Colorful Cabbage

Colorful Cabbage

Image Size 14" x 21"

Watercolor

This started out as a poured painting.  I poured about 3 layers and then removed the resist and finished it by painting directly because I wanted soft edges within the leaves.  I again used the QoR watercolors because I wanted to see if I needed less paint when mixing my colors for the pours.  I needed A LOT less paint than with the watercolors I've used in the past.  I started with small dabs of fresh paint in my water mixtures and had to add extra water to each color to tone down the intensity.  I was really surprised at how much less paint was necessary.  Usually, I have to keep adding more and more paint to each container to get the level of color I need so I am really happy to have found a paint that is so intense.

By pouring the paint, I got the color blending of the purples in the middle of the cabbage with the greens of the outside leaves.  I think pouring gives the colors in a painting a cohesiveness that you might not otherwise achieve.  It also gives the colors a beautiful glow.

I used a limited palette for the cabbage.  Usually, when I use three primaries there is only one secondary color that is pure and the others are a bit muddy.  I used Alizarin Crimson, Indanthrone blue and Quinacridone yellow.  With these three colors, I was able to mix a beautiful purple and a lot of clear shades of green and although I didn't use orange in this painting, the Alizarin and yellow make a pretty good orange.   I think I've found my favorite triad!

I know that it's supposed to be possible to mix every color from the three primaries but I wanted a warm brown for the background and I didn't feel that I was getting the color I wanted from these three colors so I used a mix of burnt umber and burnt sienna for the background and then brought those colors into the shadows of the cabbage to warm them up a bit.