Leisure Painter - UK (2019 - Summer)

28 SUMMER 2019 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

W

hen working with

watercolour, I try to restrict

myself to as few colours as

possible, usually around seven when

I’m working in the studio. It’s very

easy to be influenced by other artists,

books and emerging colours to end

up with an unwieldy collection of

unwanted tubes of paint. By being

frugal with colour choices you can

become familiar with each one and

understand how it will react with

other colours within your palette.

Fewer colours also help to keep costs

down, which means you could

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

nHow to work with French

vermilion

nPractise colour mixing with

just three colours

Watercolour

Part 3 Tim Fisherdemonstrates how he uses

French vermilion Sennelier watercolour in his paintings

Colour choices

tMill Street, St. Osyth, Sennelier watercolour on Sennelier 140lb Rough watercolour paper, 9x13in. (23x30cm)

4 French vermilion and primary yellow

make orange.

5 Primary yellow and French ultramarine

blue make a range of greens, depending on

the proportions of yellow and blue mixed.

1

2

3

4

5

FRENCH VERMILION

Colour mixing with a primary palette of

three colours – French vermilion, French

ultramarine blue and primary yellow – is

simple and straightforward.

1 Mix all three colours evenly together and

a neutral tint or grey results. As French

ultramarine blue and French vermilion are

opaque and primary yellow is semi-opaque,

a dense, dark colour can be produced.

Varying the proportions of the colours can

result in a neutral colour with a bias

towards the most plentiful pigments used.

2 I mixed French ultramarine blue and

primary yellow to create green then added

a small amount of vermilion to create a

darker green. I added it to the top of the

square and let it bleed into the wet paint.

3 Combining two primary colours results

in pleasing secondary colours. French

ultramarine blue and French vermilion

combined make violet.

LPS 28-31 Fisher_Layout 1 28/05/2019 12:16 Page 28