“Sometimes you can express the color of something without using the obvious colour … You build up a kind of colour that is purely an interpretation of the truth.”
Andrew Wyeth: Autobiography page 52
Wyeth also talks about picking up a tube of watercolour from a disorganized box and working with whatever colour was in it, taking advantage of the accidental.
If you’re not quite ready for this (I’m not sure I am!), how about sorting out your tubes of blues, reds, etc, and grabbing one at random rather than picking a particular blue, red, etc?
Yes I’m not sure I’m ready to be that random either. However I do use a lot of what others might consider unrelated or random colours, most often adjacent colour, but sometimes quite divergent – building the surface and layering so that the net effect might be of a particular hue, but it’s modulated here and there so they eye doesn’t feel fatigued by too great an expanse of one specific frequency.
Having said that, this could be a great way to deal with a painting you’re ‘stuck’ with – really force yourself to think differently about it…
Oh dear – not sure this for me. Mrs Organised holds her colour charts against the reference and carefully selects the colours. Then gently places the chosen ones into a box so they don’t get mixed up. Pick a colour at random – I think I’d have to lie down first!!
Hi Margaret LOVE your FUNNY comment 🙂
[ i’m possibly at the other end of this rainbow- havta experiment and like to go with my ‘gut’ and visualization of the end result, then hold my breath [well NOT literally] to see how it all pans out 😀
Grace – I think its brilliant to see how others work. With all different styles and approaches we get such a variety of artwork to enjoy.
I have done just that – picking up something at random. Can be fun. But most of all – I’ll begin a new painting or finish one – not wanting to put out new paint and use what’s on the palette. I’ve gotten some real interesting and wonderful surprises. One can always cover it up if you don’t like it!