When I’ve chosen the subject for a painting and stretched my watercolour paper I then select most of the tubes of paint I think will work for both the subject and which ones will go well together.

Not all of the colours I’ll use in the painting are chosen at the start, however, and I’ll quite often wait until I’ve laid down some paint then place scraps of coloured paper against what I’ve already painted until I find a colour I like that suits what’s already there. I either find the required colour in a tube, or I’ll usually be able to mix two colours to get an accurate match.

I would rarely mix more than two colours together to make a third as I think this can result in muddy pigment and dull mixes of paint. The exception to this would be if I wanted a dark solid area in the picture.

Because I like to have a large selection of paints to choose from, I don’t have specific favourites I stick to and I like to pick and choose at random for each painting. This week I’ve been using Purple Madder, Rose Madder Genuine, Indigo, Cadmium Yellow Pale and Pthalo Green in my painting of Fritillaria.

It’s very interesting and sometimes a great shock to see the result of mixing colours I haven’t fully experimented with. When it comes to choosing paints I’m not one for staying within my comfort zone and am very happy to experiment with new colours. I don’t like always using the same colours with predictable outcomes and would far rather take a risk which makes each painting a fascinating adventure for me.

Aileen

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