Today’s watercolor experiment:

Today is the day to test the final pair of complementary colors in a small watercolor painting. In ‘From a Magazine‘ I painted goldfish and rocks using orange and its complement, blue; ‘Purple Woods‘ was an experiment using purple and its complement, yellow to depict a woodland scene.

I created a test strip of three of my reds (Sennelier Red, Cadmium Red Light and Winsor Red) against nine of my greens (Permanent Green; Forest Green; Cobalt Turquoise; Hooker’s Green; Cobalt Green (Yellow Shade); Winsor Green (Yellow Shade); Winsor Green (Blue Shade); Permanent Sap Green; Phthalo Green).

Red Green Test Strips

I chose to use Winsor Green (YS) and Sennelier Red as my color combination. They combined very nicely on the test strip to create a very nice neutral color.

The subject for my composition today is Cardinal Woods, another imaginary place. In the foreground are several cardinal flowers and the background has a couple of cardinals in the trees.

Process:

I painted the foreground after first making a brief sketch. For the foliage, I used an undiluted green. The shadows were formed by an addition of an equal portion of red to the green.

Here is the palette I used for this composition:

Mixing Palette – Winsor Green (Yellow Shade) and Sennellier Red

The hues of the tree trunks range from a neutral gray to a reddish color. I painted the background on the reddish side to contrast against the green foliage of the trees.

Cardinal Wood
4.25″x6.5″ Watercolor Paper

Comment:

I like the range of hues of this composition. There could have been a greater tonal range – darker darks and lighter lights. The design could be a little better as well. However, it is satisfactory for what it is, a test watercolor using the complements, red and green.