Painted Hill Studio

Replacing a paint color

In a limited palette of just twenty colors, each one needs to be a “go to” hue. While adding fresh paint recently, I realized that Chromium Green was virtually untouched. It’s a strong, neutral green, but has a milky look to it that doesn’t really fit the way I paint. So, out it goes. But what to put in its place?

Rooting through my tackle box yielded 6 candidates: Rare Green Earth, Undersea, Olive, Pthalo Yellow/Green, Cobalt Turquoise and Pthalo Turquoise.

Sure, turquoise isn’t really a green, but I’m allowed artistic license!

After doing quick paint swatches and lifting tests, I painted a series of blended strips. Each green stayed in the same location as on the test chart for easy reference. I wet a small rectangle, dropped in the green, then added one of six colors that are used frequently:

Everything mixed well with Transparent Red Oxide

Raw Sienna gave some muddier blends, although it tempered Pthalo Y/G beautifully.

Cadmium Orange was another winner, looking great with everything but Pthalo Turquoise.

At this point, with Van Dyck Brown, I knew Rare Green Earth (top left) was out – it’s a finicky color I would lose patience with…

Cobalt Blue looked great across the board, and I love the sky colors created when it mixed with Cobalt Turquoise!

The final, deciding color was Imperial Purple – it usually blends enthusiastically, but turned into a bit of a muddle with Undersea…

As you can see, Pthalo Turquoise dropped out pretty quickly. Almost identical to Cobalt Turquoise, it lacked the granulation Cobalt gave. Rare Green Earth was next to go. It’s very grey, which was interesting, but it likes to sit where you put it and needs lots of coaxing to move. Undersea would probably have a home in a larger palette.

Oh, if I only had three spaces instead of one!!

The finalists came down to three: Olive, Pthalo Y/G and Cobalt Turquoise. Olive will go into the “working stash” and be used for horsey browns. Cobalt Turquoise will replace Chromium Green, and Pthalo Y/G will replace either New Gamboge or Quinacridone Gold. (Another round of testing ahead!)

I’m a firm believer that the better you know your colors, the more likely you are to get predictable results in watercolor. This entire testing process took about 90 minutes, and was a great way to get to know these six greens.

A surprising study

A lot of my time in the studio comes in one or two hour blocks, usually during the evening on “school nights” (I work full time). I’m not sure how other artists work, but when I get going on a painting, I like to have the option of staying with it for three to four hours.

So what to do with those blocks of time in the evenings? There’s no shortage of ideas! Working in the art journal, learning with online tutorials, planning paintings, plus color studies in oil, acrylic or watercolor.

*The top row is transparent red oxide & cobalt blue mixed with various yellows. Bottom row is burnt sienna & cobalt mixed with those same yellows.*

A great way to learn the characteristics of watercolors is to create “two and one” triads, where the two sides remain the same color, and the center changes each time. The color is dropped onto wet paper, and more water is added to get the paints to really move. This is a great way to learn how different colors behave when wet, and also how they change as they blend and dry.

*Red oxide and cobalt blue, waiting for the “wild card” color.*

As I was working a triad of transparent red oxide, cobalt blue (side colors) and mars yellow, I was surprised at how the yellow behaved. Unlike most yellows that turn green on contact with blue, mars yellow held its own, shading more towards grey.

*The first blending of red oxide, cobalt blue and mars yellow.*

As I tipped the paper side-to-side to blend the colors more, it was fascinating to see how the colors reacted to each other.

Tilting the paper side-to-side forces the colors to blend more - and faster - than if left alone. — *Tilting the paper side-to-side forces the colors to blend more – and faster – than if left alone.*

In the final, dry study (top of post), there are lovely mixes of earthy browns and greys, with undertones of the blue and yellow – and even a hint of violet. Knowing how these colors mix, and having a page full of reminders, is invaluable when I have the time to spend on a “real” painting!

Sharing: how to draw a human head

One of my ongoing goals is to spend more time in my sketchbook – live sketching is a great way to get better at seeing what is essential in a scene or subject.

Lucky for me, there is a fairgrounds nearby, and there are horse shows there nearly every weekend. Riders do a lot of waiting next to arenas, so it’s a great place to catch a quick sketch.

While the horses are relatively easy for me, riders have faces, and those are not so easy. YouTube to the rescue! I found this great video from Art of Wei that shows an easy method for drawing a head & face from any angle:

Painting a dappled horse

WIP-dappled-horse

Just starting a watercolor of a gorgeous Quarter Horse in the show ring. One of the reasons I wanted to paint this is the light dappling in the horse’s coat.

There are a couple of ways to create the effect of a dappled hide. One is to lay down a fairly strong wash of color, wait until the wash is just losing the shine from the water, and sprinkle the area with salt. As the salt dries, it pulls water from the paper-and pulls color with it to create spots. Very effective, but it takes a long time to dry, and is messy.

For the impatient among us, there is the technique I used. After laying down a strong wash of color and waiting a few moments for the shine to fade, I grabbed a spray bottle of water. Holding it about 18″ from the paper, I barely squezzed the handle, causing the nozzle to “spit” random-sized drops of water onto the paper. The water repels the pigment, creating a similar effect to salt.

Dappled-starting-face

Above, the first background wash has been dropped in, and the details of the face begun. The eyes, muzzle and ears are always the first place I go on an animal portrait. This is off to a good start, but if something doesn’t develop well, I’ll abandon the painting and start over…

Detail of the face. I'll work out from the areas that are started, creating and connecting the structure. — Detail of the face. I’ll work out from the areas that are started, creating and connecting the structure.

After about 2 hours of continuing to detail the head and body, the form is developing. I’ll work on the rider and tack now – need to see the relationship before I go any further with shadows.

The horse is rounding out; now it's time to add the rider. That will show me how dark to build shadow values on the horse. — The horse is rounding out; now it’s time to add the rider. That will show me how dark to build shadow values on the horse.

Now that the rider has been roughed in, all of the light values (and many of the mid values) have been established. The final steps will be to give the rider and tack a bit more detail, and to add some dark values to “pop” the horse.

The rider will get some form, but not too much detail - just enough to give context to the scene. — The rider will get some form, but not too much detail – just enough to give context to the scene.

One problem I’ll need to resolve is the background: the arena and stands cut the painting nearly in half. The transition will need to be lowered a bit for a better visual…