September 16, 2012

TRIAL AND ERROR


You would think that by now I would know about color theory.
Opaque and transparent, but through the years it  has been trial and error.   Yes, sort of like my life.!!!.       
That's what comes from being self taught. I've never liked tube greens and always mixed my own using various yellows and blues, mostly colors that I liked (still do ) New Gamboge, Ultra Blue being amongst them. 
 A few years back I read a book Making Color Sing by Jeanne Dobie, and at the time I was still mixing and mushing and making mud.  MUD -- the favorite color of artists that don't know a whole lot about color mixing.
 Now I've taken it more seriously and putting (trying) it into practice.
  Out of these few transparent colors you can do a lot and you won't make mud. You pros already know all this. 
 I've taken a liking to cobalt blue, aureolin yellow, always did like rose madder genuine, viridian  and the very staining transparents,  Winsor blue and  Winsor green, alizarin crimson.  I've been on a sunflower rant the past few days. Sharing  one with you.
Not one of the best, but hey Ma Look !   No mud!  BJ

24 comments:

  1. I am packing my paints up and coming for lessons. Beautiful work Miss Barbra Joan!

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  2. Well great Sharon, Come on down!!!

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  3. Wow I coming too! :) Great sunflowers! I don't seem to be able to paint them, maybe it's the mud.

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  4. I love making greens with Quiacridone gold and Ultra marine blue. The tricky part is to find a good gold, some are muddy to beging with.

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  5. Oh Judy I've yet to see you make mud. !! LOL !

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  6. Lovely sunflowers BJ.
    I can't believe you've made mud, ever!

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  7. Hi Barbara,I visited your blog after long time.Loved your sunflowers and I would like to mention the portrait of your daughter.It's amazing.

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  8. I think this is beautiful, BJ! Not one of your best indeed. I love all your work and that is why I found your blog and have been visiting ever since. Well, that and because I just love you too. Anyway, I don't often make mud, but I sure wish I could get drawing down as well as I have color. Sigh...

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  9. Yes - mud is just horrible isn't it? I try and avoid all opaque colours for that very reason. Your sunflowers are beautiful! :0)

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  10. Beautiful fresh colours in those sunflowers BJ, and not a drop of mud in sight :) Mixing greens and neutrals is where we all tend to make mud!

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  11. Dear BJ - your sunflowers are stunning. I don't believe you ever made mud...I on the other hand have made lots and lots of it. Read Jean Dobies book as well - wonderful and one I should put on my shelf to revisit from time to time - she made lovely grays didn't she? Thanks so much for sharing your art. It is truly lovely.

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  12. Ah-hah!! MUD!! My speciality! Oh I am so good at making mud ... I do it every single time and find it so easy I hardly realise I'm doing it.

    Your painting is wonderful. ;)

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  13. Hello Barbra Joan:) Me too love to mix my own greens! Your sunflowers are beautiful. If these are not your best, I'm very curious what follows:) Your greens are beautiful:)

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  14. Thanks all of my fellow mud makers.
    I'm bound and determined to use clean , clear transparent colors, with a little burnt sienna thrown in !!!! BJ

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  15. love your Sunflowers BJ they are so lovely, I saw 2 fields of them today..your colors are beautiful,sending you a hug!! love,Diana

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  16. lovely sunflowers :)

    http://sketchesofwords.blogspot.com/

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  17. Gorgeous Sunflowers, BJ ... love them! :)

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  18. BJ, oh, no mud! Your work is beautiful. Love the sunflowers. Gorgeous.

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  19. Looks marvellous to me just marvellous. I use black and yellow to make some greens.

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  20. Amo girassóis! os seus estão maravilhosos. Parabéns! valerisouza-telas.blogspot.com

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  21. I think that you can read art books until you're blue in the face, but the "trial and error" that you talk about is often the best method (eventually!)

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  22. Hi BJ, get some Perylene Maroon in there! It's my favourite red and I use it for almost everything. The transparent yellows are very good. Schmincke's is lovely, although it looks awful in the raw. Mud? Never! :)

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  23. Love Sunflowers! In Sept helped out at the Sunflower Festival. Those look like some photo's I took. So Lovely. Seeing fields and fields of them is something to behold.

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  24. Barbra Joan, you do transparent watercolor beautifully and it really is important to understand what paints do not make mud! Love this piece.

    I finally returned from my travels and have been over the top busy. Bob and I are doers and it is easy to overcommit. I am coming up for air now!

    Hope all is well in your world.

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