Cleaning Palette

I am often asked what to do with the pigment in my pigment wells (the "bank" where you put your pigment gel, not the mixing area). Because i demonstrate in class, i leave the pigment in the wells if i am using them at least once or twice per week. At the end of a session, take a wet paper towel and wipe off the surface to remove other colors and stuff left over from your brush as you dip in to obtain pigment. I then almost always add new pigment when starting a demonstration unless it is more of a sketch--then i use the semi-dry pigment.  Bottom line: fresh pigment gel is the best way to go. Professional painters who are painting at least three times a week will clean out their pigment wells once per week (based on interviews with professionals such as Eric Weigardt and others). For students, i suggest cleaning the surface and using the older pigments as a base with new gel on top as a cost saving technique. RK

Mixed Media

I have just reviewed the American Watercolor Society's brochure on the 2011 Exhibit of watercolors with some disappointment. First, all of the work is truly excellent as the quality of the work is not in question.  What then? For me, and I express this individually as a dedicated transparent watercolor painter, I found the use of either acrylics, opaque watercolors including chinese white, etc. to be demeaning of the term transparent. Covering over a painting with Chinese White at the end of a painting is in my opinion careless, producing chalky and murky results. Again, the work is excellent and the watercolor medium is transparent and filled with light...so i find the AWS exhibit to be disappointing. the bottom line for me: if you want to be opaque and cover darks with lights, do acrylics or oils, not transparent watercolor.

Brushes

Finding comfortable brushes can be frustrating. Student grade brushes do not always equate in size to professional brushes of same number. I use a WN Scepter and Scepter Gold II series professional brushes, usually nos. 16, 14, and 18 if you can find it. I like the no. 16 for big work.

Brush Sizes

Students often ask me about the brush size they need to paint? The basic answer is simple: you need a brush that can carry water or a charge! a small brush cannot carry sufficient water for a larger or even medium size wash.  they are sufficient for detail and small areas toward the end of a painting.  a quality large brush, with a good tip that comes to a point, can cover lots of area and also provide enough detail in the point to do the job. remember that student grade brushes tend to ber smaller than the same number round professional brushes. i most often use a no. 18 round professional brush and then use a no. 12 or no. 10 professional brush for detail and follow-up work.

Color Complements

Color complements are in fact color opposites on the color wheel working together. They complement one another through a principle of contrast. Simply put, a color opposite is the primary or secondary without the remaining colors: red as a primary has blue and yellow remaining, i.e. green; purple, composed of red and blue, has yellow remaining, its opposite; blue to orange (red and yellow), red to green, yellow to purple.

these complements can be successful when used in adjacency near the center of interest; or, as i discuss here, as an overall color palette.  In the first situation, i may have a yellow as a part of my center of interest. as i wash the background from top to the center, i can start with a blue in the upper portion and gradually blend it to a redish purple as it nears the yellow in the center. in the second situation, as in the example attached, i can use a simple palette of two basic colors complimenting one another. I have struggled with too much color interfering with my value patterns and overall painting. As a solution, I limit my colors to a basic few, orange and blue, in a muted fashion.  Even though there are numerous colors in the "blue" and "orange" of "Caw-cous", the overall affect is a simple color complement. If in doubt about color selection, limit your palette and focus on a complementary approach.

More Fresh Colors

Based on added interest in fresh colors, let me add a few more tips:

In addition to keeping the palette clean (remember to tip the palette) and wash water clear, and add bright or high key colors to white paper, not over other colors, let us add "layers of paint".
When i began painting, I normally had well over five or more layers of paint application because i was unsure of my approach and obviously inexperienced. In recent years, I strive to have one to three layers of wash maximum in order to have clean colors. When overpainting, remember that you run the risk of creating 'grays", a combination of all three primaries (red, yellow, and blue) or combinations such as red over green (blue and yellow) etc.  this is fine as long as the gray has good color and is desired. It becomes a problem when the grays become confused or over mixed and the gray starts trending toward "battleship gray"--no color, neutral, washed-out. so be aware of the colors that you are overpainting onto and remember that this act of glazing will produce another version of the color combination. bottom-line, try to limit the layers of color. one way i use to avoid this is to kick up my color value in first washes and not have as many weak early washes. In doing this, I focus on the center of interest and shadow shapes first. if that is working, I then can add lighter backgrounds and other supporting washes that are less critical.

Happy painting.

More color freshness

Maintaining Color Freshness

When I first began painting in the 1980s, I was frequently frustrated by a dullness in my painting. Colors were muted; lacking in brightness and energy.  Over the years, I began to learn tips from experienced painters about color freshness. In one workshop with Eric Weigardt, Ocean Park WA, Eric suggested that I tilt my palette so that the residual wash colors in the mixing areas flowed down to the bottom edge of the palette, keeping them away from the larger mixing area; and, making it easier and faster to pick up with a paper towel. The second tip, gleaned from reading Charles Reid and Skip Lawrence, is to apply the brighter mid values to white paper--make sure you reserve white paper for them as they will be muted when applied over other colors, often creating dull grays.  A third tip is to keep the residual pigment tracking from other pigment wells from accumulating on top of other colors--simply wipe off the top scum layer with a damp paper towel.  Keep painting. RK