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Art Tip: Color Substitutions
Today, we are lucky and unlucky at the same time. The variety of colors that can be purchased
is huge. We do not have to mix our colors; they can be found ready mixed for us in a tube. The
result is that we lose our sense of adventure in color mixing.
Too many colors are used in a single painting and harmony is difficult to achieve. I too, have a lot
of different hues in my watercolor supplies.
Try analyzing your tube colors; mix the colors that you think will create the chosen color.
Dioxazine Purple is a staining transparent color. It is not sedimentary.
Ultramarine Blue is a sedimentary
color. It has been mixed with Permanent Rose, a transparent color.
Look at the two samples and you can see the difference when these two colors are applied to
watercolor paper. The one on the left is smooth in appearance; the one on the right appears to
have a texture. Sedimentary colors share this same appearance on watercolor paper.
By mixing Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Rose, I have created a more visually pleasing color.
Permanent Rose has a wet in wet application of Dioxazine Purple over it. Both
of these colors are transparent and
non-sedimentary.
Phthalocyanine Blue has a wet in wet
application of Dioxazine Purple over it.
These two colors are also transparent
and non-sedimentary.
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Color Substitutions continued
The underwash of either rose or blue makes the Dioxazine Purple less flat and more pleasing to
the eye. I have chosen transparent non-sedimentary colors for each of the underwashes. I have
also chosen one of the components that make up the purple hue. In the one on the right, I have
changed the blue so as to have two transparent non-sedimentary colors in the mix.
Phthalocyanine Green is a staining
transparent color. It is not sedimentary.
Here, I have mixed Phthalocyanine
Blue with Aureoline. The colors were
mixed on the palette.
Traditionally, I mix yellow and blue to make green. There are sedimentary yellows; there are sedimentary blues. If I use a sedimentary color in the mix, I will muddy
the color if I paint over it. Sedimentary colors lift when other colors are painted over them. I will
use sedimentary colors as the final wash or when it is not necessary to paint over it.
One of my solutions is to choose a transparent green and alter it with other transparent colors.
I have chosen Phthalocyanine Green, a
transparent staining color. I painted wet
in wet over Gamboge with the green.
Here I have painted a wet in wet wash
of Phthalocyanine Green over Phthalocyanine Blue.
Cadmium Orange is both opaque and
sedimentary. Opaque colors have good
covering strength.
In this example, I have mixed Gamgoge
and Quinacridone Red together on the
palette. They are both transparent colors.
Opaque colors can have a variety of values by adjusting the water quantity. To make a temperature change, use an underwash of a different color.
On my palette, I have both sedimentary opaque colors and transparent
staining colors. I think about their
physical properties before I decide
which color to use. If I will be doing
many layers of glazes, I will choose the
transparent staining colors. If I will be
painting a single wash in a full strength hue, I will use an opaque color.
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copyright © Artist Barbara Simmons. All rights reserved.