Newsletter January, 2005 A Free Newsletter for Those Who Love to Paint

Color of the Month

Indanthrone Blue

Indanthrone Blue - A deep rich blue, usually even darker and cooler than ultramarine blue. It is close to indigo, but a little warmer. I find it a good color for shadows in landscapes, a base for denim (if you don't have indigo), and a good base for anything navy.

Tool of the Month

Backpack With Wheels

Mine is purple. I use my backpack to carry my supplies to class or to go outside for plein aire painting. In addition to the traditional backpack straps, which I never use, there is a stationary handle at the top plus an extending handle that allows me to drag the backpack along on its wheels. You can also get small pieces of luggage with a similar setup. There are several advantages to using a case with wheels, the most obvious is that you don't have to lift it to carry it, just roll it along. Some bags are designed to act like a hand truck and allow you to stack another item on it. Stairs can be problem if you have many in your path, but access ramps and elevators give you a way around them. Just make sure you get a bag that is large enough to hold what you want to pack. The biggest item I keep in mine is my palette, so I made sure that it would fit. There are many features available, I like having several outer pockets for small items, pick the features that suit your needs. Next time you're choosing a carryall for your supplies, consider getting something with wheels. It just might make getting there are little bit easier.

Green Skies?

Do you even wind up with green in your sky when you had no intention of putting it there? Has your golden sunrise turned gray? These are common problems when blending colors that really shouldn't be blended for these spaces.

The solution is to put a 'fence' between colors that will muddy when blended or colors that will create an unwanted color in a space. For skies I usually use pink as my fence - alizarin and white, but you may choose your own depending on your tastes and your particular painting.

Blue and yellow usually mix into green. Purple and yellow usually mix into gray. So keep them separated with a fence. A fence is a small band of your color between the two colors that you don't want to mix. It doesn't have to be very wide, just enough so that one color can blend into the fence from one direction and the other color can blend into the fence from the other side. You can completely loose the fence color or keep a small portion in view - your choice. By keeping the two main colors apart you avoid the third unwanted color.

Some people choose to wait until the blue or purple is dry before putting in the yellow but that too is tricky since just glazing over the first color can still create the unwanted one.

This same principle can be use in any area of a painting, not just a sky, whenever blending is wanted, but an unwanted color is not. Keep a fence in mind the next time you want to avoid muddying the situation.

Samples Without a Fence and With a Fence
nofence fence

Sample Palette

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