Color Chart

 This entry was originally posted on Thursday, January 26, 2012.

A color chart may seem tedious and boring, especially when you just can't wait to get to painting, but I find it extremely helpful. All you need to use is the colors in your limited palette. I like the mix up my colors in a mid value range (not too light and not too dark- it is the Goldilocks of watercolor) 

For the chart above, I put my colors in my palette across the top and down the left hand side. Then I will begin with pure New Gamboge then I mix New Gamboge with Winsor Yellow (it used to be Aureolin as you can see on my chart). Next I mixed the New Gamboge with Cadmium Red, then with Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and so on and so forth. It is just like a graph. The pure colors are on the diagonal. 

The reasons I suggest doing this chart are the following:

First of all, for those newbies out there, it will help you realize how much water you need to add to get a mid value. It is a common misunderstanding when beginning watercolor that it is to be used thickly and straight out of the tube, similar to acrylic or oil. It does need water added to it to get it moving and flowing.

Second, you will see by your mixes which ones you like better and will even find yourself referring to the chart for a certain color as you are learning your palette. 

Third, you will get to know your colors very well. You will even start to figure out some of the properties of your paints when you do this.

Finally, you might actually enjoy the meditative state of mixing colors.

Paint Properties

 This entry was originally posted on Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

If you really want to know the properties of your paint, each manufacturer posts that information on their website.  Makes life so much easier having that information right in front of you.

My favorite brands are Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith.

Winsor & Newton is consistently the best brand out there. It is well known for their watercolors and I like how clean their colors are. I don't feel like they are too heavy or chalky with pigment or filler.

 Just look for your color then the T/O on the chart. 

T = transparent

O = opaque

 The chart can be found by clicking Winsor & Newton Watercolors

 

My other favorite brand is Daniel Smith. Their colors are so rich and creamy right out of the tube. Plus they have the coolest names for their paint. Wouldn't that be a great job? They are like the OPI of watercolor. 

The quinacridones are especially wonderful to work with.

 Their chart is actually a color wheel. If you click on a color, it tells you not only its properties but what other colors it goes well with. Very helpful.

*Update:

Daniel Smith no longer has the color wheel that is mentioned above. However, they have another color wheel that can be found here. 

They also have some helpful color charts that explain the properties of all their wonderful colors. 

These charts can be found here. 

Transparent vs. Opaque

 This entry was originally posted on Monday, January 23, 2012.

The next question you probably asked after my post about mud was 

"How do I know which of my paints are transparent and which are opaque?"

One simple test is to draw a line with a black permanent marker (like a Sharpie pen).

Now paint a line of each color over the black line. If you can no longer see the color, it is transparent.

If you can see the color on top of the line, it is opaque.

It may be hard to see from the photo but Cadmium Scarlet, French Ultramarine Blue, and Yellow Ochre are sitting on top of the line. This means that they are more opaque than the others. 

I put both Raw Sienna and Yellow Ochre on the chart to show my students the difference. They are similar in color but different in transparency. 

Each brand of paint also has a difference in transparency. For instance, I find that Winsor & Newton's Burnt Sienna is more transparent than Daniel Smith's.