Color Mixing Bible by Ian Sidaway

When you visit an art store and walk down the paint or pastel aisles you will be faced with a bewildering range of colours. There are so many it's really hard not to be tempted to buy them all. Getting to know the composition of pigments will not only make your use for colour more effective but can also save quite a bit of cash. I've been led astray by a colour - Sapphire for instance - only to get the tube home and discover that it consists of Phthalo Blue and Phthalo green. I could have mixed it myself!

While it's a treat to find a new colour, ultimately you'll realise that a core palette of a dozen or so colours will be all you'll need.

Sometimes what you need is a book to demystify colour...
Color Mixing Bible - all you need to know about mixing pigments in Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor, Gouache, Soft Pastel, Ink and Pencil by Ian Sidaway.

                                           

The Color mixing Bible takes us through the history of colour, the science, colour theory, and pigment composition. He discusses choosing a colour palette then colour mixing in oils, acrylics, watercolour, gouache and even the dry mediums of soft pastel and colour pencils and inks. The last chapter concerns mixing whites in the different mediums.  Not only can you see which colours are used but it's also great to show how a value  scale can be created.

The chapter on terms and definitions associated with colour - hue, tint, transparency, opacity temperature and saturation is clear and concise.

The book is arranged by medium and colour group e.g. Oils/ mixing oranges

The vertical axis shows the range of readily available types of each colour. The horizontal axis features 12 basic palette colours.

Each colour bar shows the colour with successive amounts of the same colour added showing the full strength of each colour.

If you're a teacher and you need a quick colour 'dictionary' this book is useful. When helping a student identify a colour, you can flip to a colour, find the exact shade you'd like to mix and see which pigments were used. It's a great tool to help students analyse colour. 

If you're a beginner, you might be better served by painting your own colour charts. 

It does have a lot of useful information about colour.

A visit to Kunanyi - Mt Wellington

A week goes by so quickly when you're on holiday. I'm at Hobart International Airport waiting for my flight back to Brisbane. I've had a wonderful time. If you follow me on Instagram or my Facebook page you will have seen some images from my trip. 

I've learnt when travelling that when an activity is weather dependant don't put if off if you have a good day don't waste it. My first day in Hobart dawned clear and sunny so I decided to change plans and go up Kunanyi / Mt Wellington first thing. 

It's quite a short drive up the mountain, with numerous places to stop to enjoy the views. A dramatic waterfall at the side of the road caught my attention. Time for a quick ink sketches and some photos.

The scenery from the summit is breathtaking - you can see for kilometres in every direction. 

It was very cold. Frost coated the rocks and damp moss made the pathways very slippery. 

Fortunately I'd come prepared with gloves, scarf and beanie. These plus a puffer jacket kept me relatively warm. 

As I drove back down to Hobart the clouds moved in and by the time I reached the bottom the mountain was shrouded in mist - it was an opportune visit. 

Sketching in the rain

It was a cold, drizzly day in Port Arthur Tasmania. I drove up to the historical site but decided against walking around in the rain, rather taking my chances on finding somewhere to sketch from my hire car. I'm so pleased I opted to have a car for the whole week away.

I started a watercolour of Carnarvon Bay, stopped after doing a few washes and then drove down to Maingon Bay Lookout near the Remarkable Cave. As it was raining quite heavily I decided on another sketch while sitting in the car with a view of the cliffs and sea. 

The watercolour earlier in the day was quite difficult to do while sitting in the car so I decided to do an ink drawing and add colour later. One of the problems was that the only cup holder was on the left so every time I wanted to wash a brush I was twisting around - not at all comfortable. 

Thanks to a good heater in the car I was warm and comfortable. When I returner back to my cottage I added the watercolour. 

Here's the drawing with the view...

Adding the grey clouds...

A little colour...

And the completed sketch...