Mixing Colour Watercolour AUTHOR BOB DAVIES

Transcription

1 Mixing Colour Watercolour AUTHOR BOB DAVIES

2 CONTENTS Introduction What Materials Do I Need? Let s Get Started Playing with Primaries Mixing Darks Without Using Black Mixing Secondaries Complementary Colours & The Colour Wheel Warm & Cool Colours Expanding Your Colour Charts Mixing Muddy Colours Colour Shift Aerial Perspective Mixing Paint on the Paper Bringing It All Together: Still Life 2

3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR BOB DAVIES Bob Davies is a professional art instructor and co-founder of Arttutor.com with his son, Phil. Creator of numerous painting courses and e-books, Bob is the author of the best-selling DVD Series Watercolour Secrets, which has sold in excess of copies world-wide. He is a staunch believer that you don t have to be born with special artistic talent in order to enjoy the wonderful pastime of painting and drawing. His easy-going teaching style is much appreciated by students and cuts through many of the misconceptions and fears that beset aspiring artists. 3

4 INTRODUCTION T o many aspiring watercolourists, mixing the colours so they look right on the paper can seem to be a black art, only compliant in the hands of a talented few. So often, the lament is of being able to create nothing but muddy colours that look dull, flat and unattractive, to be truthful. The outcome seems a million miles away from viewing the minor masterpieces that inspired you to try watercolours in the first place. So I want this to be a practical e-book for you. I don t just want you to read it and then go away and try to replicate what I ve suggested. I d like you to either print this ebook out, or open it on your ipad and then follow along at your painting station. I want you to pick up your brushes, paper and paints and work through the exercises as you work through the book. This will give you a flying start by actually practising colour-mixing, rather than just reading about it. That way you ll learn faster than any other way I know. We re going to mix a whole library of different colours. And yes, that includes many of those muddy ones because they re extremely useful - if placed in the right context. Crucially, we ll also look at when, where and how you use them to get the best results. Remember this phrase, because it s relevant to everything we ll cover in these pages: practice is the best tutor of all! Remember: Practice makes permanent. The right kind of practice makes perfect! 4

5 what materials do i need? I ve used six colours for most of this e-book. Two sets of three primary colours. That s two reds, two yellows and two blues: Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow Ultramarine Blue Permanent Rose Lemon Yellow Pthalo Blue Round brushes - a No.4 or 6 and a No. 10 or 12 Flat brushes - a 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch and Rigger Brush. Watercolour pad or several sheets of watercolour paper approx. 10 inches x 8 inches One or two larger sheets of watercolour paper about 14 inches x 10 inches Kitchen paper HB Pencil, ruler and putty eraser 5

6 What Materials Do i need? warm COOL I ve picked these colours for the reason that I now have a set of warm and cool primaries. Don t worry about what that means or which is which for now. We ll cover that later. If you don t happen to have these particular colours, use the ones you have available. What colours you use is much less important than correct tonal values, as we ll see as we progress through the book. I ve suggested a few brushes, but again, it s not vital you have these types or sizes. Use what you have. A pad of student-quality watercolour paper is fine, or a larger sheet cut up into pieces about 10 inches x 8 inches. These sheets are going to form the basis of your library of colours so they need to be big enough to complete the colour charts, but not too big to be cumbersome. 6

7 Let s get started: playing with primaries Once you know how to mix muddy colours, you ll understand when and why it happens so you can avoid them if you need to. However, you can also produce some stunning pictures with many varieties of so-called mud, as we ll see shortly. For now, let s look at this shot of three Primary Colours, which happen to be Cadmium Red, Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Yellow. In the close-up, in the centre of the colours, as they ve touched each other, the blue & yellow has formed a ragged bead of green. Similarly, the blue and red has mixed a little to create a hint of purple. The red and yellow, though not quite so obvious, has turned orange at the meeting point of those colours. Those mixes, the orange, the purple and the green, are Secondary Colours, being so called because they re created from two primaries. 7

8 Let s get started: playing with primaries Here they are, mixed on the palette. Note that although the orange and green are relatively bright, the purple looks a bit dull and dare I say - muddy. We ll explain that later on. In the photo on the next page I ve put down the same primary colours quite strongly on the paper. Then all three are mixed together in the centre while still wet. Muddy colours are important in most paintings. You just have know when to use them and when to avoid them. 8

9 Let s get started: playing with primaries Notice how the centre, where all three have mixed, has turned a dark black / grey / brown colour. This is great because you can control the type of strong darks in your paintings from blue-black, to red-black to yellowblack by varying the proportions of each primary colour you add to the mix. Incidentally, you ll hear a lot of watercolourists tell you not to buy black out of the tube. The reason they say that is because a) it s so easy to mix from primary colours as we ve just seen, and b) you get a subtle tint of colour within your darks, rather than the rather one-dimensional black from a tube. 9

10 Let s get started: playing with primaries Take a look at the chart below. You ll see four distinct swatches of dark colour mixed from three primaries. For each colour swatch I used: Ultramarine Blue Cadmium Red Cadmium Yellow On the left is a black mixed from roughly equal proportion of the primaries, which gives a fairly neutral finish. As you thin this out with water, you end up with a series of neutral greys. Second in from the left is the same mix but with extra Ultramarine Blue added. It s still just as dark, but with a distinct blue tinge. Then next to that I ve added more Cadmium Red. And finally, the one on the right has extra Cadmium Yellow added. Mixed Black Blue Black Red Black yellow Black Ultramarine Cadmium Red More Blue Added More Red Added More Yellow Added Cadmium Yellow 10

11 Let s get started: playing with primaries Alternative black ultramarine blue burnt sienna Look at the colour strip above with a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna. I haven t used Burnt Sienna for the exercises in this ebook as we re just concentrating on what we can do with the primaries. However, it s a very useful colour to have in your palette: It provides a very dense alternative black when mixed with most blues. You also get a series of tinted browns and greys depending on the proportions of the two colours and how much water you add. So having seen how we can start to manipulate the properties of the primary colours, we ll now move on to our first very simple exercise. It s designed to get you used to creating very dense, dark tones. As we ll see shortly, this is so important in achieving great tonal contrast. Lack of tonal contrast and tones (also know as values) that are too weak is the number one mistake we see from students. More on that later. 11

12 mixing darks without using black EXERCISE 1 The first exercise requires only a piece of scrap watercolour paper - around 10 inches x 8 inches. Paint three rough circles about one to two inches (2cm - 5cm) in diameter, on the left of the paper. Use a strong mix of blue, red and yellow, placed close to each other. It doesn t matter which blue, red and yellow you use here. I used the ultramarine blue, cadmium red & cadmium yellow mix I referred to earlier. When mixing up the individual colours in the palette, don t add too much water just enough to get them to liquefy and spread on the paper. Now, while it s wet, with a damp brush, drag the colours on the paper in the centre together and mix them until they become a dark grey or a black. The stronger and less watery the individual colours, the darker the black will appear. Keep your brush damp - don t load it with water. Ok this dark or black is the neutral if you like, with none of the primaries being dominant. Now mix those three primaries together the palette so you have a good amount of this strong dark mix. Take some from your palette and paint a circle about 2 diameter (5cm) on your paper. Then adding a little water, drag it out at the bottom to get some lighter shades. We ll call this Swatch 1. Now wash your brush in clean water (I won t keep repeating this, just be sure to mix with a clean brush each time). Now take some more of your neutral black mix and put it into a separate well in your palette. This time add a further brushful or two of blue paint. Put this on the paper to the right of Swatch 1 and drag this out, again adding water at the base to get a gradually lighter set of blue-black shades. This will be Swatch 2. 12

13 mixing darks without using black Essentially what you re doing is what I did on pages 9 & 10. It s fine to watch what other people have done, but you learn much more by doing it yourself! Next take some more of your neutral black mix, put it into another clean well in your palette then add a couple of extra brushfuls of red. This gives us Swatch 3. Add this alongside the others and drag out with water. And repeat using extra yellow to get Swatch 4. So you end up with four distinct swatches - neutral, blue-biased, red-biased and yellow biased, as in the picture below. swatch 1 swatch 2 swatch 3 swatch 4 Mixed Black Blue Black Red Black yellow Black Ultramarine Cadmium Red More Blue Added More Red Added More Yellow Added Cadmium Yellow 13

14 mixing darks without using black Next, clean your palette and make a strong mix of three different primary colours from the ones you ve just used. Again use what you have, rather than trying to match up with the ones I used if you don t happen to have those colours. In my case I used Pthalo Blue, Permanent Rose and Lemon Yellow for the second set, which you can see in these close-ups of one of the mixing wells. On the left are the separate primaries, with them shown mixed on the right. This will turn to a similar dark grey / black when mixed, but slightly different from the earlier efforts as we ve used three different primaries. Now repeat the exercise you just did for the first set of primaries either on the same sheet of paper or a fresh one. Call each of those swatches, Swatch 5, 6, 7 & 8. The important thing to note is that had you painted each of these eight swatches in isolation, each mix would have looked plain black initially. However, when placed side by side on the paper, they all suddenly quite distinct. This is so much more characterful than black paint squeezed straight out of a bought tube, which can often overpower and kill a painting if too much is added. These dark tones are going to make all the difference when you apply them to your future paintings. 14

15 mixing darks without using black However, when placed side by side on the paper they all suddenly appear quite distinct. Repeat the process to the left on a fresh piece of paper but this time using the other three primaries. If you re using the colours I m using they would be: Ultramarine Blue Cadmium Red Cadmium Yellow What you ll end up with is two charts and 8 swatches with a range of dark tones, that each have a different tint to them. This is so much more characterful than black paint squeezed out of a bought tube, which can often overpower and kill a painting if too much is added. These dark tones are going to make all the difference whe you apply them to your future paintings. Don t buy black paint. Mix your own using a combination of the three primaries. 15

16 mixing darks without using black SUMMARY The three primaries, red, blue & yellow, are the basis of all colours. Mixing three primaries together in roughly equal amounts turns everything dark grey or black. You can avoid having to buy tubes of black paint in the future. By creating 8 eight distinct swatches you can get any sort of black you want, which can be watered down to an infinite number of greys and browns. Adding more or less of each primary colour enables you to vary this black tone as much as you want. 16

17 mixing Secondaries EXERCISE 2 Now let s have a look at mixing those six primaries when we mix them in various combinations. Remember, we re sticking to six starting colours only! On another sheet of paper mark out a series of boxes as I have done below - six horizontally at the base, then five in a row on top of that, then four and so on. You can use a pencil and ruler, but roughly sketched boxes are fine. Make each box about 1 inch (2.5cm) square, though again, it s not vital as long as the chart is big enough for you to see what s happening. You should end up with a chart that looks like this one. 17

18 mixing Secondaries In each one of the boxes at the end of each row, paint in a patch of one of the six primaries. It doesn t matter in which order you paint them. Now, in the blank box on the second row from the top (marked with an X above), paint a mix of the primary colours above and to the side of it. In my case, it s Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Yellow. Use roughly of each colour and quite a strong mix. 18

19 mixing Secondaries It will become lighter once dry so err on the stronger side when you actually mix it. In my case, you can see that a lovely warm olive green has emerged (see the chart below). Now go to the next row down and reading down from the Ultramarine Blue and across from the Cadmium Red, mix those colours. Then mix the Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red to get that lovely vibrant orange. Carry on doing this all the way down the chart until all the boxes are filled. Here s mine: Ultramarine Blue Cadmium Yellow Cadmium Red Pthalo Blue Permanent Rose lemon yellow 19

20 mixing Secondaries It s very straightforward, but if you re not sure which colour box is supposed to mix with which, here s a simple reference chart that will help. The numbers tell you which two colours to combine for each box

21 mixing Secondaries If you ve used different primaries to mine, your mixes will come out differently, or if you ve used stronger or more watery paint, the final outcome may be slightly different as well. It doesn t really matter, because you will have created 15 new colours, along with your six primaries and you now have a handy little chart showing what happens when you mix those primary colours together, roughly 50/50. ultramarine blue + permanent rose ultramarine blue + cadmium red pthalo blue + cadmium red As you may have realised already though, there are some surprising outcomes in the mixes. For example, compare the purple mixed with Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Rose. It s a nice vivid purple. But look at the mix between Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Red. Really dull and. well, muddy. Even more striking is the Pthalo Blue and Cadmium Red mix, which is nearer black than purple! The same thing is apparent to a lesser extent with the oranges and the greens too. Why is this? Let s take a closer look because when you understand the answer it will help you control your colour mixing regardless of what colours you re using. I ve put the six primaries side-by-side below. Starting with Permanent Rose and Cadmium Red, then Pthalo Blue and Ultramarine Blue and finally, Cadmium Yellow and Lemon Yellow. 21

22 mixing Secondaries Permanent rose (red with a hint of blue) pthalo blue (blue with a hint of yellow) cadmium yellow (yellow with a hint of red) cadmium red (red with a hint of yellow) ultramarine blue (blue with a hint of red) lemon yellow (yellow with a hint of blue) Permanent Rose has a slightly bluish hint to it, whereas Cadmium Red is very much a flame red, with a slight bias towards yellow. Pthalo blue, when compared to Ultramarine, looks slightly greener. Ultramarine on the other hand can look more purple, especially in certain brands, because there s a little hint of red in its make up. Cadmium Yellow is warm with a touch of red in it, whereas Lemon Yellow has that tiny hint of blue, making it cooler and slightly greener looking. It s all very subtle, but basically each of the primaries above has a slight bias towards one of the other primaries Next, I ve isolated six of the mixed colours from the chart in Exercise 2. Top-left we have the Cadmium Red + Cadmium Yellow. Looking above, you can see that neither of these colour contain any hint of blue. You re only mixing TWO of the three primaries (red and yellow). 22

23 mixing Secondaries You can see how bright and pure the orange is in that top left because as a mix it only contains red and yellow. Bottom-left is an orange from Permanent Rose and Lemon Yellow. Both of these colours have a slightly blue tinge, thus adding the third primary colour into the mix. And what happens when you mix the three primaries? Yep, you get a black / brown / red. It s no wonder this orange is darker and less vibrant. The same applies for the greens. Top row is Pthalo Blue and Lemon Yellow (both contain just blue and yellow and no red). Beneath that, we have the red-tinted Ultramarine Blue mixed with Cadmium Yellow. orange made from cadmium red + cadmium yellow (no blue to be seen) orange made from permanent rose + lemon yellow (both contain hints of blue) Both have touches of red, so the green is much more muted. The top purple from Ultramarine Blue and Permanent rose contains only blue and red with no yellow to be seen anywhere. The lower combination of Cadmium Red and Pthalo Blue, both of which have a leaning towards yellow, creates a near black. Now, one row isn t better than the other! Each type of mix is very beneficial in the right place. For example, the lower row green is excellent for foliage. The upper row purple would be ideal for painting pansies. The key is that you need to be able to mix vibrant colours when you need them and more muted muddier colours when they are called for. Hopefully you can start to do that now. 23

24 mixing Secondaries SUMMARY All primary watercolour paints lean towards another primary colour. Two primaries mixed together produce a secondary colour. You can get dull or vibrant secondaries depending on which two primaries you mix together. By mixing six primaries in just proportions we can produce at least fifteen new secondary colours. 24

25 COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS & THE COLOUR WHEEL EXERCISE 3 People s eyes usually glaze over when you mention complementary colours and something being opposite its complementary on the colour wheel. Whole books have been written about it! Yet it isn t complicated and understanding the colour wheel will help you mix the right colours you need at different points in your painting. You don t need to become a master in colour theory - you just a need a basic grounding in how certain colours work together. We ll cover what s necessary in just a few pages, including another simple exercise. Start by drawing a colour wheel template on your watercolour paper with 12 segments like the one on the next page. It doesn t have to be neat, it just has to have the same number of segments in the same place. You can draw around a pot or small plate if you want. Placed side-by-side, complementary colours will make each other glow. Mixed together they will make mud! 25

26 complementary colours & the colour wheel Paint in the primary colours of blue, yellow and red as I have done, with three blank segments in between each colour. It doesn t matter which blue or yellow or red but label the colour you use next to the segment, as a reminder. On your palette, mix the blue and yellow in roughly equal parts to make green. Add this between the blue and yellow segments on your wheel with a segment gap between each one. Repeat by mixing the yellow and red in equal parts, and then the red and blue, and adding these mixes to your wheel in the positions shown on the next page. These are your secondary colours. They are also Complementary Colours. Red is the complementary of green, blue is the complementary of orange and yellow of purple. Draw an arrow between each complementary as a reminder to yourself. 26

27 complementary colours & the colour wheel See how those colours are directly opposite each other? That s what is meant by a colour being opposite to its complementary on the colour wheel. So what do we mean by a complementary colour? The dictionary definition is: Complementary - two features combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasise the qualities of each other. And that is exactly what complementary colours do. Have a look at the photos of the colours in the palettes below first the unmixed versions. See how bright they appear next to each other. Artists have used this phenomenon for centuries to enhance their application of colour. Placed side-by-side and the colours sing out just that bit more. Time and again in pictures you ll see red surrounded by green, or blue placed next to an orange, purple with yellow and so on. 27

28 complementary colours & the colour wheel However, complementaries play an even more important function because artists routinely use them to tone down colours as well. Sitting next to each other they make the each other pop. However, mixed together, they dull themselves down. Why is this? Because, as we ve seen, mix three primaries together and you get a range of greys or black - mud if you like. Each primary (red, yellow and blue) mixed with the secondary made from the other two primaries 28

29 complementary colours & the colour wheel This is a far more effective way of toning down or darkening a colour than just adding black out of a tube, where you have to accept whatever type of black the manufacturer packs in it. With a complementary you are in charge of just how much you add to the primary and in what proportions of the other two primaries your mix is - controlled mud if you like. Try this quick doodle 1. Paint a 1 inch (2.5cm) rough square of the blue. 2. While it s still wet, add some orange to the bottom quarter of it. Note how it dulls down the blue to a blue/brown. 3. Drag the orange into a bit more of the blue so it s not quite as strong. The blue will still be dull but not quite as much as the bottom quarter. Now do the same with red and green and then yellow and purple. Note how the complementary colour each time dulls down the primary colour. In the photo below you can see the orange and blue mix (left), and then the purple and yellow mix (centre). They both make greys. The green and red mixed are your route to various browns. 29

30 complementary colours & the colour wheel To finish off, we ll have a quick look at Tertiary Colours. Tertiaries fill in those final gaps on the colour wheel that I mentioned earlier. Simply put, they are a mix of one of the primaries and a secondary colour close to it on that wheel (but not opposite it, as that is the complementary). So for example, mixing the blue and green gives a blue-green as shown by the white arrows in the chart below. Red and orange will give a red-orange, Red and purple a red-violet and so on. These Tertiary mixes stay relatively clean because only two primaries are mixed together. The blue-green has no red in it, for instance, while the yellow/orange has no blue in it. So to complete your colour wheel, mix the two colours that are either side of the remaining blank segments and paint what you mix into the gaps. 30

31 complementary colours & the colour wheel In practice, the transition from one colour to another is seamless, as below, rather than in segments, like the wheel. Like hands on a clock, you can make your mixes anywhere around the wheel by tweaking the proportions to give an infinite variety of colours. Finally, it s important to point out that you may also see a colour wheel where the term Tertiary Colour is used to describe the creation of browns and greys. Here of course, you re mixing all three primaries together, the results of which we have already discussed in an earlier Section. I mention this only to help you avoid confusion with the different ways the word Tertiary is sometimes used in painting. 31

32 complementary colours & the colour wheel SUMMARY The complementary colour of a primary colour is a mix of the two other primaries A complementary and a primary in a picture adjacent to each other will enhance each other s vibrancy Mixed together, they will make a grey or brown Complementaries are better for dulling the relevant primary down, rather than using black Tertiary colours are a mix of a primary and a secondary that is not its complementary colour 32

33 Warm & Cool ColoUrs EXERCISE 4 We ve seen the variation that occurs by mixing different primaries together to make supposedly the same colour. Well, this leads us nicely on to warm and cool colours. Below are the colour swatches from above, of the six primary colours I recommended right at the start, Sitting them next to each other highlights the differences. You can quickly gauge how each primary looks warmer or cooler than its neighbour. Permanent rose (COOL) pthalo blue (COOL) lemon yellow (COOL) cadmium red (WARM) ultramarine blue (WARM) cadmium yellow (WARM) The further away an object or element is in a picture, the cooler, bluer and less distinct it will also appear. The closer it is, the warmer and brighter it tends to be. Cool colours like blues, mauves, greys and greens recede; warm colours like reds, oranges and yellows jump forward. That s why distant mountains invariably appear pale blue/grey or mauve. This is due to the natural haziness in the earth s atmosphere, which also makes distant items appear less sharp and less detailed. This also touches upon something called aerial perspective, which we ll discuss in more detail a little later. 33

34 warm & cool colours If you wanted to create flickering flames depicting a fire in the foreground of this landscape lesson by Rob Dudley, you d get a better outcome with Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow versus Permanent Rose and Lemon Yellow. But placed in the middle distance, the cooler Permanent Rose and Lemon Yellow would work better, as they wouldn t jump forward as much as the warmer colours. Note too how Rob has used pale, cool blue-grey to take the mountains back in his picture. It s not just landscapes where cool and warm colour combinations are apparent. Take this wonderful close-up study of a rhinoceros, by one of our tutors, Glynis Barnes-Mellish. Glynis used just five colours for this study. Alizarin Crimson and Cerulean Blue (a cool red and a cool blue) and Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue (all warm colours). You can see how a combination of various warm and cool tones alongside each other have been used to maximum effect to depict the contours and shadows in the hide of the animal. 34

35 warm & cool colours Rule of thumb: use cooler colours in the distance and warmer colours in the foreground. The warm yellow brings that fearsome-looking horn right at you. Even though the length from the front to rear of the animal is only about fifteen feet, the use of warm and cool tones, as well as both sharply defined and paler, less distinct brushstrokes, have provided real depth. Cooler colours would also be entirely appropriate in a portrait for shadow areas on the face, thus allowing the warmer reds and oranges etc. to form the basis of skin tones lit by the sun. 35

36 warm & cool colours See how in one of Glynis s figure studies, cool mauve shadows in the dress and a Cerulean Blue parasol surround the warm, suntanned skin-tones of the little girl on the beach. The background too, even though it s of a sunny beach, has been kept pale and light to further emphasise the warmth of her skin. It doesn t mean you shouldn t ever use Lemon Yellow for foreground grasses or perhaps a mix of Pthalo Blue and Permanent Rose or other cool colours if you were painting grapes in a still life for instance. But it s a subtle but important factor that you can take into account when planning your paintings and especially, what colours you re going to select. Understanding this simple fact is an essential skill in creating depth in your picture, not just in landscapes, but floral pictures, still life works, figure studies as we ve seen here and even in portraits. 36

37 warm & cool colours SUMMARY Most colours have a leaning towards a warm or cool cast. Cool colours such as blues, greys and purples have a receding effect. Warm colours such as reds, yellows and oranges bring things forward. Great depth can be achieved in a painting by exploiting this fact. Cooler colours can enhance adjacent warm colours and vice versa. 37

38 expanding your colour charts EXERCISE 5 In this next exercise, you re going to create a number of small but highly useful colour charts that you can keep as a permanent reference whenever you want to mix a colour. You ll need several sheets of watercolour paper around 10 inches x 8 inches (25cm x 20cm), though the actual size you use isn t critical. Make them big enough to put on plenty of visual information but small enough to store easily. This time, draw five boxes across and four down, so you have 20 boxes in total. Like the one here. Make each box about 1 inch (2.5cm) square but leave sufficient space around each one so you can jot down a brief note or code for each colour mix. We re going to start with a series of greens, mixed with all the combinations of Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo Blue, Lemon Yellow and Cadmium Yellow. 38

39 EXPANDING YOUR COLOUR CHARTS You can see from the colour chart below, that I ve put a square of each yellow and each blue at either end of the chart. The mixes in between are then the same colours mixed in different proportions. So the top row has Lemon Yellow on the left and Pthalo Blue on the right as the pure colours. I ve then added a brushful of the Pthalo Blue to the yellow to create box A. Then a further brushful of blue for box B and so on. Continue this till all the boxes have been filled. Make a small note alongside each one what the precise colour mix is. A Lemon Yellow B C D E pthalo blue Lemon Yellow ultramarine blue Cadmium yellow ultramarine blue Cadmium yellow pthalo blue 39

40 EXPANDING YOUR COLOUR CHARTS You could use a code of say, LY1/UB3 to denote that that particular square has one brushful of Lemon Yellow (LY1) and three of Ultramarine Blue (UB3). You now have a series of 12 greens to work with. You can make up many more variations by creating additional boxes and mixing one brushful of one colour say, to seven or eight of another. Repeat the exercise for purples (using your two reds and two blues). And then for oranges (using your two reds and two yellows). I ve added relevant charts on this page and the next to guide you through these colours. Cadmium Red ultramarine blue permanent rose ultramarine blue Cadmium Red pthalo blue permanent rose pthalo blue 40

41 EXPANDING YOUR COLOUR CHARTS PR CY CR CY PR LY CR LY You probably won t get precisely the same colour as on your chart every time you use the mixes. Different amounts of water in the mixes, slightly different proportions of paint and even different brands of paint will see to that. However, they ll be as close as you will get by any other means. Once you ve gained a little experience in colour mixing this way, you ll find yourself referring to the charts less and less as you become more confident in your ability to memorise the mixes. So by the time you ve finished those three charts, and the ones below that ll be at least 36 new colours, plus your six primaries. 41

42 EXPANDING YOUR COLOUR CHARTS Now how much would that cost if you bought every one of those in a tube? But we re not quite finished yet We re now going to look at what happens when you add varying amounts of water to produce a whole series of tints. It ll add at least another 36 colours in your armoury! You can mix unlimited colours from a very limited palette. And it will save you a fortune on paint! So far, we ve looked at mixing fairly bold colours at a pretty robust tonal strength. This is good, because as we ll see over the next few pages, achieving good strong tonal values are perhaps THE most important single factor in achieving good watercolours. It s surprising how many newcomers to watercolour never get past the stage of dabbling with weak watery washes that leave their painting looking dull and lifeless. Having said that, it is important to know how to create paler washes, or tints. You create tints in most paint media when you add varying amounts of white to a colour. Watercolourists don t typically use white, opting instead to use water, allowing more of the white paper to show through. I ve taken a series of secondary colours from the original primary mixing chart and added increasing amounts of water to them. The undiluted colours are on the top row and I ve added one, two and then three brushfuls of clean water to the mix as we move down each row. 42

43 EXPANDING YOUR COLOUR CHARTS Starting with the orange tints, the colours range from vibrant oranges on the top row, ideal for so many flowers and, well, painting oranges in a still life! With the tints though, we have a lovely selection of warm salmons and beiges, ideal for many Caucasian skin tones, for example. Cadmium Red + Lemon Yellow Cadmium Red + cadmium Yellow permanent rose + lemon Yellow permanent rose + cadmium Yellow 1 Brush added water 2 Brushes added water 3 Brushes added water 43

44 EXPANDING YOUR COLOUR CHARTS The next chart shows the purple mixes. From left to right we have Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Rose. No yellows in that mix, so lovely vibrant colours. Next to that is Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Red. Both warm colours, but the cadmium red with a yellow tinge has dulled the purple somewhat. Pthalo Blue and Permanent Rose next. Finally, on the right, the Pthalo Blue and Cadmium Red wipe each other out, with both bringing a hint of yellow to the proceedings. See though how a range of attractive greys start to emerge as increasing amounts of water are added to the mixes on the top line. 44

45 EXPANDING YOUR COLOUR CHARTS Moving on to the green tints, we ve now expanded our field and foliage collection by at least another dozen colours. It s also given us the tools to produce middle distant trees in the landscape via the lighter tonal tints. Naturally, these colours aren t confined to the landscape. Leaves and various pieces of fruit and vegetables in a still life beckon and anyone thinking of painting portraits will find a surprising amount and variety of green in many skin tones. ultramarine blue + Lemon Yellow ultramarine blue + cadmium Yellow pthalo blue + Lemon Yellow pthalo blue + cadmium Yellow 45

46 EXPANDING YOUR COLOUR CHARTS SUMMARY Colour charts help you to replicate any colours in the future. You ve created at least 72 additional colours, tints and tones. As you gain confidence, you ll need the charts less and less. They will however always be available as a reference library. 46

47 MIXING MUDDY COLOURS EXERCISE 6 If you limit yourself to paintings with primary colours straight from the tube, your artwork will consist only of vivid, garish colours. Occasionally that will work, more often than not, it won t. You need a range of more muted colours that allow carefully placed vibrant colours to stand out. Most of the time most colours you need will be relatively muted or diluted, so what you re mixing at present and getting frustrated with, may well not be so bad. It s just that they re probably not being put down in the right areas. If most of your painting is covered with muted tones, the carefully placed vibrant colours will really zing! There s one more chart I want you to create, similar to the ones you ve just completed. It s the 5 x 4 box chart again and this time we re going to produce some more tones from a range of muddy greens, greys and browns. All are mixed with one part of each colour. They ve been tinted in the same manner as the previous charts, i.e. progressively adding one, two and three brushfuls of water to the original mix. 47

48 mixing muddy colours Even sitting together like this, there s a certain appeal about them because there is a good range of tonal values, from the strongest at the top to the palest at the bottom. Which brings us neatly on to perhaps the most important lesson on colour mixing Establishing good tonal values. cadmium red + Cadmium Yellow + Pthalo Blue lemon yellow + permanent rose + ultramarine blue cadmium red + cadmium yellow + pthalo blue cadmium red + cadmium yellow + ultramarine blue cadmium yellow + permanent rose + ultramarine blue 48

49 mixing muddy colours Getting the correct tonal values in your picture is no more complicated than understanding that three primaries mixed together strongly enough make black. It s about having lights, darks and mid-tones sitting in such a way that they make the picture sing. For example, the lightest light next to the darkest dark in a picture will always draw a lot of attention. A great way to emphasise a focal point in a painting is to give it the darkest dark and the lightest light. Look at the palette of another one of our popular tutors, Geoff Kersey, as he starts a demonstration painting. He s pre-mixed seven colours here and they re all less than vibrant. Even the blue, orange and purple he s mixed have been toned down to make them a little more sombre. But now look what he does with them 49

50 mixing muddy colours There s not a bright primary colour in sight. Just a lot of muted colours. Probably not too far removed from the ones you mix regularly but become so frustrated with. But because the tonal values are spot on here, those potentially muddy colours sing out. The picture is a delight to the eye. Let s have a peek at some stills from Geoff s lesson on ArtTutor.com to see how he starts the process of working up the background trees and sky. 50

51 mixing muddy colours After dampening the paper with a sponge in the sky and tree area, he applies a fast, loose wash of cobalt blue and rose madder. This is followed by the cerulean blue both colours being pre-mixed in the palette. 51

52 mixing muddy colours While everything is still damp, he follows this up with the darker purple/grey wash to define the distant tree line. In this picture, the orange, autumn wash and a little of the green are swiftly laid in, to warm up the middle distance a touch. Next, Geoff lifts things with some rich tones of blue-green and dark green. Notice how those darks he s applied, even though they re still quite damp, push back the other, more diffused tree shapes into the middle and far distance where they belong. 52

53 mixing muddy colours Good tonal values, more than colour choice, is the key to great paintings. Having put in this attractive but muted and soft background, the scene is set for Geoff to start adding more sharply defined items such as the trees and stone walls, gradually coming forward into the immediate foreground. In the final painting, everywhere you look there are potentially muddy colours, just like the ones we all fret about. Yet the outcome is stunning because throughout the picture, Geoff was mindful of tonal values - lighter values in the background with little contrast, and then strong punchy darks in the foreground. Almost universally, the biggest problem I see when a newcomer asks why their painting looks flat and dull, especially in watercolours, is the lack of strong values. These are so essential for the picture to have the necessary punch and to lift it from the mediocre and probably the waste bin to the status of your latest minor masterpiece. Put another way, you could rush out and spend hard-earned cash, buying exactly the same colours that a tutor has used in a lesson - and still make a pig s ear of it. Get the tonal values right and you ll end up with a great painting, in spite of colour choice. Get them wrong and colour choice becomes almost irrelevant. Have a look at the photo on the next page. It s from a lesson by Joanne Boon-Thomas. 53

54 mixing muddy colours Joanne s lovely loose rendition of a lakeland farmhouse is from her Loosening Up Your Watercolours course. Only four colours are used: Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine blue, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna. See how her use of fluid, wet tints has been balanced by mid-toned shadowed areas and then strong, detailed accents, all resulting in a vibrant, stunning outcome. Now look at my version of Joanne s lesson, where I ve deliberately shown very little regard to varying the tonal values. It looks really flat and wishy-washy - quite anaemic really. Yet I used exactly the same colours and brand that Joanne did. 54

55 mixing muddy colours Look at the second version I produced I changed the original four colours for four completely different ones. They are: Vermillion, Cerulean Blue, Lemon Yellow & Burnt Umber. These paints were actually from a cheap set that cost about 2.00 (about $3.00) from a budget store. The whole set of 12 cost less than the price of one standard tube of branded student quality paints, or about half the cost of a small tube of the cheapest series in artist quality. Actually, I really struggled to get sufficiently strong colours with these paints. Being so cheap, they re runny and their pigment strength is nothing like as intense as you get with student or artist quality watercolours. So I fiddled more than I should to get the darks I wanted. As a result, some of the passages have become overworked and really are muddy. 55

56 mixing muddy colours fiddling with poor quality paints produces mud! Nevertheless, I think it shows what can be done if you concentrate on the basics of tonal strength and don t get hung up about not having the right colours. I want to mention one other point to encourage you. I found the utmost difficulty in deliberately painting the first copy with poor tonal value. Everything in me from my brain to my fingers holding the brush shouted out Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! and it was difficult to hold back from adjusting the values as I progressed. It s because over the years and with practice, the concept of good tonal value becomes second nature. I m not saying that either myself or any of the other tutors don t get values wrong. We do all the time, but usually we see this early and are able to resolve it before we get beyond the point of no return. And with a little practice, so will you! 56

57 mixing muddy colours SUMMARY Correct tonal values are the key to successful paintings The moment you mix two primaries, you start to create mud Muted colours are essential somewhere in most paintings Use the best quality paints you can afford Master good tonal values and it becomes a hard habit to break 57

58 colour shift EXERCISE 7 A common error that helps contributes to those wishy-washy paintings budding watercolourists hate, relates to something called colour-shift. Colour shift is simply a term to describe the difference between the apparent density of a colour when it s first applied as a wet wash and how much it lightens when dry. All watercolours are subject to colour-shift, some slightly more than others. For the next exercise, you need some Ultramarine Blue for a landscape sky. Mix a good amount on your palette to a strength that looks about right and then use a little of it to paint a square on your paper about 3 inches x 2 inches (7.5cm x 5.0cm). Let it dry completely. Now paint another patch next to or below it with the remaining paint. While it s still wet, note the difference in the strength of tone or colour. initial wet wash that looks right stronger wash applied when wet 1 2 same wash when dry stronger wash dried is same strength as wet wash in no

59 colour shift You may be quite disappointed that your original wet mix that looked right before is now looking a bit anaemic since it dried. Now, add some more blue paint to that mix on your palette (but no more water) and paint a third patch next to the others. Again, let it dry. It should now be much closer to the tonal strength that you looked for with the first wet wash. Have a look at the four boxes above to clarify things. This is colour shift taking place. What I ve seen time and time again, is fear in newcomer watercolourists that they re using colours that are too strong - almost cartoon like. I think there s an underlying belief that they ll ruin the painting with strong colours that can t be undone. The reality is you re much more likely to ruin a painting by not being bold enough. Maybe you ve heard of colour shift before and you re well aware that watercolours can dry up to 50% lighter. But if you re unhappy with your paintings I bet the chances are high that you re not mixing strong enough colours. A good rule of thumb is that if a wash mix mix looks just right when you first put it on the paper, it s probably going to be too light when it dries. Be bold! It s the really strong colour mixes that separate a great painting from a weak, insipid one. 59

60 colour shift SUMMARY Colour shift is how much a colour lightens once it s dry. If it looks right when it goes on wet, it s probably too weak. Learn to be bolder with the strength of your initial washes. Washes will look stronger when nothing else has been painted. 60

61 aerial perspective EXERCISE 8 We ve touched on aerial perspective already, when we looked at warm and cool colours. Remember, the cooler colours - blues, greys, mauves and greens - recede into the distance; while the warmer colours - reds, oranges, yellows and browns tend to come forward more. This can be further emphasised by making more distant objects paler and less detailed, or foreground items sharply defined, with strong tonal values. In its own way, aerial perspective is as important as linear perspective, where objects appear to be smaller the further away they are. Just for completeness, let s look at one or two other examples of aerial perspective in action. Aerial perspective: achieve a good sense of depth by making distant objects paler and bluer. 61

62 aerial perspective This sunflower painted by Joanne Boon-Thomas is a great example of loose watercolour painting that really zings off the paper. You can see that the bright yellow and brown flower head jumps out at you at the forefront of the scene. The petals are vibrant and sharply defined. The background though, is loose and wet-in-wet, with mostly greens and blues taking it back behind the flower head, as it should be. It becomes less and less distinct as the eye drifts towards the edges of the picture. It s what I would call lots of something and nothing - but absolutely vital to the composition. Notice incidentally, the way Joanne has used almost neat ultramarine blue in several areas, as the complementary colour of the orange petals. This exploits that enhanced vibrancy I mentioned earlier, when complementaries are placed side by side. 62

63 aerial perspective The next work, by Rob Dudley, however, appears to break all the rules I ve just mentioned. He s got warmer, sharper colours and the main objects a little way back into this still-life picture. He s also used a warm beige as the background, while he s placed a pale blue cloth and a green apple in the foreground. But it still works. It s evidence that once you understand the principles of issues like aerial perspective, you can exploit them, or even manipulate them as he has done here. What happens is that the eye skates over the pale blue cloth and the apple, because they re painted in relatively cool and light tones. Instead, the eye is drawn immediately to the warmth of the red apple and the clear, bright reflections in the pot. The cloth and green apple add interest and lead the eye in at the front of the scene whilst also providing a cool contrast against the warmer objects and the sharply defined reflections. 63

64 aerial perspective Try this little exercise to gain an appreciation of the effect of aerial perspective. It s also a useful little bit of practice in painting simple figures in your pictures Start by mixing a wash of orange from one of the mixes in your charts. Then add a blob of this for a head and imagining where the lady s dress would be, paint two thin lines for her arms. Then paint an elongated triangle below for the legs. Absolutely no detail for faces, hands or feet required. If you follow what I ve done you should have a convincing-looking figure. With a little purple / grey from another of your charts, drag out a simple shadow. If you touch this into the feet while they re still damp, it will blend very effectively and anchor a figure to the ground. Next, paint two similar figures but smaller, as in the image below. Note how I ve lightened the tones as they get progressively further away. The figures look quite crude in these cruel close-ups, but they ll be fine from a normal viewing distance in your painting. 64

65 aerial perspective Next, I ve filled in the clothes with colour (lower left) but see how the tones have been lightened, including the shadows, as each figure is further away. I ve also used cool Lemon Yellow and Permanent Rose for the dresses. This accentuates the aerial perspective and stops them jumping forwards. I ve deliberately chosen a mauve dress for the leading lady, even though that s supposed to be a colour that recedes. However, here it is painted strongly enough to stay in the foreground. In the lower right photo, I ve painted all three figures, dresses and shadows at the same tonal strength, using Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow. You can see the confusion right away. The eye determines that the smaller figures should be in the distance, but the bright, vibrant tones of red and yellow jump out at you and bring them forward to compete with the nearest lady for attention. 65

66 aerial perspective SUMMARY Aerial perspective can bring added depth to your paintings. Warm and cool colours are one way of creating depth. Use paler, less detailed tones to suggest distance. Use strong, more detailed tones towards the foreground. Aerial perspective works in portraits and still-life, as much as in landscapes. 66

67 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper EXERCISE 9 For most parts of a picture, you ll be mixing your colours beforehand in the palette. Then you apply them to the paper. That s fine and for a large part of the picture it s the right thing to do. However, if you want to lift your paintings up a level, letting colours mix freely on the paper in certain passages brings all sorts of added benefits. First, you ll find that watercolour paint will blend beautifully if left to its own devices. It can produce effects that you simply can t replicate if you tried pushing the paint around yourself. Second, the colours will dry with a greater freshness and clarity because you re not trying to mix them with the brush on the paper. 67

68 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper Third, the variation in colour and tone can offer a counterbalance to the scene against those parts of it which, quite properly, need a relatively flat plain wash to properly describe it. Look at the painting of the violin on the previous page and the one of the pheasant above. These are from two video lessons by another of our tutors, Andrew Geeson whose fluid style has proved such a hit with our members. The effect on the violin needs no explanation. All of the colours have been dropped into a pre-wetted surface and allowed to blend in their own way. By dropping in paint, we mean that the tip of a brush, loaded with pigment, is just touched into the wet surface. Capillary action then drags the paint onto the paper and it flows across the dampened area. The result is a vibrant, unique result, where the wet-in-wet colours have created the effect of shiny, polished wood. In his watercolour sketch of the pheasant, the loose application of colour, particularly in the wing feathers, gives an unmistakeable sense of movement. 68

69 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper The more sharply defined, stronger features in the face and body are now emphasised by the loose way he allowed the paint to run amok in the wings and in the grassy areas beneath the bird s feet. Sian Dudley s painting style is more detailed than Andrew s but if you look past the multitude of summer daisies that she s created, you can see that the background is composed in a very similar fashion. The pale blues and golds at the top of the picture have been allowed to blend gently together to form a wonderful summer sky. Remember, that with these two colours, if Sian had tried to mix them with the brush, she would have produced shades of green or a seasick-looking green-grey sky at best. Instead, she s left the paint to go its own way and once dry, this has been overlaid with one or two wispy clouds again by gently adding damp washes and allowing them to blend. Now it s your turn. On the next page, we ll use one of Andrew s other lessons as the basis for this exercise a simple pear. I ve included a number of screenshots from the lesson, so you ll get a better idea of the process 69

70 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper 1. Here s the photo to copy below. 2. Start by sketching a simple outline and dabbing in clean water across the whole pear. Don t try to cover every part of it. Small patches left dry will add good random highlights

71 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper 3. Next, select some Lemon Yellow and mix a fairly strong wash but with plenty of water. Dab this on down the left (lit) side of the pear. Just let the brush touch lightly so the paint is drawn onto the wet paper. 4. Mix some Cadmium Yellow and do the same, more into the centre, just allowing the Cadmium Yellow to touch the edges of the Lemon Yellow

72 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper 5. Repeat with a mix of one of the mid-greens from your chart, down the centre of the pear. Keep the brushstrokes to the minimum and don t at this stage be tempted to fill in any areas of white paper that have remained dry and repelled the paint. 6. Now add a mix of stronger, darker green on the right hand side - the shadow side. You should now be able to see the roundness of the pear emerging because of the light and shade you ve created with your colours

73 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper 7. Use a piece of torn-off kitchen towel to lift off any excess paint that looks like it might flood or run. 8. Don t dab it, just let the rough edge touch thepaint and suck it up! 9. While things are still quite damp, add a few more stronger tones if it looks like the first ones are diluting and lightening off too much

74 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper 10. With a rigger, paint the stalk with an orange mix from your charts, then just touch the right side with a suitable purple mix for the shadow. Let this just bleed into the top of the pear. 11. With the same colour, drag out a hint of shadow at the base. 12. The leaf is painted the same way as the pear, just touching paint mixes in here and there and then adding a few lines when the the base colour is nearly dry, to represent veins

75 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper 13. Finally, add a few spots of orange and purple for the freckles on the skin of the pear. If you ve done this quickly enough, the paint will be still very slightly damp and the freckles will spread very slightly. If the base colours have dried, try dotting the freckles and leave them for a minute or so. If you then blot them gently, some of the paint will be left behind, giving a similar diffused look to them. Here s what the completed image looks like. Don t worry if the spread of paint on your version is different. The beauty of letting paint mix on the paper is that no two attempts will ever be identical!

76 mixing paint in the palette or on the paper SUMMARY Paint is mixed by dropping it into the pre-dampened paper surface. Dropping in simply means touching the paint-filled brush onto the paper. Mixing paint on the paper brings real vibrancy and energy to your work. Colours will dry with enhanced freshness and clarity. It encourages softer, looser edges in a painting This is an important counterbalance when hard edges are needed elsewhere. 76

77 bringing it all together: still life EXERCISE 10 For the final exercise, we re going to produce a simple still life with three vegetables. (See reference photo and the line drawing) The advantage of using these items is that they re basically simple shapes, but even if you don t draw them exactly as in the photo they will still look like the vegetables they re supposed to be. A large part of this exercise will involve pre-wetting areas of the paper, before we drop in the paint. As we saw in the previous Section, this really helps to create smoother washes and allows the paint to do much of the the work for you. You will find that you will have less chance of avoiding hard brush marks and unwanted tide marks. That s especially important with the aubergine, where we are aiming for a smooth, shiny skin. However, this technique is also good for the carrot and turnip, as we can create hard and soft edges as we continue to brush over areas that are starting to dry. Click here to see larger versions of these two images for reference. 77

78 bringing it all together: still life Using the line drawing, you can copy it or download and trace from it, if you prefer. I ve used the six colours we mentioned at the beginning of the book, but you use the nearest colours you have in your own painting kit. It s about how you mix the colours, rather than which ones you use. Having drawn the outlines, I mix a large amount of a pale wash of the cadmium yellow and cadmium red, with just a tiny touch of ultramarine to reduce the vibrancy. I could have used something like yellow ochre or raw sienna instead. 1. Using a large round brush, I quickly covered all of the painting, except what will be the skin of the aubergine. The pale wash will create a subtle unity throughout the picture. I ve left the main part of the aubergine unpainted as I will want to lift out some bright highlights at the end. 78

79 bringing it all together: still life Once this is dry, a stronger mix of the pale yellow underpainting is now created, with a little more blue added to produce a yellow/brown. First though, I take a flat brush and gently dampen the tile area at the back of the scene. I m careful to leave unpainted some narrow lines where the grouting will be. These narrow strips don t need to be ruler straight. In fact, the odd wobble will add a rustic feel to the background

80 bringing it all together: still life Now add the yellow/brown mix to the damp paper with a flat brush, working vertically. You will see the paint disperse rapidly into the damp paper but the flat brush will ensure that the brush strokes stay in a reasonably geometrical pattern. Make sure you paint right up to the grout lines you have left dry. Again, you don t need to be too precise, but by leaving them dry when you dampened the paper, the paint won t bleed into these areas and the lines will start to stand out. Note how white they look even though you painted that pale yellow wash over them previously

81 bringing it all together: still life We now move on to the turnip. This time, you will need to pre-mix a small amount of green. I used lemon yellow and a touch of ultramarine and not too strong. Also mix a medium strength pool of purple. I used Ultramarine and permanent rose, with a touch of cadmium red. The cadmium red, having a little yellow in its make-up, calmed things down slightly and ensured the purple wasn t too vibrant. This time the turnip is dampened with a round brush and the brushstrokes generally follow the round contours of the vegetable. What this does is to ensure that any gaps left un-dampened will show up when the paint is added and give some useful curved highlight and texture to re-inforce the shape and form of the turnip

82 bringing it all together: still life We now add a pale strip of green paint near the right hand side of the turnip, leaving a small area of pale yellow showing at the extreme right. While this is still damp, add the purples, making sure again the you follow the round contours. If any highlights of un-dampened paper show up, leave some of them, as previously described. As you add the purple, add a little more blue to the wet mix at the bottom left area, where the turnip is in shadow. Keep moving quite quickly so the paint doesn t start to dry. However, if it does then providing you keep following the roundness of the turnip with your brush strokes, you will find that any streakiness will add to the realism of the vegetable. Use the belly of the brush side on as well as the tip to create this effect

83 bringing it all together: still life Here s where dampening the paper really helps. For the aubergine, we need a strong dark, even colour to represent a shiny skin. Ideally, we need it in one coat as well. Two coats or more would start lifting and become blotchy. So the aubergine (apart from the top stalks) was painted in a very strong, dark mix, where I actually used five colours. These were ultramarine, pthalo blue, cadmium red and permanent rose. Finally, I added a touch of cadmium yellow to ensure it didn t end up too purple. The strong mix spread across the damp paper, but I was able to keep my brush strokes to a minimum, this time pulling the paint from the base of the vegetable to the stalk, again replicating its shape. The close up of the photo shows this quite clearly

84 bringing it all together: still life Next comes the carrot, with a somewhat rougher, broken texture. Lots of little fissures and bumps. The first stage is to make a very pale wash of cadmium red and cadmium yellow, with a touch of ultramarine to take the brightness off it. I ve added a few dark streaks to represent some of the cracks. Note that they follow the shape of the carrot. They will blur and diffuse slightly when we add stronger tones, which is just what we want. 7. A second, slightly stronger layer is added once the first one has fully dried. Note the brush is being dragged sideways and also the direction of the brush strokes. This will actually give us the lighter areas in the carrot

85 bringing it all together: still life Now with a much stronger mix of the same colours, with perhaps a little more red added, comes the top layer of the carrot. Note how rounded light streaks have been left to confirm the shape. A little water has been added here and there to provide an attractive mix of hard and softened edges Back to the top of the turnip. Here, a light mix of that used for the tiles has been used and softened off here and there to produce variety in texture. Some random spots of the same colour have been added around the neck of the vegetable. 85

86 bringing it all together: still life A stronger green mix made for the turnip now provides the colour for the stalk of both the carrot and the aubergine. Notice the long, unpainted streak on the latter s stalk to add a highlight. Both have had darker, stronger paint touched in to the dampened areas to create added texture. 11. Pro tip: when adding shadows, look for whether it has a hard of soft edge. 86

87 bringing it all together: still life A shadow has been added using the tile colour underneath the carrot. Again, the area is pre-dampened to retain a reasonably even texture. A subtle addition to the carrot has been the inclusion of a shadow beneath the stalk of the aubergine. It was painted with the main carrot colour, with a touch more blue added. The edges were also softened with a small brush dampened with clean water The same treatment for the shadow has been given to the aubergine, but a little more blue has been added to pick up on the blue reflection of the vegetable on the worktop. The shadow is very slightly lighter at the outer edge as more reflected light is evident from the work top. 87

88 bringing it all together: still life 14. Similarly, the turnip has had a shadow added. A small brush has also touched in a second, stronger layer near the base of the turnip while the first layer was still damp to emphasise how the light hasn t reached there. 15. We re now going to use the two brushes illustrated to create additional texture in the turnip. I ve lifted out some dull highlights on top of the turnip, with the flat brush. 16. I ve also picked out a series of shortline highlights around the neck of the turnip with the flat brush. Then I m using the rigger to add stronger purple colour next to each one to emphasise the texture. 88

89 bringing it all together: still life 17. Here. you can see how the flat brush has been used to scrub out highlights on the turnip. Let this fully dry. 18. I ve now added a touch of yellow and green to these areas to replicate the subtle colour changes in the turnip s texture. I ve deliberately over-worked this area a little to demonstrate the point that you can spend too much time on this, but at least you can learn from my mistakes! 19. Moving back to the aubergine, I ve now added some dark green areas to the stalk. This is mostly letting the brush hit and miss the paper but I ve been careful to ensure that a dark area created the shadow side of the stalk immediately above the carrot. The white one has remained though, to provide essential sparkle in the top of the stalk. 89

90 bringing it all together: still life Now for the bravery test! I ve used the two brushes illustrated at the top of the photo to lift out the main highlights in the aubergine. This will make or break your picture! Note how there is a main highlight, a secondary, less obvious one and the reflected light underneath the vegetable. Each one requires a different brush and slightly different techniques. Note that another key implement is the dry kitchen towel. 20. Practice makes permanent. The right kind of practice makes perfect! 90

91 bringing it all together: still life First, we deal with the secondary highlight on the side of the object. This will give you confidence when attacking the main highlight. I ve used a Number 8 round brush, dampened with clean water and dragged along the aubergine. Once or twice only! Then I ve pressed the kitchen towel on top and lifted off some of the pigment. Some, but by no means all has been removed because I ve only dampened the paper

92 bringing it all together: still life Next, I ve used the same brush at the base of the aubergine, though this time, dragged once only along from front to back. Then I ve mopped this with clean kitchen towel. It lifts just sufficient pigment to create a lighter area, without it becoming too stark. 22. Finally, I ve produced the main, bright highlight. Remember that we didn t paint this area at the outset, so the highlights would shine out. Now you can see the value of this. First, I ve used the flat brush to gently scrub sideways to create an elongated highlight. Then I lifted out the pigment with the kitchen towel. It may take two or three attempts to get this as white as you can

93 bringing it all together: still life Keep turning the towel to present a clean area, or you re in danger of putting back pigment you ve lifted out. Before this has a chance to dry I ve also gone back in with the round brush above and below the main highlight to produce the softer highlights in Steps 21 and 22. This widens out the highlight and is a more accurate reflection of the skin of the aubergine. A harder highlight would make it appear metallic

94 bringing it all together: still life The finished still life. Each vegetable has distinct and different textures, mostly produced by first dampening the paper, to let paint flow easier. The main point of course, is that we ve mixed some real muddy colours to achieve this. Sometimes, as I mentioned, we actually dulled down colours so they wouldn t be too bright (the final coat in the carrot, for instance). 25. So I hope you appreciate now that so-called muddy colours, if used in the right way and at the right strength, can produce satisfying and attractive paintings. Incidentally, if you feel that creating the painting with all three items might be too much of a challenge at first, try drawing each item and paint it as a separate exercise. Although the vegetables are all overlapped in the photo to produce a pleasing composition, the parts that are out of sight in each one can easily be filled in if drawn individually. I hope you like it - but more importantly, I hope you like your version even better! Above all, enjoy the process! 94

95 bringing it all together: still life SUMMARY Bringing all the techniques together isn t difficult, one step at a time. Watch your tonal values and be bold with your colour mixes. Once you ve finished, put down your brush and stop. Don t go looking for things to adjust - only do so if it jumps out at you. Use the paints you have instead of rushing out to buy what I used. A limited palette of colours will bring greater unity to your paintings. 95

96 conclusion I hope you ve enjoyed the lessons and exercises I ve shared with you and that you found them of value. The main thing I want you to realise is that muddy colours do not necessarily mean bad paintings. Placed in the right context, at the right tonal strength, they ll create many little masterpieces for you throughout the time you paint. Don t forget, there s much, much more to discover and enjoy as a member of ArtTutor. I hope to share it with you sometime, very soon! Cheers, Bob Davies 96