Playing Again with Primaries

Cathy Johnson challenged her group in trying various primary triads that are different from their norm.  At least that was my understanding of the challenge.  Making color charts to show the various colors one can get from three pigments.  She also included Bt Sienna and either Paynes Gray or Indigo.  I chose Bt Umber as I don't much care for the Bt Sienna in the Daniel Smith line.  It's more like W&N Light Red and more opaque.

Rather than making a chart showing all the greens, oranges, and violets I could achieve, I decided I just wanted to try out the different triads painting the subject I love most............nature.

All pigments used are Daniel Smith

Notes and Thoughts about my Results:

With the first page I tried my two Phthalo Blues....one leaning towards Red and the other Green.

Although noted on the left page I wasn't crazy about the mix results, I could actually grow to like using both now and then for a change of pace.  As a rule, I do normally stay clear of most staining pigments.

The Phthalo Blue (G) for sure doesn't really look natural to me for foliage but might work out for background trees without the yellow top portion.  The pigment in itself is a lovely blue.  I may have to play some more mixing it with other yellow and red combinations just to compare.

At first I leaned towards favoring the mix using Indigo but seeing it side by side like this to the Phthalo Blue (R) mix, the PB(R) is actually livelier even if the blue tone might not be too natural looking (upon close examination).  There's a nice variation the one with Indigo doesn't quite have.  To me the Indigo mix  comes closest to looking natural but might become monotonous if used throughout a large passage in a painting.


Indigo is an interesting Blue and I use it a lot as a Black.  I love how back-runs look using this pigment especially in trees.  My favorite usage of this color is in winter scenes.

Bottom right is a little sample using Quin Bt Sienna as my Red.  It proved interesting to me..... nice variation.

Burnt Umber was used to mix with blues for the browns used in trunk and limbs.  Also splashed a bit of BU in ground and foliage.

Funny.........as I sit here posting my thoughts now compared to how I felt a couple days ago when I first did these pages, my thoughts and feelings waiver.  Not sure if one would call that being fickle or flexible :-)