minimal set of watercolor pigments - what to buy...
Roy Mathew
Sorry if this is too basic to most of you - am starting to read about
and experiment more with watercolors, and I went shopping for some
yesterday, and bought the following:
o cadmium red
o cadmium yellow
o cobalt blue
o burnt umber
o chinese white
o lamp black
I was told that I would be able to re-create most other colors from
this set, but the only green that I seem to be able to achieve
turns out muddy. Am I missing some vital color; should I just buy
a green instead? What other colors, if any, would I need.
(The tubes are Windsor and Newton).
--
Thanks,
Roy Mathew.
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Charles Eicher
rma...@oasis.informix.com (Roy Mathew) wrote:
> o cadmium red
> o cadmium yellow
> o cobalt blue
> o burnt umber
> o chinese white
> o lamp black
>
> I was told that I would be able to re-create most other colors from
> this set, but the only green that I seem to be able to achieve
> turns out muddy. Am I missing some vital color; should I just buy
> a green instead? What other colors, if any, would I need.
> (The tubes are Windsor and Newton).
hmm.. I never subscribed to that 'primaries only' stuff, although the
people i know that DID learn using this method can do some really awesome
stuff (like not using ANY black, but instead mixing black from r y b).. Of
course that takes years of practice..
I'd add a few intermediaries, they're great for 'greying out' a
complementary. For example, I particularly like to use a violet (these
vary so much in quality, you'll have to test a few) and a green like terre
vert or viridian. Also, I don't think you'll get very far without a few
additions like Ultramarine and alizarin crimson. Just try this little
experiment: take your cad red (a warm red) and alizarin crimson (a cool
red).. Add a little cad red to the alizarin, notice how it warms the cool
red. Then, add some alizarin to the cad red, notice how it cools the warm
red. For a full set of colors, I like to have at least a cool and a warm
version of each 'primary'..
Also, you may find the pure cadmium colors a little strong (i sure do!) so
you might prefer to use cad yellow pale and cad red medium. Stay away from
the intense colors like prussian blue (hard to control, extremely great
pigment intensity, it obliterates nearly anything you mix with it)..
BTW, my painting teacher once made our class do a painting with just
yellow and black oil paints, her intention was to show me how yellows plus
a little black tend to turn green. For some reason, everyone in the class
got weird greens except me, mine turned out umber. But you might find this
works with watercolors.
------------------
Charles Eicher
cei...@netins.net
------------------
jAxAs
>Sorry if this is too basic to most of you - am starting to read about
>and experiment more with watercolors, and I went shopping for some
>yesterday, and bought the following:
> o cadmium red
> o cadmium yellow
> o cobalt blue
> o burnt umber
> o chinese white
> o lamp black
When I teach beginners, I assume they have limited
resources so I recommend a very basic pallete that
will allow creation of virtually any color:
Deep Orange (Cad. Orange Deep)
mixed will create yellow-reds
Deep Yellow (Cad. Yellow Deep)
mixed will create yellow-greens
Green (Veridian, Sap, or Hooker's Green)
mixed will create blue-greens
Blue (Ultramarine or Phthalocyanine (Thalo))
mixed will create purple
Red ( Alizarin Crimson)
mixed with Deep Red creates blood red.
In addition to the above, I recommend adding:
White (Chinese or Titanium)
Burnt Umber
Burnt Sienna Use these for creating flesh tones.
Yellow Ochre
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
***** + Jaxas from Texas + *****
***** Look for the silver lining. *****
***** You can't mix it with these! *****
***** *****
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Scott Van Note
>
>Sorry if this is too basic to most of you - am starting to read about
>and experiment more with watercolors, and I went shopping for some
>yesterday, and bought the following:
>
> o cadmium red
> o cadmium yellow
> o cobalt blue
> o burnt umber
> o chinese white
> o lamp black
>
>this set, but the only green that I seem to be able to achieve
>turns out muddy.
Take a look at the "upper end" watercolor sets.
Most have:
dark/intense; red, green, blue, yellow
light/bright: red, green, blue, yellow
browns; ochre, raw umber, sienna, burnt umber.
white
(no black)
Different manufacturers choose different pigments but fill the set.
A mixed purple, green, or orange will not be as intense as the pure pigment.
-
Scott V
Chris Gilbert
Tut, tut....you don't use white with water colours ! Paint from light to dark
and anything that needs to be white should be unpainted either by avoiding
painting on it or by reserving it with a fluid mask.
ChrisG
Jim Felder
>rma...@oasis.informix.com (Roy Mathew) wrote:
>
>> o cadmium red
>> o cadmium yellow
>> o cobalt blue
>> o burnt umber
>> o chinese white
>> o lamp black
>>
>> I was told that I would be able to re-create most other colors from
>> this set, but the only green that I seem to be able to achieve
>> a green instead? What other colors, if any, would I need.
>> (The tubes are Windsor and Newton).
>
Roy, forget about the primary/secondary/tertiary stuff they taught you
and try this... instead of trying to mix the colors you want from a
theoretical color wheel, trying making the best use of the colors that
you can actually buy and put on a palette.
First off, I urge you to drop the almost-purely-american notion that
watercolor should be used from tubes. There is a better way, and if you
try it you'll see why. Get a palette you like...I like the folding metal
Holbein models... with, say, 12 or more wells and three or more mixing
surfaces, but you can use anything with indentions that you like. After
deciding on your palette, put a thin layer (1/16th inch to 1/8 inch
thick) in the bottom of each well and smooth with a palette knife. Let
this dry. The earth colors will dry overnight, cadmiums, for instance,
will always remain sticky. Work on getting rid of any mental link your
instructors have created between what you are doing and the dry, chalky,
hard-to-manage paints that come in cheap sets. You are about to be
amazed. Continue adding paint in layers (it takes about a week to get a
palette started, but you can go ahead and use the paints wet, of course,
if you're in a hurry) until the paint comes up to an appropriate level
for easy use.
This is the same deal you get with ready-made pan sets, which are great
except now you can use any color mady by anyone, refill the pans without
ordering, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper. In fact it's cheaper than
tube painting because you don't waste any to speak of cleaning up. If
you decide you want to change out a color, soak it by applying water
with a brush. Come back in a few hours and lift it out with a palette
knife. Clean the well with a q-tip and apply the new color.
You are now in a position to intuitively mix colors. Wet your brush,
grab some color out of one of the wells, and put it down on the mixing
area. Then get the color you are going to add to it, and so on. You can
quickly mix the great pools you want for big washes, but you will also
to mix a clor, once you learn the technique, and continue that color in
an endless supply across the paper. It's very quick, easy to start and
easy to put away when you're through. Also very portable.
Now for the colors: You will almost never use anything straight from the
tube because the colors that we buy match the colors that we want to use
only by chance. Given that, I will demonstrate that rather than trying
to mix by the wheel, it is better to take a very intense color and make
it behave the way you want by modifying it with another color.
For instance, you only need, in a minimal set, one green. That would be
Pthalocyanine green (called thalo green or winsor green), a hideous
color by itself. Try putting down a long, wet strip across your paper
and, after washing your brush, drag into it these colors to try their
effects: aureolin, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, burnt sienna, burnt
umber, alizarin crimson and cadmium red. You have just created virtually
every green found in nature. The aureolin and cadmium yellow will
produce bright, spring-grass greens, the cad orange will make rich gray
greens, the earth colors will make darker greens, and the two reds will
produce the darkest greens into warm blacks. You will be especially
impressed with the range of colors from the green with the earth colors.
Next try the same with ultramarine blue and the same range of colors,
although some of the greens you get with the yellows will be redundant
with the greens you have already created. So let's stick with the range
mentioned above ... burnt sienna, burnt umber, alizarin crimson and cad
red. Here are your rich shadow colors, the gray of asphalt, cement,
weathered wood, blue jeans, some skies, etc.
Ultramarine blue obviously has a lot of red in it, and it is a good
choice to make violets with when mixed with alizarin crimson, which has
a lot of blue. A blue that has a lot of green in it, cerulean blue, will
provide you with a useful range as well when mixed with the above
colors.
It can be said then, if you have thalo green, cerulean blue, ultramarine
blue, cad red, alizarin crimson, burnt umber, burnt sienna, cad orange,
cad yellow and aureolin you can get real close to anything you want.
That's a total of 10 colors. The pan-paint technique allows you to
develop an intuitive use of these colors; they are always there,
waiting, in whatever quantity you want, for instant use. You will find
that with practice that the mixing process becomes automatic, and that
you will "know" which wells to go to when you see or imagine a color.
I will end this by saying that you will be happier with the ten colors I
mention than with any other "limited" palette. However, you will want to
paint certain violets, pinks and maybe blues that are more accurately
had from certain manufactured tubes. For that you will have to
experiment and find what you like, but you'll find that those colors are
used only seldom unless you paint certain flowers a lot, for instance.
No black is ever necessary (ultramarine and burnt umber) nor are
convenience colors like payne's gray.
It will naturally be assumed that this technique will not work because
you never came across it in your art education. Just do it and have fun.
Unknown
Hi Roy,
I've found the cadmium colors to be more opaque than some of the
others. Aurelium can be a very translucent yellow. I'd also get a
French Untramarine blue. The Wilcox Guide is a wonderful reference
book to have on hand. Just browsing thru it will allow you to see how
differently the same pigment name can behave and vary from one brand
name to another.
Also, the purist or traditional watercolorist would consider it
blasphemist to use Chinese white either alone much less mix it with
anything. The thought is that you get your white by "saving" the
white of the paper. Chinese white...although labeled a watercolor is
not a translucent pigment. It is very opaque. The more opaque
pigments that you mix together, the more mud you make. In my opinion,
the best place to keep Chinese white is tightly secured in the tube.
Catherine
Scott Van Note
Sounds good in theory but I can't seem to get fleshtones right without
using a bit of white.
Is it just me?
Scott V
jAxAs
>>Tut, tut....you don't use white with water colours !
>Sounds good in theory but I can't seem to get fleshtones right without
>using a bit of white.
>Is it just me?
The original posting/question came from someone who is
obviously just learning watercolour, therefore the recommendation
to add chinese white to the pallete stands, since most
beginning watercoulourists find it invaluable at one time or
another--if for nothing else, for "correction fluid." Once you develop
your techniques for working wet into wet, flesh tones become
less problematic, as does the need to "blend" as you would when
working with oils or another medium.
Jaxas--silver maned, not greyed.
Jason A. Hutto
Yes, its just you.
:)
You should be able to layer your fleshtones...It is a pain in the arse.
But it will get easier.
I wish I could tell you a good formula, but I am still figuring it out
myself,
Try to use very thin layers, and see the colors in the shadows and base
your layers on those tones.
save your white spaces for highlights which can be stained as necessary.
There is a decent book I once sAw on the figure in watercolor...but they
relied heavily on tubed neutrals, which is not necessarily bad, but you
should learn how to layer the neutrals etc etc before you go right ahead
and buy them and use them, just in order to widen your palette.
IMO
J
--
This has been a message from : Jason A. Hutto (Brother Alphabet)
----------------------------------------------------------------
ja...@ra.msstate.edu | http://www2.msstate.edu/~jah10
Joseph F. McElroy
>Sounds good in theory but I can't seem to get fleshtones right
>without using a bit of white
If you mix a color to match exactly the color of skin, you do
have to use a little white. But the problem then is that you
usually will get a chalky looking person in your painting (unless
you do the whole thing with gouche which is a different subject).
The alternative, which I prefer, is to balance you colors in the
painting so that the color of the flesh "seems" right to a human
eye. Oranges, reds, and blues togethor with the white of the
paper can make a true seeming skin color and also a
brilliantly colored painting.
--
Joseph F. McElroy. A resident of Philadelphia, PA. An artist,
software and programming consultant, actor, poet, corporate
president. Graduate of Duke University and the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts. 33 years old. 6'5" 275 lb. Good looking.
Wray Kephart
X There is a decent book I once sAw on the figure in watercolor...but they
X relied heavily on tubed neutrals, which is not necessarily bad, but you
X should learn how to layer the neutrals etc etc before you go right ahead
X and buy them and use them, just in order to widen your palette.
Is what your saying here to under paint your composition in
grey values and use pure color transparencies over them....or use
the complicated tubed neutrals. BTW; to all who use them--is the color
permanent once dry or does it pull up; otherwise Il stay with lacquers.
Kephart
Mark Vinsel
ones like cadmiums and earth tones.
My style involves layering of washes and strokes in landscape so
transparency and mixing without muddying is paramount. For a minimal set I
use:
Aureolin
Rose Madder Genuine
Cobalt Blue
These three colors can be layered in this order for radiant flesh effects
as well as mixed or layered for almost any color that appears in nature.
Mark Vinsel
ma...@farallon.com
Visit my gallery: http://www.lanminds.com/local/vinnie/gallery.HTML
Joseph F. McElroy
palette and how to acquire that palette is a personal decision.
Try the methods that interest you and keep the one you like.