (No point in putting in your shadows first in a soluble colour if you are going to put lots of washes on top! And no point in hoping to lighten Permanent Rose or Prussian blue later. They are... permanent.)
 |
 |
| The above being three primary colours in oil or acrylic with the addition of white |
So, the suggestion this week is PAINT what you like (a flower, fruit, some veg, a beach, a face, a copy of something from a magazine or internet - whatever you have to hand) in just FOUR COLOURS if you are using watercolour and if you are using acrylic or oil, you'll be excused for using a fifth colour as you don't have the white paper. But maybe you're a genius and can still do it in four!
You can draw it first. Or not. It's entirely up to you.
This is a fun exercise. And, while experimenting it might be an idea to make a little colour chart - something like the one below.
This time the idea for the presentation is also different.
We all know how to take a snap of our work with a camera/iPad/phone but this time we want to see those four colours (tubes, pencils, pans) laid out on the side of the picture so we can see just how YOUR simple palette can produce a variety of colours. If the name of the colours doesn't show, just write them in the email.
The photo below shows how you could include your colours and your pictures.
The deadline for inclusion on the blog is 30 September so please forward your work to noninichols@gmail.com.
Above is a screen grab of the cover of one of Hazel Soan's most popular books - 10-Minute Watercolours. It has a different cover in different countries so as long as it is by Hazel, it's a winner.
It is simply one of the best little books I have ever bought - and I go back to it time and time again. It is available from Amazon (maybe from Loot?) but, better still, you can get the digital form of this book for less than R100 from Amazon and have it on your computer, smartphone or smart pad.
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