The Color Purple

As I write this newsletter I am on board the Celebrity Century cruise liner. I was recently invited to join the roster of teachers for the Celebrity and the Cunard cruise lines.  I am teaching watercolor—yes, you read correctly, watercolor. Anyone who knows me knows how I’m not a major watercolorist. I like to sketch or draw with a splash of watercolor, even though I enjoy the medium. So when I was approached for this opportunity, I had to step up, take my brush in hand and create several lesson plans for the beginner.

My first class was yesterday. I had 50 people in attendance and only one hour to teach some basic watercolor techniques. I’m proud to say everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. We painted Orcas breaching from the sea.

Today I taught another class on how to draw the Alaskan state flower: the forget-me-not. What fun we all had. Everyone did great washs and splendid texture work. Wow! It’s amazing what people can do when just given a little direction!! Most of these folks have never picked up a brush.

I will teach two more classes and hopefully they will be as successful as the first two. It was a challenge to design a plan, but it always helps when you have students who are willing to be guinea pigs (thank you all) and a PowerPoint presentation to make things run smoothly.

The Color Purple
So now on to the subject at hand: the color purple. I must admit, I always thought purple and violet were basically the same color. After all, we all played with purple crayons, picked violet flowers, sucked on purple lollipops. But alas, I am wrong. While they may seem to look alike, they aren’t. First of all, purple is a mixed color of blue and red, and I believe it is the most difficult to mix. Violet on the other hand is a spectral color; that is, it appears in the visible light spectrum:  rainbow or prism.

So what does this mean? Will it affect your paintings or color drawings? Not really. One suggestion I have read is this: violet is usually a bluish purple and purple is a reddish violet. This may sound like double-talk but I think it helps me visually. To achieve these colors, one can mix various combinations of blue and red but that’s where we can run into trouble.

I remember my first time trying to create purple. I thought it would be easy. Just take a little red, add a little blue and voila! I would have the color. Well, it’s not the easy. If I add too much blue to the red, I have, what I call, a midnight blue (very dark). On the other hand, if I add too much red, I  find myself making a reddish brown. 

What’s more, I need to mix the “right” paints.  In other words, I can’t just pick up any red or any blue and get a perfect purple. For instance alizarin is a cool red, leaning toward blue. Add this red to blue and that’s when you get that dark blue. Pick the warm cadmium red, which leans toward yellow, add blue and the result will be what’s called mud or a reddish brown.

So what should an artist do to create purple? I usually work with just three colors—the primaries—but I do have purple in my palette as well. Sometimes it’s just too much trouble to get the right mixture.  So I make life easy on myself and simply go out and buy a purple like Dioxazine purple (PV37). But if I want to mix colors to create purple, I usually mix magenta with ultramarine blue.  These two partners make a nice rich purple.

As I stated above, I usually purchase Dioxazine purple (PV37). You can find violets already mixed under the following names:

• ·         Colbalt violet (PV14)
• ·         Ultramarine violet (PV15)
• ·         Maganese violet (PV16)
• ·         Dioxazine violet (PV37)

All of these have different light fastness, values, staining qualities. I have a couple in my paint collection. You may want to try all of them or some.

Next month I’d like to return to the study of artists, beginning with Jackson Pollock, one of my favorite American Expressionists. We just recently studied him in my acrylics class on Thursday evenings  and it was so much fun!! I can’t believe what cool paintings we created and what wonderful freedom we all felt.

Fall Classes and Workshops

The Visual Journaling class this month is scheduled for Sunday, September 16^th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. As always, just bring your sketchbook (90# or heavier). I supply all the collage paper, paints, brushes, markers, glue and found items.  Light refreshments will be served.  $20

The balance of my classes and PCC workshops are as follows (these are listed here but not on my website—they will not be listed there until later next week).

Studio Classes
Fall session begins week of September 16^th, ends October 21^st
$70 per class, per six-week session, at my studio in Tigard
To register for the following classes, please email me at jjgoodell@gmail.com

Tuesday Evenings            7 pm to 9 pm
Drawing in Living Color
Come join us while we learn about color theory while drawing in pen and ink with watercolor wash, pastels and colored pencil. Limited to 12 students, most materials supplied.

Wednesday Mornings  10 a.m. to Noon
Sketch’n on the Go™
We will visit various sketching venues in the Portland area on a weekly basis until the weather becomes inclement, then class will be held in my studio in Tigard. Locations will be announced next Friday, September 14^th on the class blog: http://sketchnonthego.blogspot.com/on

Thursday Evenings 7pm to 9pm
Paint like an Impressionist
We will cover three Impressionism artists this session, beginning with Monet. Bring your paints, canvases and enthusiasm. Supply list upon registration.

Portland Community College One-Day Workshops
All workshops are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
To register for workshops go to www.pcc.edu

Saturday, September 29              

Basic Drawing

PCC Campus/Sylvania   

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Saturday, October 13                     

Drawing with Pastels                                                                    

PCC Sylvania campus

Friday, October 26                          

Drawing with Pen and Ink

Tigard Senior Center  

Saturday, October 27     

Botanical Drawing with Pen and Ink                       
PCC Sylvania campus     

Saturday, November 3                  

Acrylic Painting 101

PCC Sylvania campus 

Saturday, November 17                               

Colored Pencil
PCC Sylvania campus     

Saturday, December 1                  

Travel Sketching

PCC/Sylvania campus  

August: Mixing Greens

Greens--they come in all sorts of hues and shades. Usually you can find everything you would ever need at an art store. Need a darker green--you can always add black, for lighter add white (or more water or yellow for watercolor).

When I started painting in watercolor, I did what most of us do, I went out and bought every type of green I thought was necessary. I think I have at least 15 different kinds of greens in my drawer. Then I learned to color mix and I haven't use those greens at all. I simply put yellow, blue or Payne's gray (black too) to mix my greens.

For this article, I created a new color chart. I used four blues (Pthalo, Ultra Marine, Cerulean, Deft Blue) with Payne's gray. On the other side, I put down Azo, Hansa,  New Gamboge, Lemon Yellow, Cad Yellow and Yellow Ocher. To my delight, I developed 35 new colors. Then on the side I painted a swatch of my paint tube greens. Except for Cobalt, Jadite and Prussian greens, I was able to produce every tube color.

I created the chart below. Unfortunately, my photo doesn't do it exact justice. I even tried to scan the piece and I didn't get the lovely greens under the Yellow Ocher, nor did the Payne's Gray come across as I had hoped. Why not try this yourself with the blues and yellows you have stowed away in your drawers.

By the way, when I was mixing my colors, I used a cool water container--a bait box. It has three sections that are sealed. I used one side for the yellow, mid for the blue and the last for a quick clean up. You can see I didn't keep my yellow quite pristine, but it didn't seem to contaminate the colors too much. I got it in the fishing department at Bi-Mart.

As I used my paints, the water became contaminated,
 but this after I mixed 35 colors!

I love this water container. I can use my three primaries in it and keep the water less muddy.

Next month, I'll cover mixing purple. This is one of the hardest colors to mix--you just can't take any old blue and any old red and get a good purple. Let me show you why and how.

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What's ahead

Believe it or not, we're already looking at fall. Didn't summer just get here? PCC has their fall schedule online at www.pcc.edu/community. My summer classes at the studio will end mid-August and begin again, mid-September. In the meantime, I've been asked to teach watercolor on a Celebrity Cruise ship to Alaska in September. I had a test class here at the studio last Friday to see how well the subjects I chose would go over with students. It was very successful. If this goes well, I will probably pick up the Panama Canal cruise in December. I will again hold a test class in October or November. So if you are interested send me a line at jjgoodell@gmail.com

Visual Journaling Class

• Learn how to express yourself by creating a visual journal using words and art.
• Play with pencil, watercolor,  acrylics, sponges, photos, fabrics, papers, pen and ink, plus more.
• Express your inner self, your dreams, your fears, your successes, hopes…
• Absolutely no experience necessary.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Glastonbury Studios, Tigard

$20 for supplies. Bring sketchbook.