Analogous color scheme of Orange, Yellow, Yellow Green Green Blue green and a small compliment of red. 

Value plan from top down are: Middle light dark. From the bushes are middle, light dark. Patterns in values create a strong unity in painting. 

This Painting medium is Gouache.

This resource is actually from a portion of my large painting, titled, Natures Playground Summer. 

I love limited palettes. Here is an example of the Old Masters palette (you can find on this blog). Value study, value chord, color study are a must.

I love limited palette

 Value Chords of a Limited Palette color scheme. Paynes Gray/Burnt Sienna/ Raw Sienna. I use Raw Sienna rather than Yellow Ocher because it is a transparent earth pigment. 

Also included is a Delicate Triad of the same resource. 

Always do a value study and chord.  

I use the Munsell Value System.

Lunch Break

Glazing technique with wet in wet wash.

Negative painting using two hues.

As we begin a new Winter Semester at BYU-I, one of the assignment we do is Negative Painting. This is a great way to see positive and negative shapes as a duality, also taught in Notan Principles.  You begin with a shape then using a high key mingled wash place in two pigments. This painting has Cobalt Teal and Raw Sienna a great combination. Let this mingled wash dry, then add more shapes of varying sizes and paint around these.  Note the creation of dark's the last step that goes behind the leaf shapes. This dark pattern is just off the center in design creating an informal balance.
These leaves come from my aspen tree just in front of my deck. It is early spring here in Idaho and the Robins are gathering in my aspen, ceder and long needle pine trees. It brings a lot of pleasure watching them hop from the ground to obtain ceder berries from off the bottom limbs. There are now two morning doves that have joined the chores of bird song. The earth is a place of great joy to my soul. If there was one thing I am very grateful for it is the earth, its creation is a wonder.

Here is a wonderful Black mixed from Red Oxide and Prussian Blue. This is a nice limited palette
I called it Low Earth.

Wet in Wet watercolor Metods

Class Demo

For this assignment begin with:

• On a 140 lb. Arches Watercolor Paper, begin with wetting the paper with a good size watercolor brush (1 1/2" for a quarter sheet of paper, 3" watercolor brush for a full sheet) use the largest brush that you are comfortable with.  Often times students use to small a brush in wet in wet washes. 
• Be sure you have a good composition plan before you begin by sketching in your sketch book. 
• Complete a watercolor value plan in black and white.  Have passages of the light value area, middle value area ,and dark value areas. This creates patterns that unify and give structure to the painting. 
• Have your pigment or hues you have chosen ready on the palette before you begin. 

I will be using the Old Masters Limited Palette of Yellow Ocher, (my yellow), Burnt Sienna, my red) and Paynes Gray, (my blue). All other colors greens, oranges, and violets will be mixed from these three primary colors. Yes the color harmony is very muted (low intensity).
Step by step examples are forth coming.