Spring Thaw - Painting a Day
“Spring Thaw” - Watercolor on paper - 15″ x 11″ - 140# paper
We’ve been discussing color studies recently in the everyday matters yahoo group, so I’m posting this, and the preliminary “thumbnail” study as an example of that sort of thing. In a value study, the lights and darks (without color) are the most important thing. In a color study, you work out the colors you’re going to use in your painting in a very “shorthand” way. Sometimes I’ll do both; more often I’ll just do a value sketch.
In this case, because I was going to be using a very limited triad palette of phthalo blue, raw sienna and burnt sienna, I tested the colors beforehand in my Raffine sketchbook. This lets me see how the colors will look together before committing them to a big sheet of paper.
So, what can a color study do for you?
It shows you the overall pattern of lights and darks.
It shows you what colors you’ll be using and how they’ll mix and mingle on paper
It gives you an idea of whether or not they’ll harmonize.
4″ x 5″ in Raffine sketchbook.
Really, I’m loving the paintings with the very limited palettes. This (and the previous one) are so fresh and lively, and the colors are clear and not at all overworked. Wonderful!
Karen, the colors are so nicely chosen. Wonderful. The water, the stones. Everything looks perfect. I love this one.
Nice, I really like this. The water seems so alive.
I like this a lot..it is light and fresh with just the right colors and strokes…beautiful.
Ronell
Karen thank you very much for an easy to understand example on colour studies. You’ve captured movement and reflections sooo well in this piece too. I’m still running away from trying one out. Living next to a small pond does not help. I’m reminded about being a wimp on a daily basis
Thanks again.
I know what paints to get first from Daniel Smith! This palette perfectly captures the mood of the scene and you’ve masterfully executed it! Thank you for sharing your process!
Beautiful, such a lovely study of water (which I consider so hard to capture) I can see this value thing is something I will have to work on Big Time - thank you for this example.
Thank you for these, they are a very useful learning tool to look at, lovely painting. I too have problems with water and this is very helpful.
This one, and the previous one (Pines) bring to my mind the loose, sketchy style of Sargent, one of my favorite watercolorists. I think I’ll try that color study process; I can see that using it helps sort things out.