Painting The Seasons In Watercolor

As we know you should theoretically be able to achieve any color you want from the three primaries ( How to use the colour wheel), however in practice all primaries come with a leaning to one of the other two. This means that using a french ultramarine blue to make a cool green is going to be a disaster. Using a cadmium red to make a bright purple is fraught with danger. And using a lemon yellow to mix a striking orange is a no-no. Why is this?

• french ultramarine blue has a red cast, the complementary of green


• cadmium red has a yellow cast, the complementary of purple


• lemon yellow has a blue cast, the complementary of orange

The addition of the small amounts of complementary colors to a secondary colour does of course "grey" and darken the required secondary color. This gives us a principle for mixing bright and striking secondary colours. The principle is :- to only mix the primaries which have a color cast edging them to the required secondary.

In your studio palette, use at least six colours, two of each primaries. You may add one or two earth colours to this and possibly ready mixed greys or secondary colors, but of course these are not necessary, merely convenient.
>My basic water color palette consists of:-

• Prussian Blue (cold cast)


• ultramarine blue ( warm cast)


• cadmium red ( warm cast)


• alizarin crimson ( red with blue cast)


• cadmium yellow ( warm cast)


• paynes grey


• burnt sienna


• raw sienna


• I often use a third blue, either cobalt or cerulean which are fairly close to a pure blue and can be used to mix with reds or yellows


• I have no ready mixed secondary colors in my palette.

for bright oranges, I mix cadmium red and cadmium yellow
for bright greens, I mix prussian blue and lemon yellow
for bright purples, I mix ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson

Each pair already have a colour cast, edging them towards the secondary color being mixed. This minimises the complentary color additions to the hue required and therefore provides the best possible starting point and the brightest mixed colors.

What is it that makes monochrome paintings so interesting, or not? The use of tones must be well done, tonal contrasts mean that a painitng will stand or fall. Colors add something but cannot make up for poor tonal contrast. Make sure that you get your tones right before you start to paint. But that is another lens. Compare this with the intro image, a very different feel. But now, what do colors do for us?

The sketch below, shows a couple walking their dog along a path in a forest. Notice the "warm" reds in the foreground giving the composition a reversed "L" shape. This colour gives the sketch an overall warmth and suggests to me a warm autumn evening. Even the green foliage is quite a bright green sharply contrasting with these warm colors.

The next sketch is of a similar subject but uses much cooler blues in the background and an earthy color, which although a warm colour is not so marked as the reds in the first sketch above. What does this say to you? Definitely a cooler spring day to me.

Now I show three pages from my sketchbook with suggestions for a three color palette:-

The palettes and the season I think they best represent are in order:-

• Spring: prussian blue / burnt sienna / lemon yellow


• summer, cobalt blue / cadmium red / cadmium yellow


• autumn, ultramarine / alizarin crimson / raw sienna

Just to complete this little listing, I often use ultramarine / burnt sienna and raw sienna for winter images. But go light on the raw sienna.

I hope you will find this expose useful and of help to you on your sketching expeditions. You do sketch outdoors, don't you?

This painting is done in just two colours, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. It could easily be a winters day or an evening after the sun has gone down, the moon is irrelevant to this "feel" and just offers a point of focus in an area otherwise very bland. The burnt sienna is only a little on the warm side of the blue but does bring the foreground forward enough to increase the depth in the painting.

The overall effect is cold and wintry, try the combination out for yourself.

Of course not!. As in all branches of the arts, use your skills and select what is right for you at that time. If you haven't a particular color in your palette then no need to fret. The above color schemes are merely for guidance. use your own initiative and think about the subject, do not blindly follow. Most rules in the arts are made to be broken, but................ you need to know why you are breaking them and ask yourself, "is it the best way forward?"

Take the painting here. It is another of my landscapes, you may be able to recognise the main sky colour is ultramarine blue, and this is confirmed by the fact that as usual the colour wash is granulated, but notice the small patch of cobalt blue ( I think, even I can't be sure here) right at the top. It makes a nice contrast in the sky and looks as though it is the blue sky above the clouds. Also note the roofs of the cottages are a cadmium red. It simply fitted the subject, can you imagine a crimson roof. OK I could have toned it down but they make a nice focal point in the painting. The raw sienna is used to link together the cottages and emphasise the diagonal in the composition.

I thought that a few more examples would help to show how the use of a seasonal palette can work.

The first image shows a sketch from a summer holiday, spent in Jersey in the Cannel Islands. Lots of light and bright colours. I hope you agree that it certainly looks summery. The second image uses cobalt blue and greens for a similar subject. Although In this case it could be any of the warmer seasons, I do still feel it is a summery sketch.

Now consider the following sketches:- The first is actually in pastel but I am using it here as an example of the use of colours so you will have to excuse this. It is drawn with mainly blue tints. A very cold feeling and could be a winter evening perhaps. Whilst the latter has touches of warm red in the sky indicating a possible summer sunset. I know that red skies are seen in other seasons but it is the feeling that the colours generate in the viewer which gives me that impression.

Make those colours work for you, it isn't difficult and the easiest way is to use a limited palette that you can get to know.