Values of Tube Colours

I thought I'd share my latest homework with you. ; )

In the left picture you can see that I placed a healthy brushstroke of every colour on my palette, fresh out of the tube, and put them down the centre of the page. Then, using ultramarine blue, burnt umber and white, I made greys to match the exact value of the colour. I got the first two wrong. Doh. But then I got the hang of it.

The picture on the right is a black and white photo of the same page. You can see I got most of my values right. (Phew). 

I learned that tube colours are a lot darker than I thought. Also, intensity, like the hot opera pink, is very misleading.

I did this exercise years ago and my repeating the exercise yesterday was long overdue. Very helpful!

charcoal and watercolour

Charcoal Drawing

Adding a second (and final) layer of watercolour

Some charcoal added to the shadow side

Last Tuesday's portrait night at Don Valley Art Club ended off our summer sessions just right. : )

I drew the model in charcoal, painted it with watercolour then brought it together with a layer of charcoal. The final charcoal, on the shadow side, didn't blend like I anticipated it would, I think because it was sitting on top of the watercolour. I like it, but I think it looks a bit 'rough' and I may save this technique for a male model next time. I'm happy that I played around and tried something different, which I guess is what it's all about...