and if there is a greater proportion of yellow you will create a yellowy-orange.
▲ Colour mixes
Practise mixing colours, using the ones shown here as a starting point.
Therefore, the most important rule when you are mixing colours is to put the predominant colour that you are trying to create into the palette first (with water). For example, if you wanted a bright yellowy green, you would put yellow into the palette first, then add small amounts of blue until you had mixed the green that you wanted. In this book, the first colour I specify is usually the predominant colour of the mix, with other colours added in smaller amounts.
It isn’t necessary to get the colour perfect. Practise mixing colours indoors, finding the colour of a cushion, an armchair, a piece of wallpaper, and so forth. Use any paper, even copier paper or the back of some old wallpaper – you’re not painting a masterpiece, you are mixing colours and practising for a masterpiece!
▲ Sunflowers
11 x 18 cm (4½ x 7 in)
Here I used Cadmium Yellow, Alizarin Crimson and French Ultramarine on Bockingford Not paper, beginning with the yellow petals. The dark centres were painted using all three primary colours with little water. I left white unpainted paper showing in some areas, which gives extra life to a watercolour.
QUICK TIP
Use plenty of water when mixing your pigments to keep colours transparent. Too little water can make them look muddy.
Watercolour washes
The term ‘wash’ simply means an area of paint applied to a watercolour painting – it can be as small as a 2.5 cm (1 in) square or the size of your painting. In its most perfect form, it is an area of colour that is equal in tone throughout with no blemishes.
The secret of producing a good flat wash is to use plenty of water and not to allow the wash to dry as you work it. Start at the top on dry paper and take a large brush, fully loaded, from left to right. Start on the left again, picking up the reservoir of paint left by the first stroke, work to the right and continue in this way to the bottom. The paper must be tilted slightly to allow the paint to run slowly down. You can add in different colours as you go. For a graduated wash, make the colour paler by adding water to the paint in your palette as you work down.
▲ Learning to paint a perfect flat wash is just a matter of following the basic principles and practising until it comes easily.
▲ Evening Sky
10 x 18 cm (4 x 7 in)
On Bockingford Not paper, I started the sky with French Ultramarine, adding Alizarin Crimson towards the horizon. The sea was French Ultramarine, and the headland was painted once that was dry.
Rough washes
Most of the time you don’t need to achieve a pristine wash – in fact a wash with blemishes and tone and colour changes gives life and movement to a sketch. From a practical point of view, having to work quickly outdoors does not allow for carefully laying a perfect wash and you will sometimes have to paint on top of a wash before it is perfectly dry, which will disturb any perfection you have managed to achieve. But remember, however you paint your sketches you must use plenty of water to keep your paintings fluid and simple.
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