Blue is the colour of our sky and our oceans, both calm and turbulent, often streaked with grey or white, it envelopes our planet and gives our astronauts a blue marble to admire.
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In the foreground above you can see my Matisse Brilliant Alizarin. In the middle you can see my Golden Alizarin Crimson Hue. The colours are not the same. The equal to Golden in Matisse is the Deep Rose Madder that I have equally fallen in love with. My watercolours by Windsor and Newton have followed the Matisse preference for colour. So which of these is truly Alizarin?
This year I have decided to do the A to Z of colour. Not just about the colours themselves, but as the tools of our trade. I’m researching how the colours we use came about, their history, their many names, their properties and how we use them.
Zentangle is a tradename for meditative doodling. Grab a piece of paper, a pen and just draw. It has become a well defined artform with accredited Zentangle teachers, books, websites and groups of people focussed on this fun and relaxing art.
Do you remember string painting in primary school? Where with a lot of glue, string and mess, you make a picture out of gluing string to paper in patterns. If I recall correctly it was sometimes used to create a print as the string created a raised surface.
While my watercolour pencil explorations are on hold while Inktense and watercolour paints take over my interest, I will always have a fond thought for my hardworked watercolour pencils. They’ve done a lot of work.
V is for Vermillion. I love the colour vermillion, but as I asked Hubby the other day, is it orange or red? I’m voting orange, but of course, Hubby votes red
For a long time I used to look at other artists’ work and be intimidated, particularly if they were very good at what they did. I’m talking those artists that seem to be able to get their realism so real a photograph couldn’t do a better job. While I know I can draw quite well, there is no way I could do the great work that some artists can.
One technique I’ve found very inspirational is to create a background or texture, just slap in down, and create a piece of work from that. Half the challenge is taken once you have something on the canvas/page and textures are fantastic for doing that.