colors: red, blue, and yellow. Mixing two of the primary colors creates a secondary color. Secondary colors are orange, green, and purple. Last, there are six tertiary colors made by mixing a secondary color with a primary color. They are yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green. In the beginning, if you stick to mixing warm colors with warm colors and cool colors with cool colors, you will have the easiest success and avoid frustration. It does not matter whether the medium you use is watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, ink, or water-soluble crayons, the colors will react the same.
As we saw in the example of purples mixed from cool and warm colors, secondary colors mixed from a warm color and a cool color appear duller. These mixes are great for use in the shadow areas.
A color wheel is a tool that helps us choose the colors for our palette that work well together. Our palette is the selection of colors we will use to paint or draw with. Palette choice is important because color helps the artist express emotion, interest, and depth.
Cadmium red medium, left, which has a lot of yellow in it, is much warmer than quinacridone red, right, which is a cool red because it has a lot of blue in it.
The first purple is mixed from cadmium red plus ultramarine blue. The second is mixed from cadmium red plus cerulean blue. The third is mixed from quinacridone red and ultramarine blue. The last is quinacridone red and cerulean blue.
DAY 22 WATERCOLOR
MATERIALS
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Micron 01 pen
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2B pencil
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sketchbook
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white tile
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watercolors
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small round paintbrush
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small bucket of water
Daily Tangles
Try these two patterns. Up until today, all the tangles have been official Zentangles. This week, each day we will learn one official Zentangle and one tangle or Tangleation created by one of the artists from the book. Today’s official Zentangle is Tagh. At times when I draw this pattern into an area it reminds me of seedpods, other times pinfeathers, and yet others architectural molding. It is a pattern of many faces. Tat is a pattern I named and have drawn on everything since I was a kid. It is a one-stroke pattern that changes directions. As you practice Tat, go slowly the first few times through the pattern to help keep the proportions correct. Tat reminds me of the patterns my grandmother used when she taught me tatting.
Practice these patterns in your sketchbook until they feel familiar. Create your daily Zentangle tile using today’s patterns and any previously learned patterns but add a twist: Try to create a Tangleation of your favorite pattern to add to this tile.
Tat was used in a rounded form in the pattern at the top of the tile and in a spiky form in the lower side of the tile.
Your Watercolor Palette
Almost every boxed set, whether it is pencils or paint, comes with both a warm and cool selection of each of the primary colors. For example, the colors in the Sakura travel watercolor set can be divided into a cool and warm color wheel. For the primary warm color wheel I used cadmium red, aureolin yellow, and ultramarine blue. For the cool color wheel, I used quinacridone rose, lemon yellow, and cerulean blue.
I chose cadmium red over vermilion because the amount of red to yellow was more balanced in cadmium red. I chose quinacridone red over alizarin red because there was a greater balance of red to blue in the quinacridone red.
ON A PAGE IN YOUR SKETCHBOOK, create warm and cool color wheels using watercolor, gouache, or colored pencils. Experiment creating color mixes with the leftover colors from your mixes. Label them so that you can reproduce the colors.
DAY 23 PAPER BATIK
MATERIALS
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Micron 01 pen
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white Glaze pen
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2B pencil
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sketchbook
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white tile
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tile from watercolor paper
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watercolors
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small round paintbrush
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small bucket of water
Daily Tangles
Try these two patterns. Today’s official Zentangle is Kathy’s
Andrew Cartmel
Mary McCluskey
Marg McAlister
Julie Law
Stan Berenstain
Heidi Willard
Jayden Woods
Joy Dettman
Connie Monk
Jay Northcote