Recently I purchased the new fall Schmincke Pan Watercolor Set at Wet Paint. This contains different colors than the one I purchased in the spring, added colors to, and then took to the Minnesota State Fair.
While recovering from bronchitis I had some time on my hands so I decided to make a color chart using portraits of the same person. I selected one of the muses from the Sktchy App who had a ton of photos to work from, and who had a beard (because you know I love to draw and paint beards).
To discuss my approach to testing these colors I have created a downloadable PDF. Click on the following link to access the five page PDF.
The “Rick” Color Chart. Click here.
The PDF includes an explanation of my process as well as the two versions of the chart above. I discuss why I made certain choices, and why I’m going to remove some colors, and continue testing others. I hope that you find it interesting and helpful in planning your own color explorations.
I have made the following short video to demonstrate tape removal from the chart. If the embedded video doesn’t run please click on this link to view the video in YouTube.
Just for fun I’m including details of each portrait. These are only 2 x 2 inches in real life so the detail images aren’t going to blow up that much. I still thought it might be interesting for you to see the light pencil sketches loosely made, visible in some of the images. (I used a 2B lead in a lead holder.)
One of the criteria important to me in this test is that I worked loosely and quickly. Part of the underlying reason for this is that I wanted to get a lot done in a limited amount of time, but also I wanted to work loosely because my eyes really don’t work at this scale any longer! (The gallery thumbnails below don’t line up corresponding to the original chart because of the way the software orders and positions things in the blog window. They are numbered.)
Fantastic!!
Thanks so much Mary, I’m so glad you enjoyed this post, the sketches were fun to do.
Thanks for sharing this, Roz! I love it!
Thanks so much Deb!
Thank you Roz! I am continuously thankful for your posts! I always love to learn more about color and how it works in sketching. I look forward to more posts about your winnowing process to get to your limited palette of 8-10.
Thanks Cathy, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I wish I could spend more time on this and get to some decisions sooner, but there is so much going on. But I will post more about this when I make some decisions.
I have to say, you are the only person I know who makes a watercolor chart with Sktchy portraits! Wow — amazing! And what a great idea — you learn so much more about how a color interacts with others than a just a quick square swatch.
Thanks Tina, it’s a fun thing. My 2017 Fair journal is essentially the same type of thing except the drawings are all really big, and not in squares. I was testing a different palette for it. Anyway, I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I might do some small tests in slightly larger squares at life drawing some time so I can work on skin tones, but that would have to be a series as we only have one model every night. So many fun ways to play with paint and figure out what you like best. Hope you’re having fun with your sketching!
Roz,
This was a great post! I loved reading about your process for choosing paints for your palette, and it makes complete sense to me to do a “test run” in order to deterimine if the colors will work for their intended purpose or not — much better method than my blobs of color smeared around the page and mixed with other blobs of color! 🙂
Cheers,
Evie
So glad you found this useful. I hope you have fun making charts that work for telling you information y you need!