I try to keep the range of colours on my palette to a sensibly small number, because part of the fun of painting is mixing the colour. But I have a problem with blues. I have 4-5 tubes of blue, and I often dither about which one I should be using. Blue is most often used for sky, of course, but which blue makes for the best sky? Conditions play a part of course, because the nature of sky blue can change quite a lot based on the time of day, and the time of year.
Frequently, I'll put more than one blue on my palette so I can decide which one works best. But then I have a problem because a few days later, I'll have forgotten which blue I have decided on. This is where a pen and paper comes in handy, but even if I remember to write down the blue of choice, another problem arises because on the palette, all the blues look pretty similar to me:
No other colour is so difficult to distinguish on the palette. Except maybe if you've got a range of blacks or whites. Such little problems. Sometimes I think I need more shades of blue, just to confuse things even more. Well, I can't say I'm not spoiled for choice/confusion - here's the range of blues available from Winsor & Newton:
You'd think some of these would be quite easy to distinguish on the palette. Perhaps so. Maybe I need to buy some more, just to check. My acquisition of every shade of the colour blue goes on...
Comments