Watercolor Artist - USA (2019-02)

20 Watercolor artist | FEBRUARY 2019

Watercolor Essentials

Shades

of Gray

To mix a basic gray, I use three

primary colors, such as alizarin

crimson for red, yellow ochre

for yellow and French ultra-

marine for blue. The color

temperature can be made

warmer by using more alizarin

crimson or cooler by using

more French ultramarine.

Essentially, this method

is the same as using two

complementary colors (one

primary and one secondary)

to mix gray: red and green,

blue and orange, and yellow

and purple.

To capture the arid

landscape of this island

in southern Italy,

I wanted a variety of

warm neutral colors for

Sicilian Landscape I

(watercolor on paper,

13x19). I used a viridian/

alizarin crimson

combination as a base

color of gray. I added

burnt sienna, burnt

umber or yellow ochre to

neutralize it even more.

Yellow Ochre

Alizarin

Crimson

French

Ultramarine

Warmer Cooler

Alizarin Crimson

+

Green

(French Ultramarine +

Yellow Ochre)

French Ultramarine

+

Orange

(Alizarin Crimson +

Yellow Ochre)

Yellow Ochre

+

Purple

(French Ultramarine +

Alizarin Crimson)