Summer sketches

Here are some quick summertime sketches done in the Denver Botanic Gardens. They are done in watercolor and ink pen on some. I ride my bike to Gardens on summer mornings, hang out for a while painting and enjoying the plants. Everything is VERY lush and green this year due to the frequent rains we have been experiencing.

Fresh Palette

I just loaded up a new palette with watercolors. This palette will be used for field sketches, mostly landscapes. It is a thin lightweight palette good for packing for travel sketching, as well. The top row is the double primaries: Hansa yellow, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, quinacridone red, ultramarine, and cerulean.

The bottom row, left, is mixed greens:  bright middle green is hansa and ultramarine, dark blue greenis  hansa and ultramarine, a "grayed-up" green is cad yellow and ultramarine. a "browned-up" green (red-green) is yellow ocher and ultramarine.  Right, is yellow ocher, raw sienna and burnt sienna.

Below is permanent handy mixes: my favorite brown is cad yellow, quinacridone red, ultramarine; and my favorite gray is burnt sienna and ultramarine.

Notice that ultramarine travels through all these pre-mixed colors, creating a nice color harmony.