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(4x6 Virgin Islands postcards: this post is a bit text-heavy, so I dug up these two-year-old but not-previously-posted postcards.)
I am not methodical in anything (even making swatches!), more a hit-or-miss type, but selecting colors for my new palette, I started looking at the color numbers, not the names, on the tubes. It's really pretty interesting.
Colors may have different names but be exactly the same, for example, Daniel Smith cobalt teal blue and Winsor&Newton cobalt turquoise light are both PG50; Sennelier Mineral Violet and Winsor&Newton Permanent Mauve are both PV16. These colors are the same and look the same. What's odd is DS transparent brown oxide and W&N burnt sienna are both PR101, but the burnt sienna is much brighter and warmer!
Other colors have the same name but are made of different mixes of color, e.g., Hooker's green: Holbein's is PY83+PG36, Daniel Smith's is PG36+PY3+PO49--though they look almost exactly alike (I'd say DS is a bit cooler). Turns out American Journey's sap and olive are made of the same two colors--PG7+PY42--but one is more yellow, the other more green.
DS's cobalt green is made of only one color, PG19, which should, I think, make it preferable (as you needn't worry about mixing it with it's complement unwittingly), but Sennelier's cobalt green (PB28+PG7+W6) is, I think, so much nicer! But note it does contain white (W).
Confused yet?
If you're interested in this sort of thing, you should go to Handprint.com or get books by Jan Hart and Hilary Page. I really don't have enough room in my brain for all this, but it is helpful to look at the numbers--not the names--when choosing colors to avoid overlap or if you want to use pure, unmixed colors (and make your own mixes).
I enjoyed making these little paramecium-like swatches: pulling the color out in a little trail of water almost always elicited an "ahhh." It's just pure pleasure to look at pure color!
Colors may have different names but be exactly the same, for example, Daniel Smith cobalt teal blue and Winsor&Newton cobalt turquoise light are both PG50; Sennelier Mineral Violet and Winsor&Newton Permanent Mauve are both PV16. These colors are the same and look the same. What's odd is DS transparent brown oxide and W&N burnt sienna are both PR101, but the burnt sienna is much brighter and warmer!
Other colors have the same name but are made of different mixes of color, e.g., Hooker's green: Holbein's is PY83+PG36, Daniel Smith's is PG36+PY3+PO49--though they look almost exactly alike (I'd say DS is a bit cooler). Turns out American Journey's sap and olive are made of the same two colors--PG7+PY42--but one is more yellow, the other more green.
DS's cobalt green is made of only one color, PG19, which should, I think, make it preferable (as you needn't worry about mixing it with it's complement unwittingly), but Sennelier's cobalt green (PB28+PG7+W6) is, I think, so much nicer! But note it does contain white (W).
Confused yet?
If you're interested in this sort of thing, you should go to Handprint.com or get books by Jan Hart and Hilary Page. I really don't have enough room in my brain for all this, but it is helpful to look at the numbers--not the names--when choosing colors to avoid overlap or if you want to use pure, unmixed colors (and make your own mixes).
I enjoyed making these little paramecium-like swatches: pulling the color out in a little trail of water almost always elicited an "ahhh." It's just pure pleasure to look at pure color!
Doudy of DoudySketche.blogspot.com "tagged" me the other day, but I couldn't get to holding up my end that day, so here it is today.
Part I: 5 things about me:
1. I am not methodical (see above); rather impulsive. I dismiss it as a Sagittarian trait, i.e., not my fault and not in my control!
2. When I was in college I wanted to be a college professor. All my college professors seemed to have such wonderful lives! And they did actually.
3. In graduate school I found out I had stage fright and hated facing my classes; they terrified me! Years later I thought I'd give it another try, being older and wiser and all, when I was asked to teach an elective Intro to Literature class at a nearby college. It was still terrifying.
4. I would really like to go to Ireland, Scotland, and Iceland to paint. And to Banff.
5. When I was around 6 or 7 my brother and I won a poster contest at school. His prize was a football, mine a statue of the Virgin Mary. I'm still mad about it.
Part II: Here are a few wonderful blogs I've come across recently:
Also look at http://www.deborahkirby.com/; I love her watercolor American Cranberry II, study--it was on the opeining page of her website when I visited.
I like No. 5!
ReplyDeleteNow I definitely think that you should get your hands on a copy of Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green. Although Bruce MacEvoy is as good a source as any (and a lovely person to boot).
Thanks for your insightful comments on my blog. Recently in my sumi-e ramblings I was describing all the variables of my waterborn art form. Finding a few favorite brushes, the right inkstone and a favorite ink to grind seems to be only the beginning. The rest is just a journey each day. Thank you for your art.
ReplyDeleteHi Bill. Read your 1/27 post on sumi-e and serendipity. I enjoy your philosophical and ethical contemplations, and learn something every time I visit your blog--your sensibility is an antidote to the noise!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Suzanne. I really think of no. 5 as one of the defining moments in my development: my introduction to injustice and sexism--and righteous anger!
ReplyDeleteNow, say ten Hail Marys!
ReplyDeletei blame my 'non-methodical-ness' on being a Pisces! and I am SOOO w/ you on wanting to go to Ireland and Scotland to paint - add Italy to that for me.
ReplyDeletei'm just now figuring out all this color stuff too - and i am so happy folks like Jan Hart and others have done ground work on it, because I, like you have not the room in my brain for it..
thanks for the linkage!!
love the postcards.. cheers!
Suzanne. LOL! If I had to do 10 HM's for every time I told that story, I wouldn't have time to say anything else. (p.s. I ordered the McEvoy book)
ReplyDeleteMelanie. Come to think of it, add Italy to my list too. And Turkey and Croatia (see MinekeReinders.blogspot.com for that inspiration).
nice mountains and lakes. I was in teh lake district (north england yesterday) a few photos on www.dave-davetakespictures.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI ve just read a book by SHIRLEY tREVENA HAVEN'T PUT ANY OF IT INTO PRACTICE YET THAT'S THE HARD PART. oops, caps lock! its haunted
The pictures are spectacular, Dave. I'll have to add the Lake District to my wish list of places to paint! I'm just "looking" at the Trevena books too! But I do want to try her suggestion of doing a small abstract as a prelude (Wordsworth on the brain, thanks to your pix) to painting. I'm usually too self-conscious to do abstract, but I like the idea of it as tool to get yourself in the right place to begin--like, as Bill noted on his blog, taking the time to grind your own ink before Chinese brush painting.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! I resonate with No.5 as well, and things don't seem to have changed much... My daughter came home from school furious yesterday, because all the boys were invited to this really cool rocket science thing (something having to do with recruiting for Cub Scouts) and no girls were allowed! And this in the year 2008...
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have quite a "Grand Tour" mapped out for yourself with all the places to visit and paint. Check out Rene's and you may add yet another country to your itinerary (I'm a little partial to Holland, as it's my home country..) In any case, I wish you happy travels in advance:)
Oops! Don't know how all that got highlighted as a link, I only meant to highlight the link to Rene's blog, not that entire block of text.
ReplyDeleteHi Mineke. I guess the only "good" I can find in the story of your daughter being left out of a science thing is that it made her furious! It really is shocking though. What happened to all the inroads we thought we made in the 1970s?
ReplyDeleteHow could I have forgot Holland!? It's of course on my wish list and, in fact, I may get there, to Amsterdam, before anywhere else (we're talking about maybe next year...). Thanks for the link!