What colors do you use Ginette? A magical cypress tree watercolor and ink painting by Ginette Fine Art
Cypress Tree Sunset
A magical cypress tree watercolors and ink painting by Ginette Fine Art
I finished my latest watercolors and ink of a lone cypress tree, guarding a sunset in the wetlands somewhere in the southeast of the United States. The outcome is magical , if I may say so myself.
My previous post was a video on how I did the ink line work on this painting.
Today I am going to post the long version (not speed up) for those of you who like to see more of my technique and have the patience to watch a longer video. Show your appreciation by visiting my YouTube channel and subscribing, liking and sharing. I'd love to get more subscribers.
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So now that we have this out of the way. Allow me to say a few words about my video. The video itself has some low key music. No narration.
My intent is to show the process of painting, for me anyway, is very intuitive, almost spiritual. I am not much of an academic person.
I wanted you to observe the watercolor, the brushes and my hand and just let it soak in. Not on a technical intellectual level but on an emotional level. If you prefer not to hear the music, simply mute the sound.
That being said, there is a certain level of academics to creating art. In painting, obviously we are talking about "paint". That usually involves colors. One of the question I get is "What colors do you use?" Well sometimes I just take pictures of my tubes, or write out exactly what colors I used. I make a list.
What colors do you use Ginette?
Today I want to say something that is much more important then what colors I use or what colors anyone uses. When I first started to paint, the very first thing I did was learn about colors, I got a color-wheel to study the range of hues and how they relate to one another. OK a color-wheel is a good start and a must have but I also read many books and with the internet starting to take off I eventually had a great resource to find articles to learn from. Learning about colors is the first step to painting.
There are two main color realms cool and warm, cold or hot whichever you prefer. But basically it means a color is cool like blue is a cool color, and a color is warm like red is a warm color. Both together compliment each other. 2/3 of blue and 1/3 of red would be the distribution and that would mean the palette is dominated by blue or blue tones and complimented by red or red tones.
On the color-wheel they are opposite. So if you look at the color-wheel, I suggest find three colors, a cool, a warm and one that is it's neighbor, either a warm neighbor or a cool neighbor. Use these three colors and paint away. Do an abstract piece if you like, so all you focus on is colors at first. Make sure you stay true to the color you want to dominate. Do you want the painting to be warm overall, than make your warm choice dominate by using 2/4 warm, 1/4 of the warm neighbor and and 1/4 cool. Now that is colors simplified. Now we do have mixing these colors and adding other colors, graying down colors, making them lighter, but this is a great simple start for anyone. You learn about colors by osmosis by doing. You get these "Aha moments" and your eyes will tell you when it sings. At least this is how it happens with me.
That is a good start and it would probably be good for me to remember that too, because it is so easy to get carried away with all the tubes of colors and not stick with teh principles. But sticking with teh principles of warm versus cool and 2/3 1/3 distribution really makes for great paintings.
I am keenly aware of my short comings as an artist, the mistakes I make, and I am far from being a great artist, so what I say here is certainly not the advise of an expert, but it is the advise of someone who learned to paint, in my way by the seat of my pants. Still learning, I paint because it is freedom for me. Thank my to my collectors for keeping me going, I can never thank them enough.
The color palette of "Cypress Tree Sunset" is dominated by a blue/purple hue. If you like this palette also see another recent watercolors and ink piece. "Magnolia Gardens South Carolina" Click either image to learn more or buy.
