Watercolour Class 2 : Painting with a limited palette.

To create harmony in a painting use a limited palette, eg:  3 PRIMARY colours or a couple of analogous colours ( colours which sit side by side on the colour wheel).

To follow on from last weeks notes we will complete a landscape using 3 primary colours.

It is important to test the colours changing one or other of them to get the “look” you want for that particular painting. For example Ultramarine blue, Indian yellow (or New gambouge) with Perm Rose will allow you to make lovely mauves and dark greens wheras Cobalt blue instead of the Ultramarine will lessen the intensity of the darks and will mute all the colours it is mixed with to give a softer more subtle painting.

Experiment with Cereulean Blue Manganese blue and try Australian Red gold as your yellow or Raw sienna the combinations are endless.

Once you have selected the three colours you are going to use then experiment mixing as many interesting colours as you can, You can relax knowing you don’t have to scramble in your box looking for the right colour, just mix it.

Beautiful greys can be mixed but so can MUD the addition of any one of the colours will change your mud into a colour you can use. If you make mud and can’t retrieve it please wash it off your palette don’t paint with it!

Painting from photos is fraught with danger, the darks are always too dark and you cannot see into shadows so you need to be creative with your darks, also the lights are far too light ,therefore the contrast in the photo is very strong. To create light you need to have wonderful darks but not black holes. Also remember the camera flattens the back of the photo, so those looming mountains you photographed become tiny little far away hills you will need to adjust the perspective.

Cheers Lyn Fraser- Roberts