Artists & Illustrators – September 2019

September

TIPS • ADVICE • IDEAS

sketchbook

DEEPENING COLOURS

Watercolourist HAZEL SOAN offers advice on embracing darker tones and mixing blacks

Deepening colours can require patience if
you are not used to working with rich dark or
deep mixes. Watercolour dries to a lighter
tone than it appears when wet, so go in
deeper and darker than the value you are
planning to achieve. Check the consistency
of the mix: deep dark colours will not need
muchwater,soif thepaintis poolinginthe
paletteit is probablytoodilute.

There is no need for ready-made black

or grey in the palette because these colours

can be made from mixes of red, yellow and

blue, or with mixtures of opposites or near

opposites, such as blue and brown.

I frequently mix blacks from Ultramarine

and Burnt Sienna and may add Transparent

Vi or Alizarin Crimson to increase warmth

epen tone. Blacks, browns and greys

mixed on the palette require concentrated

pigment; on the paper they can be deepened

wet-into-wet by adding intense, almost dry,

pigment until the required value is reached.

Transparent colours make the deeper blacks

and browns. Layering tends to make duller

darks because successive layers gradually

blot out the light refl ected back through and

between the pigment particles.

Thisis anextract

fromHazel’snew

book,Lightand

Shadein Watercolour

(Batsford,£19.99)

http://www.batsford.com

For deep black, mix

Ultramarine (Green Shade) with

Burnt Sienna (a reddish brown)

or mix French Ultramarine (Red

Shade) with Burnt Umber

(a greenish brown)

Here Prussian Blue, Burnt Umber and

Alizarin Crimson are mixed to paint the

black for the ostrich feathers

Indigo and Sepia make a great

blue-brown mix for the neat

black of the penguin’s suit