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Oranges
Week two was OrangesOrange is one of my favourite colours, and I love the mixing pair of an orange and a blue. Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and a number of the orange-earth pigments are also neutralised...
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Reds
The third week was reds. It's rather a long time ago now - I've been to Bathurst and the UK and back, then New Zealand and back. So much to write about...I find reds fascinating. Adjust the bias from...
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A busy month...Bathurst, NSW
July started out with a great week teaching a 5-day watercolour workshop in Bathurst, NSW. It's run by Art Scene, a terrific art store in Sydney. Up to 25 tutors and a couple of hundred students head...
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Purples
Purples are easily mixed, but there are many different characteristics to explore - staining, granulating, lifting...Mixing yellows to neutralise purples creates another fabulous range of colours from...
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Teaching in Bath, United Kingdom. July 2016.
I flew into Heathrow and headed straight to Bath to prepare to teach another 5 day watercolour workshop. It's terrific having that much time to thoroughly introduce watercolour to both new and more...
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Cambridge
I didn't have very long in Cambridge this time, but as I was staying in an Air BnB with a bike, I was able to cover some ground :-)Gonville and Caius College, CambridgeI love the Gonville and Caius...
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Gamboge - what is it?
Many people are familiar with the name Gamboge, often called New Gamboge, but not so many will have come across the resin that made the original paint.Gamboge chunksNY24 is Natural Yellow 24 - natural...
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An Urban Sketching watercolour palette with Daniel Smith watercolours
I am often asked what colours to buy to start painting with watercolour. I created an 'ultimate mixing set' to address this question - a palette of 15 colours that will be suitable for mixing any...
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Blues
There are many wonderful blues. They vary in intensity, temperature and characteristics. In our blue week we had a fabulous range of blue objects to draw and paint and once again created the shadow...
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Using Daniel Smith watercolour sticks to make palettes.
Daniel Smith watercolour sticks cost less than a 15ml tube of DS watercolour paint but are made with 1.6 times the pigment load so they are a very economical way to buy watercolours - particularly the...
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What colour next?
I am setting myself a challenge. I made a palette that will have serious limitations, so that painting exactly what colour is there is not an option....like this range. There is not a bright yellow to...
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A 14-colour Granulating Earth pocket palette
Following on from the previous post about a 7-colour earth palette, I looked at the 'extras' I carry in my little Pocket Palette. (Note all watercolours are Daniel Smith)I normally set it up with 14 of...
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Greens
I missed out on a week of turquoise, which would have been the next logical colour, but added it in later. There's a fine line between a greenish-blue and a blueish green - when do they become...
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I have been a little quiet here lately. I had a fabulous trip to the UK in July, which I started to write about, including teaching a 5-day workshop in Bath and teaching at the Urban Sketchers...
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All that Grey...
Happy New Year. It's been a busy time getting our new house sorted and I still haven't unpacked everything I need in my art room - including my scanner - so please excuse the less than ideal photos. I...
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10 years x 10 classes Urban Sketching world wide workshops
For the first time, the Urban Sketchers organisation is offering long term workshops, all over the world. We'll have a series of 10 workshop classes created in a range of cities to celebrate 10 years...
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Watercolour Sticks from Daniel Smith
I wrote about making palettes using Daniel Smith watercolour sticks here.I thought I'd add some more information, with photos, since I have noticed that watercolour sticks are now more readily...
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MAC palette as watercolour palette - all my favourites - can you guess what...
There are many hundreds of different watercolours available, made with hundreds of different pigments and pigment mixtures. Over many years, I've been exploring the various pigments and colours...
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A bit more detail...
I've been asked for more detail about the colours I showed in the MAC Palette of my favourite watercolours last post. Here is what I like about each of them. I don't for a minute suggest anyone needs...
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Getting organised - are you a paper diary person?
It's funny how it can take the first month of the year to get organised for the rest of the year. I've been checking through my diary and notes from last year to carry over the (rather too many)...
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