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Shadow colour
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Message
Posted
For my last 'Rose'-painting, I used a mixture of cobalt blue with cadmium red for the shadow on the flower and to paint the branches. It was the first time I used this combination and I am rather pleased with the result.
For my earlier watercolours, I mixed neutral tint with cobalt blue but that seemed a bit too greyish. I also do not like a shadow colour that is on the purple side.
What colours do you use for shadows in watercolour? I would be very interested to learn :)
Mia
http://www.painters-online.co.uk/artist/MiaKetels
Posted
Did you find using these colours, together, separated in the tinting dish, Mia? I haven't used these to make a shadow grey for botanicals.
The different hues of grey I use depends on the plant I paint, but I keep it to a few.
Windsor blue and light red - this borders on the purple side.
French Ultramarine and Windsor yellow deep- this on the grey side.
French Ultra and bright red is also a lovely grey for flowers.
I suppose its up to the artist, and the subject. These greys when used with varying tones on a specific plant can be amazing.
Posted
Believe it or not in my town and village scenes I have recently been favouring pure cobalt blue which, with my colour palette, works really well.
I recall a professional artist, who took me under his wing,always advocated a darker mix of the same colour on which the shadow falls. In other words on grass a darker shade of green, on a road darker shade of asphalt (lol).
Posted
Yes, Carol, now I remember that I had to remix them in the dish because they were a little bit separated. Don't know if that would be the same with ultramarine blue and cadm.red. I must try out this in my next pen and wash. It gives me a project to try out all those different possibilities of mixing blues with cadm.red or light red and... There are so many ways to add shadow colour to a watercolour.
I think it depends on personal preferences and if the light is strong sunlight or not. Strong sunlight needs sharp defined shadow. I have some DVD's by Richard Taylor and he gives his shadow a fading finish.
I am a great fan of his work (my first painting hero) but I don't know if he still is publishing or making DVD's.
Anyway, I was pleased with my mixture of colbalt and cadm.red.
Thank you all for your nice advice. Any more sugestions always very welcome. They all will force me to make a watercolour with each mixture. That will keep mee on going for a few days (oh dear!). Maybe I can paint the same subject with everytime a different shadow mix. :)
Posted
Always a question, this - there was a painter who made a point of ALWAYS using purple for her shadows, irrespective of where and what the shadow was; to her eye, it worked; to mine, it looked awful, as if someone had gone traipsing through a landscape with a tub of purple poster paint and spread it liberally.
I would usually get shadows by mixing the complementary colour to the colour I wished to darken, but the only 'complementary' to white is black, and that's going to look 'orrible. It isn't really a complementary, either. So, a variety of blue, maybe plus a touch of red; just occasionally therefore a bit of that purple, the yellow ochre or raw sienna you might add to that mixture would be to counteract the purple: the danger is of producing a somewhat mucky brown, so a fair bit of care needs to be taken, especially with watercolour.
Incidentally, Light Red plus Ultramarine is likely to separate a bit, because both are granulating colours - if you don't want the granulation effect, which can look a little strange on a small area, use cobalt and ... magenta? Burnt Sienna - also granulates...? Plenty of choices, room for experiment. The one thing I wouldn't use, especially in flower paintings, is Payne's Grey - even the bluer Winsor and Newton form of it.
Posted
David - hee hee..... you've grasped that there's no simple answer, because, of course, whatever some pretend, there's no such thing as 'shadow colour'. A shadow will consist of a darker colour that you've already painted, plus a complementary, ideally. Which is basically just the same thing. So, you want a darker shade of green? Mix a red with your green; a darker shade of blue? Orange with the blue. A darker shade of yellow? A bit of purple.
The only problems arise when you seek shadow colours for secondaries, eg purple itself, blue and red (you can add yellow: but it won't always work). How do you shadow white?
There are answers to such questions, but you've got to read a bit to find them. On the whole though, since I can't hope to cover all bases here, if you use a a Payne's Grey and Raw Umber mix for all your shadows, as suggested by Anth above, yes, you'll get a dark colour; and that can work; but ..... it won't always; and in given circumstances, it'll look dingy. It requires a great deal of skill to make that mix look convincing in a painting - and so will using pure purple, or cobalt blue, to indicate shadow as some suggest.
The answer usually lies in a mix of the complementaries, sometimes with a bit of strengthening- but whatever you do, it's always repaid by thinking about it first rather than resorting to a standard mix.
