sketchbookTHECOLOUR
A rich brick red originally drawn from iron oxide
deposits in Venice and favoured by Titian.THE PROPERTIES
A semi-opaque pigment that is strong in the mix,
modern Venetian Reds are mostly made from the
PR101 pigment, a synthetic iron oxide that also
features in many brown, violet and orange hues as
it changes colour when heated or calcined.THE USES
Michael Harding describes this as “a heavy red, which
yields fruity fl eshy hues”. As such portrait painters
tend to use it as a warmer alternative to Indian Red.
Acrylic brand Matisse recommends this for landscape
painters too, as it creates dusky colours that “really
look like the pinks commonly found in nature”.EXPAND YOUR PALETTE
Discover a new colour every month
Venetian Red
- CLOSE OBSERVATION
Objective: To focus on your
attention to detail
Choose a small section of an
object and spend 10 minutes
making a well-observed
drawing of it, capturing as much
detail as accurately as you
can. This drawing should be a
detail of a larger object, not
an attempt to make a smaller
drawing of a bigger subject.
Remember, the process is
more important than what you
produce. Whether you keep
the results for future reference
or not, you will see an
improvement in your art.Tiny timeslots can still be enough to
improve, as ROB & SIÂN DUDLEY explain10-minute challenges
WHY NOT TRY...
Watercolour textures
You can create many great
watercolour textures using products
found at home. A drop of isopropyl
(rubbing alcohol) in a wet wash
creates beautiful starburst effects.
For a reverse of this, add half a
teaspoon of salt to your water pot,
wet the page and then drop in
pigment – the salt encourages
more vivid textures.
Lastly, take a sheet of baking
paper and lay it loosely over a wet
wash. Wait for it to dry. Remove
the sheet to discover interesting
textures where it had touched the
watercolour.
THINGS WE LOVE...
GAMBLIN RECLAIMED
EARTH COLOURS
These limited-edition oil paints
should be the fi rst choice for any
environmentally conscious artists.
US manufacturer Gamblin has
extracted the iron oxides from
contaminated waters released
from abandoned coal mines across
America’s Rust Belt. As well as
cleaning the rivers, the resulting
colours are top quality – the Iron Violet
in particular is a punchy earth colour
with excellent lightfastness.
http://www.gamblincolors.com