Thursday, January 31, 2008

opera

A quick study using Opera (Holbein; Winsor & Newton also makes it now), a beautiful, pure pink recommended to me by Mineke . In the petals I also used aureolin and ultramarine violet. I love the peachy oranges the yellow-pink mix makes.





And here's the second version of last Friday's still life (first version on left). Naturally, now I prefer neither one nor the other, but like and dislike some things about each!



Posted by Picasa
at

4 comments:

  1. Mineke Reinders1:09 PM

    Lovely flower study! I love the mingling of colors in the petals.
    It's nice to see the two versions of your still life next to each other, I think they are both wonderful! I like the vibrant colors in the second version, and I still love the composition of the first one.

    Now that you've dipped into your Opera on my recommendation, I'm afraid I have to qualify that. Suzanne pointed out to me that Opera is in fact not all that permanent (for some reason I'd always assumed that it was). I was quite dismayed to learn that, but it's true. Winsor & Newton gives it a B rating (moderately durable) and they have a section on their website explaining why they include it in their line of wc paints: here , scroll down to bottom of page. I'm still not willing to let go of Opera, but will try out some alternatives.
    Sorry to pass on the bad news, now that you've just started using this color so beautifully...

    ReplyDelete
  2. laura1:23 PM

    Quinacridone Rose is similar to Opera--maybe a little less vibrantly pink?--but transparent and rated "excellent" for lightfastness on the Daniel Smith website. I have--and like--Quin Pink, which I see is rated only "very good."
    I have to say I'd never given such things much consideration, but should do, if I ever plan to try to sell: it wouldn't be quite ethical to sell a painting that will fade away!

    ReplyDelete
  3. About7:54 PM

    Well, permanent or not...these are some luscious colors! I love the closeup view - makes it so much easier to see all the wonderful mixing and mingling going on. Lovely. And the two pics with the vase are both lovely.
    Happy painting!

    ReplyDelete
  4. laura3:06 PM

    Thanks Tracy. The more I paint with watercolor, the more I want to see the activity of the paint, as opposed to when I was beginner and wanted to blend and mix everything!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting my blog and for your comments.
I will return the visit soon