On 01.02.02, I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Too late for surgery, I had chemotherapy, which failed. In May the chemotherapy was changed and I was soon in remission which was celebrated and welcome and lasted nine years - until October 2011. There was progression in 2011 so more treatment was indicated and I am now back in partial remission. But I'm not only a cancer patient - I also enjoy my family, walk my dogs and am learning to draw and paint. Life is good!

Monday, July 28, 2008

It's not easy finding green

I haven't made the color charts that are recommended whenever you get a new set of paints. But lately I've been unhappy with the greens that come from the tube or watercolor pencils and decided to mix my own.

That experiement created even worse colors so I decided to chart what I have in the hope of finding something that really looks like a color found in the natural world.

I began with my Prismacolor watercolor pencils because that was the smallest set and I wasn't completely sure how to create a chart. Now I understand the purpose of charting -- there were some surprises. The pencil Prismacolor named Goldenrod is one I never use -- but, when mixed with various blues, makes slightly dark greens, the colors I see outside my window. Unfortunately, when scanned it doesn't give the hue that I see in person.

I have other sets of watercolor pencils and, of course, actual watercolors. Now I'm planning to chart them all, just as I was supposed to a year ago when they were new.



Steve and I were sorry that "Foyle's War, " on PBS, is over. We have been watching the complete series on DVDs and enjoyed the final few that were shown this month. All by way of saying that I doodled my way through the final episode.

6 comments:

  1. I was watching Foyles War too... while drawing!
    I have really enjoyed the show, but I am still looking forward to the Lynley mysteries :)

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  3. Sorry, I couldn't edit the silly spelling error on the previous post so I deleted it. |
    Your chart looks great, and you've done some nice doodling there, too. Love that undulating purple!

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  4. I remember when I took a folk art class by Patricia Hauser we used oil paint and mixed our greens by mixing yellow and black. It gave luscious natural greens and with a touch of blue you have the spruce greens. I don't know if it would work with water colors as I haven't opened the tubes I bought two years ago. I know, I know but those watercolor pencils have done the little bit of color I've needed lately.

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  5. I like sap green in WC the veridian and pthalos look plastic to me although you can get OK greens with them by adding yellow or blue. Variations of sap, thin or thick, seem closer to what I see as green. Charts are helpful, color theory complex, Munsell color theory book I just took a peek at in college was about 4 inches thick!! Have fun painting.
    Continued success.

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  6. I stumbled upon this old post on your blog - Your color charts look great. I have a couple of color chart templates I created for my own supplies. Feel free to use them if you like the format: http://hiddenhobbies.blogspot.com/2009/05/fun-with-color-charts.html

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