I reflect on my watercolor palette. Why do I want to change colors?
Happy Friday dear readers!
Today I want to share with you a little reflection on my selection of watercolor colors.
Since I started in this whole world it is something that has seemed very complex to me. Everyone talks about finding our personal style, selecting our own colors that make us unique,…. And, although at first it seems simple, I consider it to be more complex than simply copying the palette of our favorite artist.
Color allows us to express our feelings in a quite profound way. Maybe if you are having a bad day, you decide to paint the sky in muted, dark tones. If, on the other hand, you feel super happy, you may unconsciously tend to use more vivid and saturated tones.
When I defined my palette, I was very happy with the choice. With the help of my swatch notebook, I reflected on which colors I liked the most and with which I achieved the most interesting mixtures.
Over time, I realized that some of the colors I didn't use, they took up very valuable space in my palette that other tones could be occupying. It was then when I decided to transfer all those colors to godets and make room for the new additions.
There are times when I feel that my engineer self takes over my mind, I get confused looking for formulas to achieve the perfect work. When I am aware of it, I stop and give myself space. There is no perfect color combination, evolution is necessary to grow as an artist.
Analyzing my initial color palette
I leave you my initial color palette in case you are curious.
There are colors that are essential for me today, such as Forest Blue (Schmincke), Greenish Yellow (Holbein), Buff Titanium (Daniel Smith), Naples Yellow (Sennelier), Light Red (Holbein) and Tundra Orange (Schmincke) .
As you can see, they are not conventional colors, they are earthy and muted tones.
The colors that I have decided to remove from my palette are: Lemon Yellow (Cotman), Turquoise (Cotman), Prussian Blue (Cotman), Viridian Tone (Cotman) and Burnt Sienna (Cotman).
Before using lemon yellow I always used Aureolina (Sennelier); I have not used the turquoise and viridian tone even once; When I need a dark blue, I prefer to mix Payne's Gray (Schmincke) with any of the blues in my palette rather than using Prussian blue, and burnt sienna is very similar to light red. As time went by, I realized that these colors didn't add anything to me, I just had them there.
And, since we are constantly evolving, I have decided that my color palette too.
Since I have quite a few doubts about what new colors I want to incorporate, I have decided to put them to the test. I have selected a few new shades and placed them in godets in the free spaces. I will have them there for a while and little by little I will see how they work for me.
I invite you to try this method, to put your colors to the test, they will surprise you!!
See you next time,
Bye!!
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