Actually using my new paints!

June 8, 2013 | 1 Comment

 

For the first time in weeks, I sat down and did a random sketch just for me (no challenge, or prep for my class or sketch for a project) and ah! it was just so good!  I have been playing with colour a lot lately – mixing paints to make recommendations to my class and playing with new colours thanks to the special colour masterclass I had with Jane Blundell.

I made myself a new everyday palette but I have been thinking about an expanded palette to take to BCN. It is such a colourful city and I really want to MIX LESS so my washes and pigment interaction is more exciting on the page. Been looking through my BCN books and checking out the colours of the stones and all the amazing colours of the tiles/ mosaics…wow! We are going to have fun! So… I have been thinking about adding a few colours. Ha ha!

Some of you might have seen the white palette I had at T2 yesterday – it was a Ken Bromley palette that can hold 12 full pan and 8 half pans. I just did not like it at all- so much prefer a metal palette and the angled wells didn’t work so good. So I transferred my paints into my square schminke tin and will trial that. It is heavier however…sigh!

Tonight this painting felt so good because I am using new colours. I have felt in a little bit of a rut with my paint last year… so these new pigments feel like a new lease of life. Also I can’t recommend more highly the ramped paint in the pan – it is working wonderfully!!!

 I don’t want anyone to go and buy any new paints as a result of this palette as it is a testing one but for those as nutty as me…. this is what am I exploring (all Daniel Smith these days)
– goethite instead of natural sienna. Amazing granulation
– I mixed my own grey and put it in a pan (Jane’s brilliant idea) Made it of my own beloved mixture of Quin Burnt Orange and Cobalt Blue Deep. It would have been better to have been a little bluer but I am excited by how granulating and separating it is despite being mixed together in the pan.
– Testing transparent Red Oxide in place of QBO (it was a tight decision to go with BQO when I did significant testing a few years ago)
– 2 greens …shock horror! I am not against greens in my palette, though have managed to survive without any for the last year or so. Jadelite and Green Apatite are amazing greens!
– Moonglow… we will see…
– Quin Purple – just testing this out. I am thinking a half pan of imperial purple might be more useful (when I want a mixed purple)
– Ultramarine  (not French) is in there along with CBD… I want to wean myself off CBD as it is series 4 $$ and a little insipid. If I mix up my grey maybe I don’t need it all.
– DS Cerulean Blue Chromium PB36. Stronger than the usual PB35 version.
– Loving Transparent Pyrrol Orange and Raw Umber.

Anyway- it was lovely to be able to paint with my paints rather than just mix colour. And WOW! look at the tea in the colour- that is just plain goethite! It is stunning!

1 Comment

  • Vicky says:

    Ha! I was just working out my palette to take to BCN and then the thought occurred to me that you had probably researched the local colors and had a selection all worked out. Sure enough, you had, but other than DS Cerulean Blue, we have no matches. I'll stick to mine, but it will be fun to see what you create with your new colors.

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