Suggestions for watercolor palette
Peter Davis
What are your suggestions for a basic, general-purpose set of colors
for watercolor? A warm and a cool version of each primary and
secondary? Others?
Thanks.
-pd
--
Peter Davis "Education is not the 617/873-4145
BBN Educational Technologies filling of a pail, but FAX: 617/873-2455
70 Fawcett Street the lighting of a fire." pda...@bbn.com
Cambridge, MA 02138 -- W. B. Yeats
Helen Bakk
In article <4p4ch4$e...@info-server.bbn.com>, pda...@copernicus.bbn.com says...
>What are your suggestions for a basic, general-purpose set of colors
>for watercolor? A warm and a cool version of each primary and
>secondary? Others?
Here is a BEGINNERS palette that will work for any medium, including
watercolors:
Deep Orange (Cad Orange) - Deep Yellow (Cad Yellow Deep) - Green (Veridian, Hookers,
or Sap Green) - Blue (Thalo or Phthalocyanine) - Red (Alizarin Crimson)
Adjacent combinations of any two of the above colors will give you the spectrum. For
example: red + orange = blood red, blue + red = violets, etc.
Other basic components of the palette, besides the above, include White (titanium),
and Burnt Umber. Also Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre as options.
NOTE: The cadmium colors are expensive -- a good student grade of any other hue
meeting "Deep Orange" and "Deep Yellow" descriptions can be substituted, but will
not give the same results as the cadmiums.
--
******************************************
~ Helen Bakk ~ I am NOT E-mailable.
*******************************************
Steve Corning
This is not really true. This is more of an oil painters palette?
For WATERCOLORS. Check out Dobie's book Making watercolor sing.
The Wilcox guide is available now for $5 in some stores as well.
For a basic palette consider Cobalt Blue and French Ultr. Blue,
For red Cad red light and Genuine Rose, (or for power a replacement for
Alizarin Crimson such as Daniel Smith Anthr. Red.)
For yellow Aureolin, and maybe yellow ochre, or Daniel Smith Quin gold.
Burnt Sienna or DS replacement Quin burnt scarlet.
No need to buy greens, mix your own or glaze.
(if you do need a green for intense darks, thalo green is a good
mixer).
Order from Daniel Smith and get the best value. Forget runny
Grumbacher and gummy, overpriced Windsor Newton. Of course Rowney is
outstanding, but a bit more expensive. Some people in the group have
recommended Holbein, but I would not. More important than colors is
make sure you learn to control the amount of water, and please don't
make the mistake of using little brushes. Use at least a #8 round,
and 1 inch flat. Have fun and use lots of paper.
If I was stuck on an island with only 3 colors I would pick,
Aureolin Yellow, Rose madder Genuine, and Cobalt blue.
(I would sneak some ultr. blue and some Thalo green though).
Skip the white since chinese white in watercolor is crap, and gouache
takes a bit of experience not to get a chalky, or neon effect.
(this is essential in oils but not watercolor).
Binky B
Here's a combo of cool & warm hues for your palette, pretty much
regardless of medium (pigments used for watercolor paints are the same as
those used for oils, acrylics, etc.).
Yellows: cadmium lemon, aureolin, cadmium yellow
Reds: permanent rose, cadmium red, alizarin crimson
Blues: ultramarine blue, Winsor (phthalo) blue, cerulean blue
Green: Winsor (phthalo) green
Earth colors: Payne's gray, ivory black, sepia, burnt sienna
The colors Helen Bakk lists are completely reliable recommendations; any
differences of opinion are purely subjective. You should know, though,
that Winsor & Newton's "Winsor Green" and "Winsor Blue," as well as
Grumbacher's "Thalo Green" and "Thalo Blue" are simply proprietary names
for the generic colors known as phthalocyanine (phthalo) green and
phthalocyanine blue. W&N also makes a Winsor Red and a Winsor Yellow,
which have chemically generic equivalents--I just can't remember right now
which pigments are involved.
ju...@ebicom.net
cor...@ix.netcom.com(Steve Corning) wrote:
>This is not really true. This is more of an oil painters palette?
>For WATERCOLORS. Check out Dobie's book Making watercolor sing.
>The Wilcox guide is available now for $5 in some stores as well.
>For a basic palette consider Cobalt Blue and French Ultr. Blue,
>For red Cad red light and Genuine Rose, (or for power a replacement for
>Alizarin Crimson such as Daniel Smith Anthr. Red.)
>For yellow Aureolin, and maybe yellow ochre, or Daniel Smith Quin gold.
>Burnt Sienna or DS replacement Quin burnt scarlet.
>No need to buy greens, mix your own or glaze.
I buy greens as when I mix,many times, I get mud!
any solution for this?
Rose Madder
In article <4pb3ai$n...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, bin...@aol.com says...
>I just can't remember right now
>which pigments are involved.
Binky, Thanks for the support. One thing to remember is that
some of the colors we are discussing do NOT contain pigments,
if you define pigment as an inorganic ground up substance. Many
of the less permanent colors are based on organic dyes which
are deposited on neutral fillers (pigments) to give an artificial pigment,
if that is a correct analogy. Rose Madder and Alizarin Crimson are
two of the latter, used as textile dyes in ancient times. The former
is considered fugitive (impermanent) by Ralph Mayer in his "bible"
The Artist's Handbook. The latter is considered to be a permanent
color within the concept of permanent artist's colors, contrary to what
many in this newsgroup have said in the past about Alizarin being
fugitive.
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Colorful but fugitive.
~ Rose Madder ~
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Andron
In article <4pl6tn$d...@Einstein.ebicom.net>
ju...@ebicom.net wrote:
> I buy greens as when I mix,many times, I get mud!
> any solution for this?
Yes, get "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green" by Michael Wilcox
from your library.
____________________________________________________________
\/ Andron Not emailable.
Steve Corning
This is a result of the color wheel being an oversimplification.
Most of the pigments are not pure (pure yellow or pure blue), so it is
easy to mix a yellow and a blue and not get a good green.
As an example if the yellow you pick is cadmium yellow with some red in
it, and you mix it with a blue such as French Ultr. (also with red in
it), you have the complement of green, (red) competing and will end up
with a dull green.
This is why I suggested Aureolin, and cobalt, (but a nice thalo blue
would give an even brighter green.
Knowing that most of your watercolors are not pure colors from the
wheel will help you to pick combinations giving you vivid color or
dulled down ones. The Dobie book goes into a lot of detail on this.
No need to buy greens, mix your own or glaze.
Binky B
Pigments are either organic or inorganic. More recent than Ralph Mayer's
venerable text is Mark David Gottsegen's "Painter's Handbook."
Binky B
Some painters recommend a primary palette consisting of the colors that
most closely approximate those used in the 4-color printing process (the
4th printing color being black): cyan (a turquoise blue), magenta (a
pinkish red), and yellow. Opinions differ as to which wc pigments come the
closest to these.
frank sheldon
This is an excellent suggestion. It is a great excercise too,
even if you add to the palette at a later date. I've done this
and I recommend eliminating the Black, which the printer need
to save money. My 3 color palette consisted og the following
permanent colors.
Winsor & Newton Cottman Intense Blue (phthalo & just as good as
Winsor)
Davinci Red Rose Deep (Quinacridone)
Dan Smith Hansa Yellow Med.
You'll never believe how clean, transparent and beautiful your
paintings will be if you restrict yourself to this type of
palette. The blacks are richer and more vibrant than any Mars
black of lamp black.
Frank