Umber is my friend...

Added color to "A Dinner Invitation" using watercolor. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

Before I painted it, I played around with some color mixing using my (VERY limited) assortment of watercolors. If there was one thing I remember from my college art instruction, it was the emphasis on getting darks by mixing complementary colors and avoiding black. I never really paid much attention to the siennas and umbers at all (remember - I tended toward the vibrant expressionist color palette back then).

I did have one instructor that required paintings done each week with limited color palettes (as dictated by him). I think it was a great exercise, HOWEVER there just wasn't time enough for me to really get into it and learn from it. I just always felt more focused on getting it done and moving on to the next thing.

Anyway, I have found that I LOVE umber - my new color friend. I love the earthiness it brings to colors - darkens them but keeps them warm (where black darkens but cools). I used both light and dark umber A LOT in the chicken drawing with colored pencil, and I used dark umber in many of the colors in today's painting.

A More Formal Look at Color...

I’m a little tired of working with pencil at the moment – as much as I enjoy the medium, it's too much of the same. It’s time for a little color.

I used to paint with oils in college, but those materials are long gone. I like oil paints, though - the textures and the smells. However, dealing with disposal of the chemicals and having kids around has encouraged me to give acrylics a try (and they're taking some getting used to).

One of the things I’ve wanted to do is make a color wheel. I’ve been wanting to understand color a lot more than I do and explore more color options. As I’ve mentioned before, I tend to fall back on the familiar bright, expressionistic color palette that I was so enamored with in college (and it was easy). And, the natural colors that I want to use now require less “out-of-the-tube” and more thoughtful mixing. I have done some simple color mixing swatches with some of colors, but it’s time to take it further. I feel like I’m back in Color Theory 101, but this time it's not just another exercise to get through - I know what I need to focus on and where I want to go with it.

I started this exercise last night by creating a series of circles for my color wheel and dividing it into 12 sections for primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. I figure I'll work with complementary pairs at a time. I still struggle with the quick-dry of acrylics, so this way I can quickly work from the same mixture all the way across the circle.

OOOoooooo, I’m looking forward to painting!