Currently Browsing: M. Graham watercolors 5 articles
Sometimes You Need a Bigger Brush: Sketching the Grizzly Bear at the Bell Museum
See the full post for details.
More Errands—Baseball Caps Still Frustrate Me
Sketching at the allergist’s.
Another Way to Approach Terra Rosa from M. Graham
Left: A page from my journal showing a triad test: Indanthrone Blue (Daniel Smith's PB60) Indian Yellow (DS's Py108), and Terra Rosa (an iron oxide from M. Graham). Click on the image to view an enlargement.
Yesterday's post on Terra Rosa triggered my memory. I had posted this triad chart in an earlier post on journaling superstition #4: Each Page Must Be Perfect.
The image comes later in the post so I am repeating it here so that you don't have to scroll around and look for it. I wanted to post it today so that those of you who were intrigued by yesterday's post on Terra Rosa could see immediately how it mixes up in a triad situation with additional pigments, when the goal is not simply to get rich neutrals. (I do use color sometimes!)
What is a triad? Simply put triads are formed with 3 (hence "tri) colors that are equidistant on the color wheel. The primary colors Red, Yellow, and Blue form the most familiar triad but there can be triads using secondary colors. The key things about a triadic color choice are that the three colors are not direct complements (so blending them won't yield neutrals); and they are not analogous colors (those colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel) which means the mixing yields more variety than other color schemes. Finally, when mixing with a triad you can achieve some beautiful semineutrals that are not at all muddy.
Some More Watercolor Tests
Left: Swatches made testing some M. Graham and Daniel Smith watercolors. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
Last week I was talking to my friend Diane about various watercolor paints I had been testing. Having good "oranges" on my palette is essential because my perfered blue is PB60 and when mixed with the right orange you get lovely neutrals and dark, rich, colorful blacks. In particular I was talking to Diane about my favorite Schmincke orange which is Translucent Orange. (You can see an example of how I might use this in my post today on the Official International Fake Journal Month Blog.)
Diane has posted her own swatch experiments with transparent orange on her blog. I encourage you to go there and have a peek. But you should also go back next week when she posts her landscapes. I've seen them and they are really fun.
But last night we were talking and she mentioned how she didn't get the same pinkish tone I had from Daniel Smith's Red Iron Oxide. I suppose the difference has something to do with the fact I was working from a small paint chip sample. Who knows. All I know is the discussion with Diane made me curious, especially since she mentioned using Cobalt Blue with the colors I had tested earlier.
Commercial Sketchbooks and Daniel Smith Watercolors at Wet Paint
Above: another Chihuahua study in my odiferous journal, which is NOT a commercially made journal, but a journal handmade by me with Velin Arches (formerly Arches Text Wove) for pages. I used a dark gray Faber Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pen for this sketch. Click on the image to view an enlargement (left side of page spread slightly cropped).
I didn't have a visual for this entry so I thought you would enjoy looking at another Chihuahua study. (Must resist their cuteness; do not succumb to their cuteness.)