Color Essentials with Williamsburg Handmade Oils, Part 2

On Wednesday June 24, I had the opportunity to do a Facebook Live presentation on the Williamsburg Oils page, if you missed it I’ve embedded the video here. The talk focused on color families in the Williamsburg line and I did a demo of one to two colors from each category from the product guide, below is a brief summary of what I shared, along with photos from my demo palettes and links to more resources…

Cadmium Red Light & Cobalt Teal Greenish - both brilliant colors with strong coverage power, try mixing them together to neutralize each other in a painting! Fabulous article on that idea here: https://www.justpaint.org/neutralizing-color/

Green Gold - this is a modern green that look olive in its masstone and golden in its undertone. Exploring undertones is a great way to get more info about the colors you are using!

Ultramarine Pink - categorized as a Glazing color, it has beautiful transparency and mixes well with other colors! In Williamsburg, it is available with either a linseed binder or safflower oil binder. More info on safflower colors here: https://www.justpaint.org/williamsburgs-new-safflower-colors/

Montserrat Orange - a Specialty blend unique to the Williamsburg line, its creation was inspired by an orange dress worn by opera singer Montserrat Caballe. Blended colors were, in recent years, reformulated for different reasons, here are a couple articles that explain why:

https://www.justpaint.org/beauty-and-the-best-wrestling-with-changes-in-williamsburg/

https://www.justpaint.org/zinc-oxide-warnings-cautions-and-best-practices/

Italian Lemon Ochre - my favorite in the Italian Earth collection, it feels like you are painting with light.

Italian Black Roman Earth - also one of my favorites in the Italian Earth collection, and my go-to if I want a slightly grittier black in a painting. Be sure to read up on the textures of Williamsburg and their grind information here: https://www.justpaint.org/a-palette-of-textures/

French Ochre Havane - from the French Earth collection, this color is a little lighter in value and rustier in color than a burnt sienna, I love using these specific earth pigments for bird paintings… thinking about “little brown birds” and all their varied browns!

There is a great overview of the French earths here: https://www.justpaint.org/18-new-williamsburg-oil-colors/ *this article is from 2012, note that French Cassel Earth and French Noir Indien have both been recently discontinued.

Stil de Grain - a course grind, synthetic iron oxide that I use as my secret weapon in a painting. It is great for glazing and has a gorgeous undertone

Paynes Grey (Violet) - a beautiful dark gray with a blackberry hued undertone. I love using this color as my dark neutral in a painting where there are a lot of reds (see below)

Cadmium Red Medium mixed 50/50 with Paynes Grey (Violet)

Graphite Grey - graphite ground into linseed oil, it feels like you are painting and drawing when you use it, it is fabulous. It is a very slow dryer at 14-21+ days estimated touch dry time, be sure to check out drying times of all the Williamsburg colors here: https://goldenhub.goldenpaints.com/storage/uploads/williamsburg-drytime-chart-091818.pdf

My sparkly colors were difficult to photograph well (I showed Iridescent Pale Gold and Interference Green), but here’s an article that gives an overview of the Iridescent and Interference colors: https://www.justpaint.org/not-all-that-glitters-is-gold-williamsburg-iridescent-and-interference-oil-colors/

Thanks so much for watching and looking, stay tuned for more live sessions - I’ll be back on the Williamsburg Oils Facebook page July 22 & 29 at 2pm EST both times and am scheduling out events for my Art by Amy Shawley Paquette page as well.

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Color Essentials with Williamsburg Handmade Oils, Part 1

On Wednesday June 10, I had the opportunity to do a Facebook Live presentation on the Williamsburg Oils page, if you missed it I’ve embedded the video below. The talk was part one of two on color essentials in the Williamsburg line and focused on options for color mixing…

I mentioned in the video that I would share photos of my color wheels here in the blog, those are in slideshow below and show three different options for a trio of primaries plus Titanium White.

Mineral Palette:

Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Ultramarine Blue - these colors produce earthy, muted, low chroma mixtures that dry to a matte finish.

Modern Palette:

Quinacridone Magenta, Permanent Yellow Medium, Phthalo Blue - these color make vibrant, high chroma mixtures that dry to a somewhat gloss finish (not as glossy in oil as they are in acrylic)

Zorn Palette:

Cadmium Red Medium, Yellow Ochre (Domestic), Ivory Black - this palette was popularized by Anders Zorn and artists over time have shifted some of the color spaces to alter it slightly (try googling Zorn Palette and see what comes up, it’s lovely)

With my nature-inspired work, I find a place for all of these mixtures and more, so I’ve simplified my palette to a double primary system (shared in the video - a warm and cool of each primary) which includes these colors:

Cadmium Red Medium (W), Quinacridone Magenta (C), Cadmium Yellow Medium (W), Cadmium Lemon (C), Ultramarine Blue (W), Phthalo Blue (C)

+ Add Titanium White, Yellow Ochre (Domestic), and Ivory Black

This is the palette I suggest to all of my oil painting students and works great for painters of all levels!

Be sure to mark your calendars for Wednesday June 24 at 2pm EST, I’ll be back on the Williamsburg Facebook page for Color Essentials Part 2 which I dive into more specialty colors like iridescents, interference, blends, Italian earths, and more!

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Let's Talk about Substrates!

For last week’s Facebook live session, I focused on substrates - the surfaces we paint on! We all have our preferred surfaces and I thought it would be fun to show substrates that I love painting on for my own work, as well as ones I’ve loved for teaching workshops. Below is my session video and a summary of what I shared, along with links you can explore!

When it comes to my own work, I’ve been a panel girl for years! I started off using canvas and quickly discovered I didn’t love a flexible support, so I switched to using hard panels. I had been painting larger work then (circa 2005) and would build my own wood panels - I loved the adventure of trekking to the hardware store to stock up on wood, then cutting the backing strips with my mitre saw and hammering away at nails when I thought my neighbors weren’t home. As my paintings got smaller, I moved towards pre-made panels since it was more cost and time effective to purchase them that way, and ever since I’ve been trying out all types and brands of wood surfaces and hardboard. Occasionally I’ll work canvas or linen back into the mix, and of course paper surfaces for watercolor. When I do product demos at art supply stores, I enjoy purchasing their store-brand surfaces or brands that are specific to that chain or local shop. I’ve categorized them here by type…

Hardboard Panels

Hardboard or fiberboard panels are essentially dense, compressed, wood fibers with some kind of binder*. They are wonderful for painting on and provide and smooth surface. The two brands I shared were:

Richeson Hardboard Panels - I typically order these in bulk for teaching and studies, their economy pricing makes them hard to pass up! These panels are uncradled (no backing strip, 1/8” profile)

Ampersand Hardbord - in the 1/8” profile, they come in packs in the small sizes, but they also have an option for cradled panels and at varying depths.

There are several other brands that make a version of this - the Davinci line at Jerry’s Artarama, Art Alternatives, etc.

You can also get these boards in huge sheets from hardware stores and cut custom sizes if you are equipped for panel building - a place like Home Depot can cut them for you but don’t guarantee “precision” cuts if you need panels to be an exact size (ie: you can ask for 12x12in sizes but some may be 11 3/4)… this is a great options for larger bulk sizes if you are teaching.

I enjoy purchasing these bare, then priming them myself - see my Grounds blog for ideas - but you can also order panels like this with a variety of specialty primers already applied (look into Ampersand’s options as a starting point - Claybord, Gessobord, Aquabord, etc).

*A great article on wood panel substrates with a section on hardboard/fiberboard: https://www.justpaint.org/understanding-wood-supports-for-art-a-brief-history/

Wood Panels

There are a variety of woods you can paint on and I often end up working on birch or basswood as those panels are popular in pre-made panels, and they maintain a lovely grain texture. I try and pick up wood panels from all the art stores I visit for demos, especially if they have a brand I’ve not tried. Here are some to look into…

Jerry’s Artrama “Davinci” Panels - if you live near a Jerry’s, it’s fun to go in person and see all their options for bare panels and primed panels. They do online ordering and sell bulk panel cases in addition to singles. These are the most recent ones I’ve purchased and what I’m working on now

Artist & Craftsman Supply - they have stores all over the US and offer a panel supplier I haven’t seen elsewhere called Apollon and what’s fun about that brand is they offer round birch panels!

Plaza Art Supply - they also have about 13 stores in the mid-Atlantic, southern region of the US. It is the store I frequent the most in my region for product demos. They have a great selection of the Ampersand Artist Series panels (and I’ve also bulk ordered the Art Alternatives MDF panels from them for teaching).

Duho Studios - If you are looking for something more exotic, they offer a broad selection of hardwood surfaces with exciting grains and colors. They also make metal panels, which I do not get into in this FB live, but the option is there!

Further reading on the topic of wood and hardboard panels:

https://www.justpaint.org/plywood-as-a-substrate-for-painting/

https://www.justpaint.org/surface-checking-and-plywood-is-it-a-concern/

Canvas/Linen

It is rare that I paint on a flexible piece of canvas - just once a year when I make holiday ornaments - but canvas and linen have such a lovely surface feel and their own texture which looks great underneath paint! I like teaching some techniques on canvas panels, and there are also some high end linen panels I’ve tried and loved, so those are listed here…

Fredrix Cut-Edge Canvas Panels - these lie flat nicely and are priced economically for painting studies or teaching a class. Be cautious as they are sensitive to environmental changes and can warp, best to keep them in a temperature controlled place.

Linen Panel (Raymar) - I mentioned these in my session, I attended another painter’s workshop where he supplied one per student and they were beautiful!

Linen Panel (Lucius Hudson) - I have not personally painted on one of these but they look incredible and are carried by the amazing art supply store in my old neighborhood in Downtown LA!

If you love the feel of canvas/linen but want to make your own panel, you can adhere them to wood panels yourself - there are several good YouTube videos out there you can search for!

Further resources on painting/preparing canvas:

https://www.justpaint.org/painting-supports-cotton-canvas/

https://www.justpaint.org/preparing-a-canvas-for-oil-painting/

A must watch on Support Induced Discoloration, which is the phenomena of discoloration in your acrylic surfaces from dark substrates: https://www.goldenpaints.com/videos/support-induced-discoloration--sid---what-is-it--and-how-to-minimize-it

An older blog post of mine on SID: https://www.amyshawleypaquette.com/blog/2011/10/4/whats-with-the-yellowed-gel.html - note it was when GOLDEN suggested GAC 100 as a fix, now they recommend Gloss Medium as the better option.

Watercolor Paper/Board

Watercolor paper could be in its own blog post, but for my purposes here, I wanted to share what I’ve been loving…

Canson Plein Air Watercolor Artboard - it’s sturdy like a board with the surface of watercolor paper! The boards come in 10 count pads with one gummed edge, are affordable, and run in standard sizes. I love them for my own work and teaching.

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Watercolor Essentials

For my most recent Facebook live demo, I thought it would be fitting to share a few watercolor essentials since I’ve been working on a new series of backyard birds this week using QoR! I chose five things from my watercolor process and presented them live, below is the video along with the summary of what I covered…

Start with a Graphite Drawing

When I paint in watercolor, I enjoy having a visible graphite drawing underneath my color. I stay within the range of a 2H/H graphite…if the graphite is much harder, it’ll gouge the paper/substrate and if too soft it will mix with my color. I made the switch last year from using pencils you sharpen to mechanical pencils (for tighter lines), and there are graphite sticks for them available in my preferred range. I make a pretty detailed drawing, or “map”, so that it is easier to plug in color when I’m ready!

Finished graphite drawing for a male Northern Cardinal.

Plan the Layers

I’m a painter who LOVES detail… even when I endeavor to be loose, I always end up coming back to details. When working in watercolor, I find there is less room for error in the layers (especially when working on paper) so I like to envision how many layers of color I’ll need before diving in and painting. For my birds, I often lay in a warm toning layer first (QoR Raw Sienna), then a darker value neutral layer over that (QoR Sepia solo or mixed with QoR Ivory Black), then will add in brighter colors and deeper saturation in the facial details and feather segments. There are occasions where I layer color without that formula, but it depends on the bird. On paper, I try to keep my layers to about 5-6 passes since I know a) more than that can start to compromise the integrity of the paper surface (ie: paper pilling/shredding) and b) I can finish a painting in fewer layers due to the color intensity of QoR Watercolors. On a substrate other than paper, it is possible I may have more or fewer options for layering…

Explore options for Developing the Surface

This topic relates to my blog post on customizing your painting grounds - you can paint in watercolor on surfaces other than paper, including acrylic materials that you apply to a canvas or panel. For a deeper dive into a few of these options, see my blog post on QoR Grounds! If you are using an acrylic product as a ground for watercolor (ie: QoR or GOLDEN Grounds), you will need to assess the surface for its absorbency or toothiness and gauge how many paint layers it could accept. Some toothy surfaces like Black Gesso may only respond well to 2-3 paint passes before your color just wants to lift, but other “thirsty”/absorbent products like GOLDEN Fiber Paste or Light Molding Paste may give you 10+ color passes. This greatly broadens the options for what you can paint on, especially if after planning out your layers, you need a heartier substrate! Due to the range of transparency and opacity in the QoR color line, it is possible to paint over darker substrates, very exciting! Below are a couple examples of surfaces I’m working on now - the House Finches are on a hot press watercolor paper that I coated with GOLDEN Matte Medium to protect the fibers from pilling, the Cardinal is just beyond the toning layer and I’m painting over GOLDEN Absorbent Ground…

Subtraction

One of my favorite attributes of working in watercolor is the fact that it will lift/reanimate with water after drying. I like to plan for this in my layers and typically subtract color with a slightly water-wet brush as a final touch to create areas of highlight and feather softness in my birds. Some colors lift more easily than others and some surfaces will allow for easier lifting than others. I did a quick demo of subtracting color in my FB live session, photos of those samples are just below. The sample in red was done on watercolor paper and the blue sample was done on QoR Watercolor Ground (which is essentially the same as GOLDEN Absorbent Ground). The QoR Watercolor ground does not pill up like the paper will under repeated aggitation which makes it easier for lifting/subtraction.

Watercolor Peacock with subtraction in the feather detail.

Protect the Surface

Given that watercolor is a sensitive surface, it will need protection once your painting is done. For my watercolors on paper, I put them in a frame under glass, easy peasy. For watercolor paintings I do on a panel using an acrylic ground as my foundation layer, I will do one of two things - either Spray varnish it or coat it with a GOLDEN medium (either Gloss or Matte) to “fix” the layer.

Here’s a great article on varnishing watercolors: https://www.goldenpaints.com/technicalinfo/technicalinfo_varnwatercolor

And here’s a YouTube video of mine showing a process where I coat my watercolors (and Pastel Pencils) with Gloss Medium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2pTTnlpLZM&t=117s

In my demo, I fixed the watercolor layer with Matte Medium…this is a fun idea but may not be suitable for all of your paintings.

For my new bird series, I’m taking the easy route and putting them behind glass but I do enjoy knowing other options are available!

On a final note, I’ll be teaching a Modern Watermedia online course on Saturday June 20 from 12-3pm EST in Zoom, we will spend time exploring all these ideas and more… info on this course can be found here: https://www.amyshawleypaquette.com/onlinecourses/june-20-modern-watermedia

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