TWO MORE FRENCHMAN COLOR STUDIES

First, a disclaimer regarding the color of these pieces. I was not able to perfectly adjust the color in my photo program and then when I uploaded them, the color looks different again (less bright) on the blog. The postings are just for general information and you can see the small shifts I am making in the value patterns, trying different things and you can see the color is different each time .

I am following Nita Leland's color palettes in her new book. I have a lot of different tubes of paint but not EVERYTHING. When a color is suggested, I have gone to Handprint.com to find a similar color. I am learning a lot about color this way. It turns out that Azo Yellow and Transparent Yellow are really the same and Transparent Yellow is a better choice. Also Pyrrol Red is the same as Winsor Red or Sandal Red in Maimari (I have both! but no Pyrrol Red) As luck would have it Pyrrol red is not a good choice either so I used Winsor Red in this little painting. I am writing all this pertinent information on the back of the color cards (equivalent colors and best choices and brands)

The Thalo and Transparent Yellow made beautiful greens, so I decided to do a mostly blue and green painting. Winsor Red and Thalo Blue make very dull violets, so I worked around that. I also played with the neutral range for the background by glazing one color over the next. The other color combination of Quin Rose, Cobalt and Transparent Yellow gave the opposite results; Beautiful violets and dull, dull greens. Both combinations produced lovely orange shades. I am also exploring how dark a mixture I can produce with each combination. There is nothing more joyful than playing with color.

On the other end of the spectrum, I spent a little time this evening preparing some sheets for the Drawing Marathon on Sunday. Edward Betts has a fabulous book called "Master Class in Water Media". You can find it on Amazon. He sprinkled powdered graphite on a sheet of watercolor paper and then sprayed it with water to create this fabulous textural effect. I have the powdered graphite so I did three sheets. The directions make it sound so easy but I wasn't totally pleased with my results. It is amazing to me how difficult it is to get good results with some of this accidental technique type ideas. I can always Gesso over the ones I don't like!

A final note: Mike Bailey has tagged me. June Hymas passed on to me the Butterfly Award. I need to spend some time to consider who to pass them to. I appreciate the honors and want to be thoughtful about it.