The session will be here on Monday 21st September at 6PM UK time (1PM Eastern, 10AM Pacific).
Just pop here a little before we’re due to start, and you’ll see the video here. Press play and wait for the session to start.
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Topic: Introduction to Colour
I know a lot of you have been waiting for this!
We’re going to start small and simple (well, as simple as colour with flowers can be) with a single opening rose bud.
This flower is from a very beautiful David Austin rose called Wollerton Old Hall, you may have seen me paint these roses before, here and here.
They are exceptionally beautiful and subtle in colour, with a high chroma, yellow centre, just as they’re opening.
I’ll be walking you through the mixing the colours for the rosebud and also the background and small vase. The paint application will be very similar to the process and method we’ve already used in the value studies.
As before, we’ll be painting into a couch. We’ll be controlling our values very carefully, but this time, we’ll be adding hue and chroma!
I can hardly wait to share this with you.
Materials
You’ll need:
- One panel about 10 x 8 inches (or a piece of oil paper cut to that size, or whatever else you want to paint on). The aspect ratio isn’t set in stone and is up to you. But the photo with the grid is that size and is processed to print that size, so if you use a differently proportioned rectange and grid it up, the drawing may come out stretched!
- Linseed oil or something similar to use for a couch
- Turps or gamsol or similar solvent – not 100% necessary, but it can be useful when wiping out to cut right back to the panel surface.
- A range of brushes, mostly flats
- Something to wipe out with – a rag or kitchen roll work great
I would recommend having the following tube paints ready on your palette:
- Titanium white.
- A green yellow. Arylide yellows are best, PY3 or PY74. Michael Harding bright yellow lake is perfect, Hansa Yellow from other paint makers will probably be fine. Lemon yellow if you have nothing else, but it’s not a great substitute.
- Cadmium yellow (if Winsor and Newton, Cad yellow pale).
- Yellow Ochre
- Michael Harding Green Gold or similar
- Williamsburg Quinacridone Gold Brown or similar
- Raw umber
- Ivory Black
- A phthalo green – Winsor and Newton Winsor Green Yellow shade is ideal, but any phthalo green should do.
I would strongly recommend having the 5 step value scale mixed and ready before we start. We’ll be relating back the colours we mix to the scale as we go.
Be prepared for a lot of mixing! We’ll be establishing all of the colours we need before start (usually called premixing). I’ll also be showing a way to reduce chroma without changing value or hue, which I’ve found crucial to painting flowers well.
Please do have the subject roughed out in straight line block in before we start if you can.
The Subject
Here are the photos.
I’ve included a pixelated version to make judging colours simpler and a desaturated version so that you can judge the values more easily. Also there’s a grid version for drawing out.
See you soon!