Grapes of Art

Grapes of Art, watercolor, 5.5x8" ©Diane Mannion

Day 16 of 30/30 Challenge

An alert commenter asked a good question about why I painted this in three layers: "Since you did three layers of transparent glazing in all the colors, can I assume that is a way of creating visual continuity?"-Susan  

  

Three layers with the three colors everywhere does help with harmony, but I had in mind the three color printing process that books used to be published in. I would see three plates, one with each color that formed a full color print when together. Actually, the plates I used to paint on acetate for illustration in the VERY olden days were a layer for yellow, a red layer, and a black layer! The black ink worked as blue. I've also seen watercolor artists work this way. Colors may appear more luminous if mixed on the paper rather than mixing on the palette.

 Painted in layers of transparent glazing with blue, red, and yellow everywhere.

First layer blue which helped to get values down.

Second layer, red which was painted everywhere, especially the flowers and grapes.

Third layer, yellow, also painted everywhere but mainly on the lemon and flower stems.

 Then worked and reworked again with every color to define and finish.

Learning a lot during Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge!