playtime

Rainy days are just the right time to play with watercolor. After reading Austin artist Lisa Spangler’s email newsletter from last December, I put together a limited palette of her “core palette colors” by themselves. Just to see how they play . . .

(I didn’t have her azo yellow so I substituted Hansa yellow.)

triad pyramids

Today the electrician had our power turned off while they upgrade the meter, which meant the water from our well was also turned off. However, they are out of Houston and don’t seem to know how rural electric cooperatives work — and they had failed to line up someone from the co-op to be onsite to unlock the box.

So we waited and waited . . . . I spent the time painting this new-to-me pyramid form of color chart, which I learned about from Greenleaf and Blueberry’s blog. I can’t afford to buy their gorgeous handmade watercolors but the blog is full of great information.

It’s a good thing I had just refilled the teapot because I had to change my water a lot!

yet another iPhone card

With my recent post about switching my studio palette from “rainbow order” to a grouping of 4 different “primaries + green + neutral”, I guess it’s inevitable that the card in the back of my phone case reflect the change as well.

I actually started a sketch outside, sitting next to the pool enjoying the sunshiny day — that was 2 days ago! I was distracted by other things that needed doing and places we needed to go and appointments to be kept.

Isn’t that how it normally goes? Perhaps I’ll get back to that poolside sketch tomorrow. After a trip to check out a tile store in Houston and a meet-up with our daughter and a wee bit of gift shopping . . .

random sketchbook pages

As I keep busy making sketches to print and sell in October, my artist journal has been a bit neglected. But every now and again, I just play a bit in it. Here, I threw some unused pans of paint together in a flat mint tin I had just emptied of mints . . . Very bright colors for me! Quinacridone red (these days, I prefer quin. rose), Hansa yellow (I had a half-pan each of light and medium), and cobalt blue dark (a color I once tried but never quite took to) --- plus 3 neutrals and a sponge to clean a waterbrush on.

Then the next day I drew our new bathroom door, an oak barn door Bill made. The room is so tiny anyway, plus our stacked washer / dryer is in there behind where the old door opened, that a sliding door made more sense. And it just looks good in our rustic log cabin.

pocket palette primaries

Before filling this repurposed palette shown in a previous post, I used a journal page to determine which red watercolor I wanted to include in the earthy, muted triad. Before now, I had been using quinacridone burnt scarlet but have always thought it a bit orangy. So I tested it with two other choices, Indian red and perylene maroon, to see what kind of oranges and purples eaxh one made.

Though I love Indian red's earthy quality, the mixed orange seems a bit dull --- more like a yellow ochre or raw sienna. So I chose the maroon.

On the opposite page, I made a color wheel for both the bright and the earthy primary sets, then tested a few of the colors with the two convenience colors.

a muted, granulating triad

I've been playing with a different muted primary triad recently --- one using granulating pigments. This was suggested to me by Jane Blundell, though she used a different "red". Raw umber violet was what I had on hand. I also added a green and a neutral, both granulating, for convenience.

(BTW, this palette had another fold-out mixing area that I removed to make it lighter. Didn't use that area much anyway.)

I'm not happy with the greens mixed from goethite and blue apatite.

So I tried replacing the goethite with monte amiata natural sienna --- much brighter but still a muted, granulating pigment.

On it's own, I love how goethite looks when painted in large areas but I'd like better greens without resorting to the sap green.

I also could not paint the bright gold of two of my favorite paint brushes using goethite, but the natural sienna works pretty good.

Even when I am sketching at home, I find myself grabbing my travel brushes rather than those in my "studio". I just prefer how they work.

one more color chart

Phthalo blue is SO INTENSE -- though I love the clarity of the color, it has intimidated me and I have used it very little in the past. So . . . . one more day of color-play using the limited "3 primaries plus 2 neutrals" palette before plunging into the challenge.

color chart for tiny pill box palette

The half-pans in my pill box primaries-plus palette are left-over paints I wasn't using elsewhere. Slightly more subdued than the primaries-plus colors in the first-aid box set. I think these would brighten up considerably if I exchanged the cobalt blue deep for phthalo blue.


I haven't actually started using the limited primaries-plus palettes due to daily busyness and wanting to finish working on the toned papers that came next in my sketchbook. But I'm looking forward to using the limited palette for the next month or so. It's a fun little challenge a few of us are doing prompted by this post by Cathy "Kate" Johnson.

new minimal, lightweight palettes

I have put together limited primary palettes before but I never really got into using them on a regular basis. I've decided to give them more attention in the next few weeks, placing them in very lightweight plastic. The full kit is a travel-size first aid kit; the ultra-tiny palette is a wee pill box, which I can easily carry in purse or pocket with a waterbrush and paper towel.

In the first aid box: permanent rose, Hansa yellow medium, phthalo blue, quinacridone burnt orange, and Payne's grey. Plus 3 pencils, a tiny dip pen, 2 brushes, an eraser, and sponge.

In the pill box, I'm using up extra half-pans not being used elsewhere: rhodonite genuine, Hansa yellow medium, cobalt blue dark, quin. burnt orange, and Payne's grey. With the addition of a waterbrush, paper towel, and pen, I'm ready to go.