Thursday, March 15, 2012

Orange and Mug

I stayed with gouache for today's painting.  It was done with a split-complementary palette of cobalt blue (hue), cadmium yellow (hue), cadmium red (hue) and permanent white Daler Rowney and painted on cold press watercolor paper.

I guess I should have used ultramarine instead of cobalt blue.  When the cobalt blue was mixed with cad red and white I ended up with a greyed down red violet.  It all makes sense to me now.  If you mix a green blue with a yellow red, you will end up with a dulled down color.  The ultramarine is more of a red blue and would have mixed a more vibrant color.  So, it depends on what look you are going for.

This was painted without putting down a drawing first.  I just started putting paint to paper and flew at it.  The most difficult stroke is the first one and after that it seems the right brain takes over and you end up with something resembling an orange and a mug.  I hope.

I know it's not the most exciting piece, but it is my daily painting.  Thanks for looking.



Doug

2 comments:

  1. Gorgeous little daily painting. The mug is wonderful. The orange looks a bit more flattened like a mandarin, clementine or tangerine - but not unreal, just like that's its shape, one of the flattened ones. I'm used to the big California navel oranges the size of a small grapefruit that are so sweet when you peel off the thick skin.

    Painting directly without a sketch is powerful. I've done that in watercolor and pastels sometimes, usually with great results.

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  2. The orange was a little more difficult that I thought. I had a tough time with such a round object. The mug was okay with all the shadows. I figured I would try painting without a drawing and really enjoyed it. No lines to stay between. That's always nice.

    Thanks for the comments, Robert.

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