Heavy with snow
Posted: February 25, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 4 Comments »There are some new paint additions to my travel palette this week. And they have wonderful names like New Gamboge and Aureolin. I ordered some half pans from Daniel Smith and I was able to add eight new colours in the spot where I used to carry my travel brush. I haven’t been happy with the colours that I added in December, especially the yellows. The lemon yellow and cadmium yellow are too opaque, almost like gouache, and not at all good for mixes. But with the addition of some beautiful transparent yellows like the two above, I should be ready for spring.
You certainly don’t shy away from difficult subjects… I don’t know how I would have tackled this one. You’ve done it well with those branches looking so weighed down with the load of the snow… not that I would know what snowy branches really look like.
Is this another backyard subject?
I tried this on a bigger sheet first but I am now so used to my little Moleskine that I eventually went back to that. This is another backyard subject.
I’ve noticed my cads all are opaque and that really effects doing skin mixes, too. I need to do some transparency tests on all my paints.
I have the same travel box, but wish now that I’d purchased full pan sizes instead of half pans. I love how durable it feels… the metal reminds me of the old school lunchboxes from my childhood.
Ya, cadmiums really are opaque. There are other good skin mixes. I tried yellow ochre and alizarin when I did life drawing a few weeks ago. It worked out well. Then you add a bit of blue in the shadows. I am going to look in my Charles Reid book and see if he has any good suggestions. He did such beautiful life sketches in watercolour.
I love the travel palette too but I prefer the half pans because now I have so many colours. I think the full pans are too big. Of course it depends on the brushes you use, which in my case are smallish since I’m working in the Moleskine. I would find the paint reservoirs too small if I hauled out my 3″ flat brush that I use for full sheets.