More Scheming

I’m having a bit of fun with different color schemes. Instead of doing another practice exercise, I went back to my watercolors and — just as I did with monochromatic painting — I used a complementary color scheme for a series of landscapes.

Here’s the first, which is based on violet and yellow:

 

I’ll admit I chose those two colors because I wasn’t sure how to use blue and orange or red and green in a landscape. Actually, I wasn’t even sure how to use violet and yellow, and if I were going to do it again, I’d probably make the skies yellow and the hills violet. The trees were painted with mixtures of both violet and a neutral made by combining the colors.

Next I decided to give blue and orange — my favorite complements — a try.

Finally, I did the scene a third time using red and green. This one was a disaster, but I’m posting it anyway since it’s part of my series. I loved the red sky, but I couldn’t imagine green mountains, so I made them more like hills.

And then…well, guess what I did. I didn’t let the paper dry before I started painting my trees. For the record, this was the second time in one day that I made that impatient mistake. It was almost time for my husband to get home from work, I wanted to clean up my painting area a bit, and honestly, I was getting a little tired of painting splotchy-looking pine trees. I added one tree, made a big mess of it, and said “That’s it. I’m done for the day.”

Now, I’m trying to decide what scheme I’ll use for my next watercolor practice session. I’ll probably try the split-complementary colors, and this time, I promise I’ll be patient. No more “ICKY” paintings for me.

As you look at these, bear in mind that these are only practice paintings. I didn’t take a lot of time working with values in the second one — and no time at all with the third one. Mostly I’m looking at colors, color-mixing, and how to apply a particular color scheme. It is a good learning experience.

Now, I’m off to the kitchen to make a brand new mess today!

Tags: Color schemes, Complementary colors