Mixing Watercolors

Mixing Watercolors - student project

Thank you so much for this class.

Such a simple exercise that I have been neglecting for such a long time.

I ended up spending about a week going through all of my watercolors and some gouache and really studying the colors. Then I got a new set of half pans in, so I obviously had to try them all out. :P I even went through some new watercolor pencils. 

I also made a bunch of crazy abstracts to use up the paint. 

Mixing Watercolors - image 1 - student project

I learned a lot from mixing my Dr Ph Martins Hydrus. I picked the red, blue, and yellow I thought would create a fairly primary palette. You can see (on the left below) that I was so off. The red, blue, and yellow that made a primary palette were completely different colors. Blew my mind.

Mixing Watercolors - image 2 - student project

Below was the mess I made with some watercolor tubes.

Mixing Watercolors - image 3 - student project

Also tubes.

Mixing Watercolors - image 4 - student project

Gouache. This was fun. I only had primary colors from years ago when I was in school. I had never even used them. I was able to get a nice little palette for the bottom abstract.

Mixing Watercolors - image 5 - student project

Last is from my new set of Sennelier half pans. Was super excited to see what these looked like. Some brush practice happening, too.

Mixing Watercolors - image 6 - student project

This is such a versatile activity, and will be an indispensable part of my process going forward. I can't believe I never took the time to study my paints! 

Next up will be some blending sessions! I will update with that progress soon.