17 August 2013

Colour mixing 2

This week I've been obsessed with painting dictionary pages. Pages 935-1251 are now covered (one side only) -
White and Payne's Grey are always on hand, and for each session (15-20 painted pages, about 2 hours) I use a limited range of colours, mixing in one after another to the paint that's left from the previous page. I don't have enough experience to know what will happen, so there are lots of surprises along the way - and though I'm trying to avoid brown, I'm starting to appreciate its nuances...
Russniak-ryve to scapus-scatological 1135-1155
medium magenta, naples yellow, cobalt blue, titanium white
rest-resuscitate to run-runcible 1103-1133
naples yellow, cobalt blue, magenta, paynes grey
quadrilateral-qualify to residue-resonance 1055-1101
yellow light hansa, naples yellow, mixing white, paynes grey, french ultramarine
presentient-pressure to Pythia-pzazz 1017-1053
prism violet, french ultramarine, titanium white, naples yellow, paynes grey, mixing white
pipe-pirlicue to prenzie prerogative 975-1015
cadmium red, paynes grey, titanium white, prism violet, french ultramarine, bright green
paw-pea to pine-Pinna 935-973
cobalt blue, viridian, mixing white, paynes grey, cadmium red, french ultramarine
A new "rule" has emerged, as a result of working forward in the book - the final page of the session should be related to the painted page that follows it. This gives something to work towards, and is a matter of using one of the colours that started the previous session. The colours added for each page are written in the margin, so the colour mix can be traced back -
This yummy blue contains a big dash of French Ultramarine into a mix of Cobalt Blue, Viridian, white, and (way back, so just a tiny bit) Cadmium Red.

My tube of Titanium White was old and looked a bit grainy - and this is what happened when a mixture containing it was applied with the palette knife -
Useful for certain effects, no doubt - it goes back in the drawere, and I've bought a new tube.

This project has to be put away as we're heading to Edinburgh for a few days, on account of family involvement in this production, and to see what else we can see.

2 comments:

Cate Rose said...

You continually blow my mind, my dear!

Anonymous said...

Terrific project. What a beautiful and useful work of reference this will be by the time you reach zymurgy!