I noticed that the compliment people make the more often about my watercolors is “I looooove your colors!!”. 😀🎨😳😁 Thank you so much, guys, by the way, for the kind words!! ☺️
That’s true that I am pretty at ease with colors… Maybe there is something special about my use of colors?… Not so sure… Do you think so?!
My critic self often thinks that I work too much with colors and that this does a bit of harm to the value impact of my pieces…Painters often say that values are more important than colors (which is highly probably true) so that’s not so good to be too much into colors !
So, I guess my challenge is to keep my bold bright colors while trying to catch, as often as I can, a strong sense of light too.
If I had a share a few tips about color, I would say…
🔹 Look for color in every subject, not only flowers but also urban settings or mundane objects!
🔹 Forget grey and brown. Use a broken blue / a light blue / a purplish blue / a blue-grey for blues and some nice orange or reddish colors for brown! You can always find a tint for these “neutrals”. 😉
🔹 Remember that watercolor fades when drying. Some colors make us think “whoooo, too strong!!” when applied and end up not bright enough at the end! So don’t grey down your colors, don’t make them dirty because of your fears. Use them pure and bright and you’ll see! You can always glaze something on top at the end if the result seems too strong,
🔹 Think of using color variations. To make this red subject exciting, use some red here, some pink there, some crimson out there and even a bit of orange… and let them mix on the paper ! Let you wash dry in peace 😉 before touching it again or saying it look too weird! 😁
🔹 Add a few really dark touches at the end to make the color pop. Once again, The painting can look garish if the values are too shy, too soft. With a dark area just near, you bright color will get a new impact. 🙂
🔹 Try to balance warm and cool colors. If you know you are going to paint bluish shadows (cool) all over your sketch, use a warm color (sandy beige yellowish color) for your building. If, at the contrary, the painting looks really warm (a lot of red, yellow, orange colors), dress your character with a cobalt blue shirt or add a purplish blue background or -once again- shadow.
Hope that helps! ☺️
It feels so good to publish a new article here! 😀
I hope it feels good for you too!!!! 😅😜
I have a lot of painting adventures planned this late spring / summer so I hope I will find a chance to share it with you, maybe with shorter articles.
Take care and create!! 😘
