Color Theory Week 3

A Deep Dive Into Blue: Getting to Know Your Colors

Sometimes we think of blue as just one color, but if you’ve spent much time mixing watercolors, you know that not all blues behave the same! Some lean warmer, some lean cooler, and each one can create something a little different when mixed with the other colors in your palette.

For this exercise, we slowed down and spent some time getting to know two different blues: Cerulean Blue and Ultramarine Blue. Rather than jumping straight into a painting, we created a simple mixing chart to see how each blue behaves when paired with some of our other favorite colors.

The goal wasn’t to create a perfect color chart or memorize every possible combination. It was simply to become more familiar with our paints and start noticing the beautiful possibilities hiding in our palettes.

Creating Your Blue Mixing Chart

For this exercise, I chose two blues:

• Cerulean Blue – a warmer blue

• Ultramarine Blue – a cooler blue

I then mixed each blue with equal parts of eight different colors:

• Lemon Yellow

• Cadmium Yellow

• Cadmium Red

• Crimson

• Raw Sienna

• Burnt Umber

• Sap Green

• Viridian Green

I kept the proportions as consistent as possible so I could compare the mixtures side by side.

Step 1: Set up your chart.

Divide your watercolor paper into sections, leaving room to label each mixture. I recommend making two rows or columns, one for each blue, with a space for each of your mixing colors.

Step 2: Mix your colors.

Start with your first blue and mix it with each of your eight colors. Try to use roughly equal amounts of each pigment. Paint a small swatch of each mixture in your chart.

Repeat the process with your second blue.

Step 3: Let everything dry.

Watercolors can look quite different when they’re wet compared to when they’re completely dry. Give your chart time to dry before making your final observations.

What Should You Look For?

As you look at your finished chart, take some time to notice the differences.

• What kinds of greens do you get when mixing blue with yellow?

• Which mixtures create beautiful purples?

• What happens when you mix blue with your browns?

• Which combinations create interesting neutrals?

• Are some mixtures brighter or more muted than others?

Another thing I noticed while making my chart was how differently the pigments granulated.

Ultramarine Blue showed quite a bit of granulation in almost all of its mixtures. I love the little variations and textures this creates! Cerulean Blue, on the other hand, tended to dry a little more smoothly and evenly.

You may notice something different depending on the brand and pigments in your own watercolor palette. That’s part of the fun of getting to know your paints!

A Little Homework: Get to Know Your Palette

I’d encourage you to try this exercise with the blues you already have. You don’t need to use the exact colors I chose. In fact, it would be fun to see what happens when you experiment with different blues!

You could even repeat this exercise with two different yellows or reds.

The more familiar you become with your colors, the easier it becomes to make intentional choices when you’re painting. Instead of guessing what might happen when two colors meet, you’ll start to recognize what combinations you love and which ones you want to use again.

Remember, these little exercises are just as important as the finished paintings. Sometimes slowing down, playing with our paints, and simply noticing what happens is where some of the best learning takes place.

Graded Washes & Atmospheric Perspective: Creating Depth in a Landscape

This week we took our practice with blue a little further by using it to create a simple landscape. Our focus was on graded washes, layering, and atmospheric perspective.

I love exercises like this because they give us an opportunity to practice a specific technique while also creating something that feels like a finished little painting.

We kept our colors fairly simple and focused on using different shades of blue to build depth and create the feeling of distant mountains, soft fog, and layers of trees.

What Is a Graded Wash?

A graded wash is a watercolor technique where a color gradually changes from dark to light, or light to dark.

We do this by starting with a stronger concentration of pigment and gradually adding more water to soften and lighten the color.

This is a really useful technique for creating soft transitions, fading mountain ranges, skies, and other areas where you want the color to gently disappear.

Step-by-Step: Building Our Landscape

Step 1: Paint the sky.

I started by painting a simple flat wash across the top of my paper. This created the background for my sky.

I let this layer dry completely before moving on to the mountains.

Step 2: Start your first mountain.

Mix a slightly thicker paint consistency, somewhere around a creamy, half-and-half consistency.

Use this mixture to paint along the top edge of your mountain. This will be the darkest and most concentrated part of your graded wash.

Step 3: Create your graded wash.

Rinse your brush and pick up some clean water.

While your first line of paint is still wet, begin gently pulling the color downward with your clean, damp brush.

Allow the pigment to gradually fade as it moves down the paper. You want a nice transition from a stronger color at the top to a much lighter, more transparent wash below.

Step 4: Repeat and build your layers.

Continue adding mountain and tree shapes, working your way down the page.

For this painting, I created about six different layers. I worked back and forth from the left side of the paper to the right, giving each section a little time to dry while I worked on another area.

This is a great way to keep yourself moving without having to wait for every single layer to dry before continuing.

Step 5: Experiment with wet-on-wet.

In a few areas, I added a little clean water to create softer, foggy effects around the trees.

This is a fun way to soften edges and create the feeling of mist or atmosphere moving through your landscape.

Step 6: Add a little dry brush texture.

At the end, I demonstrated a little dry brush technique.

Pick up some paint on your brush, then remove most of the moisture. Using the belly of your brush, gently drag it across the paper.

The paint will catch on the raised texture, or tooth, of the watercolor paper, leaving behind little broken areas of color.

I especially love this technique for adding texture to water. It can create the appearance of movement, reflections, and little ripples.

A Little More About Atmospheric Perspective

One of the things I wanted us to think about during this exercise was atmospheric perspective.

As things move farther away in a landscape, they often appear lighter, softer, and less defined. Using lighter washes and softer edges helps create that feeling of distance.

This is something you can experiment with using all kinds of colors, not just blue!

Make It Your Own!

One of my favorite things about this exercise is that everyone can approach it a little differently.

You don’t need to recreate my exact mountain shapes or tree shapes. Try taller mountains, smaller trees, more layers, or even a completely different landscape.

You could use greens, purples, or warm sunset colors instead of blues. The same techniques can be used in so many different ways.

The important thing is to practice your graded washes, experiment with layering, and see what happens when you let the water and pigment do their thing.

Don’t worry about making everything perfect. Give yourself permission to play, experiment, and learn along the way!

Happy painting!

Putting Our Techniques Together: A Watercolor Landscape

One of the most rewarding parts of learning watercolor is when you begin taking all those individual techniques you’ve been practicing and bringing them together into one painting.

For this time-lapse, I wanted to create a slightly more involved landscape using many of the techniques we’ve been working on throughout class. It includes graded washes in the sky and water, wet-on-wet blending, layering, soft reflections, and a few details added at the very end.

I’ll be honest, this one felt a little intimidating when I first started! But once I got going, I had so much fun watching the painting come together. I was really happy with how it turned out, and I wanted to share my process to encourage you to try something a little outside your comfort zone, too.

You don’t have to follow my painting exactly. Think of this as a general guide to how I approached the scene and how you might approach a landscape of your own.

How I Approached the Painting

Step 1: Start with the sky.

I began with a graded wash in the sky, starting with a stronger concentration of blue and gradually allowing it to fade into a lighter wash.

I wanted the sky to feel soft and atmospheric, so I kept the transition fairly gentle.

Once I was happy with the sky, I set it aside to dry.

Step 2: Work on the water while the sky dries.

Rather than waiting for the sky to dry completely before doing anything else, I moved down to the water.

I used another graded wash, creating a similar transition of color across the water.

This is a great way to work efficiently in watercolor. While one area is drying, you can move to another section of your painting.

Step 3: Create the reflections.

Once I had my initial wash in the water, I started using wet-on-wet techniques to gently feed additional colors into the surface.

On the left side of my painting, I had a hillside covered in beautiful autumn colors. I used yellows, oranges, and yellow-greens to suggest the changing leaves of the trees.

I gently introduced some of those colors into the water below, allowing them to soften and blend. This helped create the appearance of a slightly blurred reflection.

On the right side, I had another hillside that was mostly in shadow. I gravitated toward a darker blue to represent that shadow and create a little contrast between the two sides of the landscape.

The trick with reflections is that they don’t always need to be perfectly defined. Letting the colors soften and move into one another can create a really beautiful effect.

Step 4: Build the distant mountains and landscape.

Behind the two hillsides, I added some distant mountain shapes.

I kept these areas relatively soft so they wouldn’t compete with the foreground.

Remember our discussion about atmospheric perspective? This is a great place to use it! Things that are farther away tend to appear lighter, softer, and less defined than things closer to us.

Step 5: Add the finishing details.

Once the larger areas were dry, I added some smaller tree details in front of the yellow-green and orange hillside.

These little details helped bring the landscape together and gave the painting a little more depth and definition.

I always enjoy this final stage of a painting because it’s where all the larger shapes begin to feel like a complete scene.

Your Turn: Give It a Try!

I know a painting like this can feel a little intimidating, especially when you’re still learning the basics. But I want to encourage you to give it a try!

You don’t have to recreate my exact landscape. Maybe you want to paint a mountain scene, a little lake, a field of autumn trees, or even a place that is special to you.

Start with the larger areas of color and work your way toward the smaller details. Think about which areas need to be soft and blended and which areas might need a little more definition.

You can use the graded wash techniques we’ve practiced to create your sky and water, experiment with wet-on-wet to create reflections, and use layering to gradually build depth.

Most importantly, remember that you don’t have to know exactly how everything will turn out before you begin.

Sometimes the best way to learn is to try something that feels a little challenging, see what happens, and discover that you are capable of more than you thought!

I’d love to see what you come up with. Happy painting!