walking colour

The three watercolours underway are quite different, not something I recommend, but that is what I have to paint next. When painting more than one at a time I try to use the same palette for all of them - and certainly the same medium, alhough even that isn't always possible!.

I used a different yellow, not my favourite aureolin, as an under wash for these works. New Gamboge. I like it, but, particularly when mixed with the precocious alizarin crimson, it walks. While I slept it merged from the edge of a building with a clear blue sky. These happy accidents are part of the joy of watercolour. Today the sky, which I thought had dried a little too pale, has had a new wash over it. With the later wash the buildings have all softened around the edges, and the starkness has gone from the trees and foliage. Happy accidents almost invariably improve the paintings. But the next time I use New Gamboge at night I will be staying up, on guard...