My own Shire palette from handmade Beam Paints

The more I explore Beam Paints, the more I love what they can do.  

I want to stress that these are NOT like mass manufactured paints.  These naturally sourced pigments tend to be heavy and have some very interesting behaviour.  

I've been using my Zorn palette for a while now, but decided to try another limited colour palette.

I've also included white in this.  It's probably the one colour I'm most disappointed with as it's a problem to activate.  It sucks up all the water and gives me almost nothing back.  It's fine if I paint with it for a few days in a row, but trying to wake it up... it resists.

But it's useful to make the paints differently opaque when needed.  Well worth exploring what we can do with it.

 

The angry gardener

 So I got something wrong.  She's never this annoyed.  But I do like playing with indigo for the background.  

Every painting is practice and a step towards getting better.  I learn something every time.

Washing the gardener

 She's Gardener because she's the only one cheeky enough to sneak into the garden and dig up my plants.  

Personally, I think she just wants the hug

Regular watercolours.  Nothing special about that.  But I love the way the first wash behaves as it dries.  It's still wet here.  The "drying shift" of watercolours is fun to watch, but also increases the challenge.  

himi gouache eh? But can it paint a chicken?

 

A kind of chicken, yes.

I used ink for the line work and himi gouache for the colours.  There's a charm about him, but also he's too generic to be a chicken I know.  

I forgot

 His closeup

Considering I don't know how to paint people yet, I really like how this turned out.  Five colours it all it takes (and some gold)

Beam handmade watercolour paints - it feels like The Holidays have begun already

 

For santa, I'm using the Zorn palette I talked about before, and Beam Paints.  This time I'm adding Winter Nights as it has some sparkle and I was having trouble getting greens I liked for the holly.

Have a look at how it swatches and mixes with the other colours

Still very subdued but that's exactly what I want.  

One thing I love about zorn colours is it's a very classic movie look for us.  We learn about limited colour palettes by watching TV and films.  And have you noticed if something is set in War Time England, the urban scenes almost always follow the zorn palette so any touch of green or blue really stands out?  Foils War is a good example.  

Zorn is classic in our zeitgeist.  

I kind of like how we can use colours to pull up old programming in our brains.  And sparkles.  

I may have "accidently" added some gold in there too but that qualifies as a kind of yellow ochre, right?

It's that time again.

 

Santa begins.

These are some handmade watercolour paints from Beam Paints and their pre-black friday sale (their mailing list lets you know the sales)

More on that next day.

Year of the...

 First time playing with gouache.

Rabbit footprints and a dragon door knocker (so you don't have to try to figure out how to politely ask what it is)

Last year was rabbit.  This year, dragon.

This is himi gouache which is a very affordable paint set.  Over 1 kilo of paint for what a small 15ml tube would cost of professional gouache.  But I'm already unsure if I like it as my mind is firmly enjoying watercolour style of painting.

Generic hen

 I don't seem to be very good at keeping things in frame, but meh, maybe it's my style.

She's a pretty hen.  I don't know if I did her justice or if it's a bit abstract.  But I'm happy. 

so begins generic hen

 her name is actually "generic hen".  Not to be confused with "generic red hen" and "other generic hen".  I wish they would have more creative names.

so begins the first wash.  Back to mass manufactured student and professional grade watercolours.  I'm running out of student grade, especially yellow ochre.  That one seems to evaporate or something.

coffee in charcoal

 First attempt at charcoal.  Not bad.  Not great.

But also from memory.

What this means is that my homemade charcoal can draw coffee.  

mmm... coffeee... can't blog, need coffee.  

One day I will paint this

 I haven't the courage to try.

The thing is, these colours are far more vibrant in person so it's pretty hard to make it look real.

charcoal - way easier to make than it looks

 This is willow charcoal I made.  The willow trees need coppicing (chopping down) each winter and I took some sticks and pealed the bark off them.

This is an old tin something, maybe chocolates?  With a nail, puncture the hole in it.  fill it as tight as possible with sticks (green is fine, dry is better) and wrap some stiff wire around it to make sure it stays closed.  Toss it in the woodstove at the end of the day.  It's ready by morning.

Considering, with shipping and stuff, it's about a dollar a stick to buy this kind of willow charcoal, I expected it to be more difficult to make.

I painted a house (or a small part of one)

 There is more than one kind of painting going on these days.

I like the other kind better

light, shadow, lopsided

 Playing with opaque watercolours, lights and shadows.  I don't really like it, but it was fun to paint.

the one that got away

 Here's one that didn't get very far.  She's a tricky hen and I thought maybe the colours beneath the feathers... 

Nah.

Need to work on brush control more.  

Sometimes the chicken works, and other times it's just not ready to be painted yet.

armistice day

 

Today is Remembrance Day as they call it here.  

It's a bit of a shit day now.  It doesn't mean much except everyone under the age of 19 has to know the poem about the poppies.  Everyone gets a holiday unless you are in the military then you have to either work or go to stand in the cold for whatever ceremonies (unpaid) for hours.  It feels more like punishment to those who serve.

And I can't help but think how important their work is.

Here in Canada, the forces do more than practice with guns.  They are involved in search and rescue, medical evac to the remote artic when conditions are too cold for civilians, they help with floods and fires, they even go into old age homes and change dirty nappies when the government fails.  

To give a country the best years of their lives, only to get tossed aside at the end?  It's getting better for those retiring these days, but they still fail those who retired before.

Sorry.

shitty day.  

not a day many people remember except to take one of the 'free' poppies at the grocery store and have a day off work.

Also, I forgot to paint (or steal) a poppy.

still a mystery

 

I only saw her on photo day.  But yes, she was that mean.  I took her photo, she bit me.  Seems like a fair exchange.  

who is this hen?

 I don't know this hen.  I've never seen her before.  But she showed up on picture day.  And was never seen again.

Oh well.  I'll begin with a wash.  

golden zorn

 I wonder if I could paint goldy in Zorn?

That's pretty!  I wish I could remember how I got the different shades of red.  I want to try this again. 

tutorial failure

 

I don't know why, but tutorials are probably the worst way for me to learn.  I feel like I'm copying a painting or even steps of a painting.  I think I would do better if I could have the steps but work from life or a phot rather than follow someone else's painting.  

Anyway, this never amounted to anything.  It's also the wrong time of year to be thinking of cherry blossoms when I'm having to keep the frost off the humming bird feeders.  

Goldie

 

Painted him for a friend.

First time using caput mortuum (beautiful rich, granulating opaque watercolour, earth red) but I lost some of the glow so I used some gold paint to give him back some shine before the final layer.

I tried a thing, it kind of worked.  

Trick or Treat

 

You know how I worried I bought the wrong colours in the last post?

Well, it gets worse.  This trio is secondary colours - what a crazy challenge I set myself to paint something with this.  

Same lifting problems as last time.  I tried to use it to my advantage, but I just couldn't get the deep darkness I wanted.  Adding layers to make it darker, lifted the old layer and made it lighter.  It's like opposite to what I would expect watercolours to do.  

The reference I used for this is a photo I took a few years back in the local park.  Dappled light through the leaves and a face that caves in on itself.  Brilliant.

After Halloween, thousands of pumpkins, carved, melted, burnt, and rotting, appear in one of the local parks.  It's a marvelous thing to see.

We like to pretend wildlife eats them all, but in reality the tax dollars clean them up.  Money well spent.  I wonder if the weather will let me go with my paint set instead of just a camera this year?  

deceptive handmade watercolours

 These should be so beautiful.  I had such wonderful results buying handmade watercolour so far, that I thought I would try a different seller on etsy.  They get great reviews.  

They swatch beautifully!  

Not sure this is quite cut out for a chicken.  How about one of my other obsessions?  A hobbit-ish house?

The first layer started off well.  Blending is lovely.  Got some good strong colour right away.

The problem comes with the next layer.  See that window on the right.  Smudge city.  

The paint lifts like crazy.  One layer painting is fine, but I like to layer.  sigh.  They feel like they aren't bonding to the paper like regular watercolours.  Some watercolours lift a bit, but it usually needs more than a hint of water.  These feel like they don't have enough binder.  But maybe I just choose the wrong colours?  

I wonder, how about this limited palette?

 Again with the Beam Paints - more and more I fall in love with them.  Lucky for me the price is about equal or less than most big name paints in the local art shops.  

And my new favourite limited palette.  

Timberwolf (paynes grey)

Mars (caput mortuum)

and Fall Popular (hansa yellow)

For this one, I included a bit of graphite, but meh.  It's not the right addition to this trio.  

(and yes, this is totally a variation on Handsome - glad you noticed.  I use him to try out new colour combinations but mostly I give him back his comb points because poor fella) 

Forever handsome

He used to have the most beautiful comb!  But alas, he's not the wisest when it comes to battle.  But the hens love him and that's what counts in the end.  

I think this is one of my favouite examples of how much personality handmade paints can add to the picture.  I don't think I could get the feathers half way close without it.  

Painting feathers are hard (is hard?)

Handsome grows stronger

 

The thing about watercolours is layers.

Painting light to dark and using the natural texture of the paint to help discover the chicken.

Still, he would look better with a tail.  

Here's a handsome fella

 So named after Handsome Cowboy from a movie I love.

You know the one, right?

(and yes, I'm fishing for comments to see if anyone is out there in the void)

Paint stones

 

These cute little guys are paint stones.  Handmade watercolour by Beam Paints.

(pro tip, sign up for their mailing list now as they have epic black friday sales)

Lightfast pigments, gum arabic, and Manitoulin maple sap blend together to create a handmade  saturated colour that is a joy to paint with. From thick stripes to fine washes and details, quality is evident in every stroke. Our watercolours are shaped into paintstones, our version of a half-pan, before being wrapped in beeswaxed cloth. Our pans are packaged in slices of cedar and birch offcuts from an Indigenous sustainable lumber operation.

I adore the ethos of this paint maker.  Ecological sound practices, plastic free packaging, a focus on safety, and the romantic names of the different colours.

Featured here are Mars Black, Turtle Belly red, Harvest Wheat (yellow ochre) and Limestone white.  It makes a nice variation on the zorn palette.

Although I am having issues adjusting to these paints as they have so much more pigment than I'm used to working with the student grade watercolours.   The paints also have personality that they contribute to the painting - much more than the big commercial brands.

Also a big thanks to Dad for making me a stand for my paints out of the wood from a branch from our apple tree.  

 

The big question is, of course,

 

Can I paint a chicken with the Zorn limited Palette and watercolours? 

More lofi girl watercolours just in time for winter

 A couple more lofi girl studies from the video I posted last time.  

This first one is in Gansai Tambi paints and playing with backruns in the background.

This one is in my new favourite limited colour palette.  More on that soon. 

Lofi Girl goes Zorn

 Still playing with the Zorn limited colour palette, I wondered if I could paint something from this lofi girl video.

The colours worked, but the painting style is harder than I expected.  I am not used to doing large areas of flat colour.  It doesn't help that I'm still using that faulty paper, it shows up a lot in the skin and dark.  But still, not bad.

beam handmade paints and zorn

Trying something new with the Beam Paints handmade watercolours and a limited zorn palette.

The closest colours I could get are Harvest (yellow Ochre), Mars Black, and Turtle Belly.  I really like how these work together and can get quite a range.

Although for this one, I used Graphite instead of Mars and it didn't get as dark.

 

Zorn and japanese watercolour samuri

 

They say Kurataki Gansai Tambi is a mix between watercolour and gouache so I thought it would be fun to try a zorn limited palette painting.

The white is more opaque and powerful than regular watercolour white and I love how it interacts with the skin tone.  So too is the black and when mixed with the red it makes some lovely browns.  

Bonus points if you know what movie this is from.  I wasn't brave enough to do his eyebrows big enough.  

A wizard and zorn watercolours

 

In many ways, I adore how this turned out.  The granulation.  The way the white pushes back his hat and cloak while the transparent watercolours in the staff make it almost glow.

What I didn't know, and is hard to see in this photo, is the paper had gone off.  The sizing (the layer that protects the paper from the water) had decayed due to poor storage prior to the book shipping to me.  You can see it most near the top of the staff where there's a white patch that didn't take the background colour and some places where it absorbed too much.  

I ended up contacting the manufacturer and got a refund for the books (yes, I bought two).  I'm still going to use these, but alas, not for the nice record keeping I was hoping for.  This is going to be another practice journal.  

Gandalf was okay, I guess

But I wonder if I can paint him better?  

I don't have a wizzard or wizard hat.  But I have this wool felt one.  Some coffee and attempting to paint it in black (no white this time).

That kind of worked.  I wonder what else I have around the house to try? 

Painting from life, I learn a lot more than from a picture or screen shot.  A bit of driftwood, some wool cloth, and now I'm about to attempt some cotswold wool locks.  

I am amazed by what watercolour and looking at something really hard can achieve.  I really like these little studies.

 

speaking about wizards

 I wondered how hard it would be to paint one using the Zorn palette

Why Zorn when the four colours (white, yellow ochre, bright red/orange, and black) have been used by many traditional arts around the world?  From Haida Gwaii, the Cowichan, and other First Peoples from the area where I live, to India, China, Italy, Africa... all over the world, we see these four colours making up a traditional palette.  And rightly so, they are fantastic! 

In Ancient Greece, it was called the Apelles Palette, many Renaissance painters used a variation on it, only with the newly discovered vermillion. Anyway, there are about 36 hundred names for these four colours.  But I can spell Zorn.  So Zorn it is.

For this, I'm experimenting with white in watercolours and a couple of different blacks.  Granulating mars black for the background and interesting how white can bring forward or push back certain subjects.  

It's also around this time, I'm borrowing a lot of books from the library on the history of watercolour and discover that it's not until about 1960 that white became forbidden in watercolours.

I think teachers might have had trouble explaining/understanding that white and black aren't good at values - they don't lighten or darken colours well.  In watercolour this is done with saturation (the amount of paint) more than anything.  Since they couldn't explain/understand this, they forbid white (and black) in the classroom.  And people took this to mean that all white and black are forbidden in watercolours.

I think that's a shame as these two can do amazing effects.  Just look at some of the old masters from Turner, Constable, Van Gogh, Emily Car... none of them were afraid of white or "body colour" in their watercolours.  Why are we?

fore edge painting - test

Press the book between two boards and see what happens when I apply watercolour.
 

Not too bad for my first fore edge painting. 

These are Japanese paints Gansai Tambi so they have a thicker texture than modern European Watercolours.  Think more like watercolours were like during Albert Durer's day.  (now that's a painter!)