Leaf of the Day: Just Three Colours and a Flying Saucer Patti Pan.

There have been 2 little pattipan squash in the fruit bowl for ages. I had been meaning to draw them..then we ate one. So on Saturday, wanting a couple more to draw and use as a basis for the colour exercises. I went to Winter Park Farmer's market to buy one from Herbert who calls them UFO's ...only to find none at all. Maybe the season is over? But that was just typical of a weekend when many good intentions were thwarted by circumstances beyond our control.
However when I finally stopped searching for missing pattipans, I did get down to a few colour experiments. At last I have made a proper chart of transparent colours and started on the granulating ones which, to me add so much to the beautiful texture of loose watercolours. Making charts takes hours but is very good therapy and gives you the impression you are really doing something useful. Then I made some very simple colour experiments using just 3 colours, Permanent Rose, Phthalo Blue and Aureolin. This really follows on from Sue Archer's great class here. It's one of those "practising your scales" exercises, not of huge interest to anyone other than yourself. Important in that it keeps you disciplined and it reminds you of how beautiful transparent watercolours can be if you don't mess about with them too much. So the following are all from just those 3 colours nothing else. Firstly, using the colours as they are, then mixing and using the complementaries and, finally, mixing greys from the three and overlaying them. The transparency means the colours stay clearer and crisper even after several glazes.

Here are a few I thought were interesting. Tomorrow I shall be doing a drawing of the little pattipan. It is such a lovely shape and is creamy white tinged with the palest green.
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Three Colour Exercises