http://www.painters-online.co.uk artistDecember 2019 55
PRACTICAL
I have in my palette. A strong, vibrant
and insistent colour, I find it useful for
figures, umbrellas, shop fronts and
shutters when painting street scenes
as well as creating any green in the
landscape when mixed with browns,
blues and yellows. It can also produce
some beautifully subtle, steely cold
greys when mixed with a little alizarin
crimson that are ideal for distant hills or
the sea when shrouded in heavy mist
or rain.
I seldom require more than two
colours to achieve the grey I’m after,
but a touch of raw sienna added to a
mix of cobalt blue and light red makes
a very effective warm grey for Cotswold
buildings, dry stone walls or a dull grey
sky at the horizon. I must emphasise
this isn’t intended to be a ‘shake
and bake’ recipe book of mixes, just
starting points to experiment with and I
strongly recommend testing variations
of pigment, water and different
watercolour papers to develop your
own palette and preferences.
These mixes will also work just
as well with oil or acrylic, the main
difference being that you will require
white to create lighter tones. Of course,
colour choice is only part of the mix in
capturing the mood and atmosphere
of a wet, grey day. Without correct
observation of how light, dark, soft or
sharp something is, the correct colour
almost becomes irrelevant.
Tonal values and working
wet-in-wet
With soft-edged subjects such as mist
and rain, accurate control of tone and
edge go hand-in-hand. Achieving tonal
variation in pure watercolour is done
by adding more or less water to the
pigment. The less pigment and more
water, the paler the tone will be. The
same principle can be applied to
creating blurred shapes or forms with
more structure and definition.
If I want a wash to be pale in tone
or to travel, I use plenty of water and
less pigment. For a group of trees that
is dark in tone and immersed in mist,
more pigment is used with less water on
a dampened surface. Simple in theory,
this can be a major stumbling block for
watercolourists.
Problems usually arise when not using
sufficient pigment or paint of poor
quality. Working with tube colours can
help as it’s easier to pick up rich paint
for a thicker mix. Regular practice is
required to develop an intuitive feel for
the water and pigment ratios at any one
time in a wash. I’ve found the following
exercise to be very helpful.
l Wet a sheet of watercolour paper
and apply a sequence of progressively
stronger washes while the surface is still
glossy. Observe how the thin washes
travel and when they start to retain their
edges and not bleed so far.
l Continue drawing random shapes as
the surface dries, turning from glossy to
a satin sheen. This is the ‘moist’ stage of
drying at which it’s easier to create more
definition while maintaining soft edges.
l The most volatile stage is when the
paper is ‘damp’. The surface looks dry,
yet feels cold to the touch, meaning
water is still present in the deeperfibres of the paper. Any wash applied at
this stage must be loaded with pigment,
or run the risk of creating blooms,
tide marks and cauliflowers. This said,
splattering water and thin washes onto
the sheet at the damp stage is a great
way of creating textures for weathered
walls and buildings, sand, shingle and
foliage.
In many ways, winter provides the
perfect subject matter for practising
the essential skills of mixing greys and
controlling soft edges, when colour
is limited and tonal contrast and
definition of form is everything.GREYS TO MIX FOR WINTER LANDSCAPES
THREE-COLOUR GREY
Burnt umber + ultramarine = cool (more blue) OR warm (more brown)Light red + cobalt blue = cool (more blue) OR warm (more red)Cadmium orange + ultramarine = cool (more blue) OR warm (more orange)Alizarin + viridian = cool (more green) OR warm (more red)Cadmium yellow + purple = cool (more purple) OR warm (more yellow)Light red + cobalt blue + raw sienna = Cotswold stone greyTA w