Sunday, March 17, 2019

Showing My True Colors! An Idea To Chart Watercolors

     I have been looking for a way for a very long time to chart my wartercolors.....Hey, a chart works great........until you add new colors.  Then what?  You have to start all over if you want to keep your color families together.
     Now I am sure that none of what I am doing is new.  In fact, I started with this idea years ago, but the materials were not very good and they still may not be.  Time will tell.  I have ordered plastic coin holders that fit the swatch stamp made by Danielle Donaldson.   You can stamp and quickly cut a bunch out and have them ready to paint and write the info on.  Very quick and they are cute too.   She has a lot of different styles.  You should go check it out and order something from her market here.  You really have to see more of these cuties!


Go to Danielle Donaldson’s website and go to her Market section.  She has a lot of interesting stamps to choose from.

     So I have decided to showcase two watercolor-colors that I own as often as possible.  That means talking about my favorite company.....Ta-da-da-da!!Daniel Smith and their fabulous, beautiful and earthy colors as well as a few other companies that have colors that are simply beautiful.  So here goes......the first two colors I want to show off and talk about.  I made my own swatches until my stamps come.  I am going to make these two swatches again.  I don’t like how the “notes” section looks.  At least I will move the letters closer together, but I may leave a small amount unpainted on the right side and write them after turning the swatch 90 degrees to the left......just not sure yet but I know I don’t like the way it looks currently.  But the information about granulating and transparent and staining are very important to me.  



    Ok on to the paint swatch reviews.  I really hope you guys like this and maybe it helps someone find a color or you can use this swatch idea and even expand on it.   
   I think I will make multiple swatches for two other books. The first will be put in my small watercolor paper book.  Pretty mixtures, blends and even some color matches from paint chips you find at the hardware store.  I want it to be a book of color ideas.  The second book will also be a watercolor paper book.  I want to put swatch chips and color mixes for each season of the year and add colors from regions like the coast and mountains.  This will be my plein air book.  It will be smaller so I can take it with me outdoors.


  I am going to give you Daniel Smith’s description of each color and then tell you a brief bit about my feelings about painting with this color.

Piemontite Genuine:  Ground from a scarlet-streaked mineral from the hills of Italy, Piemontite Genuine is a rich, versatile PrimaTek watercolor. A deep ruddy violet is the darkest value of this watercolor; adding water produces lovely violet-brown granulation with a carmine tone. Perfect for adding interest to shadows or painting the mottled surfaces of autumn leaves.

  This is a great natural brown if you are a plein air painter.  It will blend nicely with so many colors and can get you to a fairly dark color when blended with transparent blues without making mud!  When using this color to make shadows, it is really pretty to drop in blues and purples to add to the beauty of this brown.

Quinacridone Sienna:  The ultimate low-staining glazing pigment, finer than any Burnt Sienna. For the traditional and purist watercolor painter, Quinacridone Sienna divides yellows from reds, falling on the orange line. Its place on the color chart makes Quinacridone Sienna a complement-free pigment, easy to modify without revealing a hidden gray. Quinacridone Sienna works especially well in damp underpaintings overpainted with full-bodied pigments such as Indigo or Payne’s Gray. The fine clear Quinacridone particles collect and retreat, giving way to compressed pools surrounded by the premixed grays. Highly durable and extremely transparent, all the DANIEL SMITH Quinacridone colors excel in vivid clarity and intensity.

  I use this color in every painting.  Somewhere, in varying intensities.  It is an amazing and beautiful color.  Because it is a quinacridone and because it is intensely transparent, it can be blended or glazed with so many colors.  One of my all time favorites!



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