San Pietro colours
Posted: January 27, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized 19 CommentsThere are a few colours I have on my two palettes that I love using when I am painting urban scenes, especially city scenes with lots of signage. The reason I have Naples Yellow, Lavender, Cobalt Green and Cobalt Teal on the palettes is because they’re semi-opaque pigments, so I can use them quite thickly and effectively on top of dark areas like windows and doors.
Cobalt Green is a new addition to the group. I found good use for it the other day when I was painting Épicerie San Pietro.
You might have already tried this out with your pigments, but if you’re not sure if your colours are transparent, opaque or semi-opaque, test them out by painting with them on top of a dark (and dry) swatch of watercolour (like I did below), or across a black line drawn from a thick Sharpie pen. The transparent pigments will disappear and the opaque pigments will sit on top of the dark surface, like these four did below.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
Great tip. Merci.
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Glad it was helpful Janice!
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Beautiful painting. Interesting to learn your process to make those type of paintings.
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Thanks Charly.
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And what brands are these beautiful colors?
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Nicole, the brands are all photographed here for you to see: https://shariblaukopf.com/sketching-materials/
Hope that helps!
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Thanks!
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Gorgeous, I love this – thank you for sharing xx
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And thank you for writing!
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Do they live in your regular palette or a separate one? I like some opaques a lot but when they’re in my regular palette I tend to use them in mixes and make muddy colors very quickly…ben thinking of making a tiny one of very opaque colors.
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Suhita, they live in my larger studio and plein air watercolour palette, not in my travel sketching palette. They need a spot where they can’t poison other colours with their opaqueness. My travel palette is mostly transparent and non-staining. The only troublemaker in there is Cobalt Teal because it never dries, but I can’t live without it.
As for muddiness, yes, these colours make mud if you mix them but in these city scenes I tend to use them on their own when I need spots of brightness. I use lots of Cadmium Red for that too, but forgot to mention that. Here is the bigger palette: https://shariblaukopf.com/2019/01/12/painting-palette-updated/
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ah yes that teal: you got me hooked on that one 🙂 Thanks for the large palette link Going to make an opaques palette.
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Thank you..I wondered about the green:)
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You’re welcome.
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I am glad you are discussing colors. I am in need of a shift in my palette colors as I am going to Costa Rica this spring. I will need some more jungle-like colors as well as some bright colors. I just keep thinking about all of the different green colors. Having never been there I just don’t know what to do. I enjoy looking at other people’s palettes for various projects.
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Lisa, I went to Costa Rica a few years ago and I changed my palette for that too. This green and lots of bright blues would be perfect, as well as some bright yellows and oranges. I didn’t use a whole lot of earth tones when I was there. Have a wonderful time there!
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Shari, Thanks so much for the tip. I wondered if you had been there before since you are a world traveler. I don’t get to travel all that much so this is one of those once in a life time trips. I am so looking forward to it.
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That cobalt green is a beautiful color and really catches your eye. Lovely job on this!!
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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