Bold Color Starts Here
Bold paintings begin with the paint.
But Jeannie McGuire (Ep.88) shows us, it’s still not quite where you think.
If you want bold color, you have to make sure that your paints are set up in a way that allows them to create bold colors.
This is especially true if, like McGuire, you’re working with watercolors.
McGuire knows this and the artist has developed an official paint prep stage in her process.
Without it, she wouldn’t be able to do many of the things intrinsic to her bold style.
Here’s how she gets her paints ready to go bold.
First she uses the right palette.
McGuire is an artist who works with a lot of paint. (Big bold marks take volume after all.) She can’t do that if she can’t get her brush fully into a palette’s well. Those deep wells are one of the main reasons she uses a Robert Wood palette.
Next, a big well does no good if there isn’t enough paint in it. McGuire squeezes out a third of the watercolor tube into each well so that she can more fully load he brush with paint.
Finally, she makes sure her paint is at a consistency that will create rich color.
To do this, she stirs the paint with the back of a thin watercolor brush until it’s the consistency of yogurt.
If it doesn't have the right consistency, she squirts a small amount of water in and stirs it again.
This yogurt consistency is the thickness (or viscosity) she wants from her paints the entire time she paints. If at any point the paints get too dry, she pauses, adds water and re-stirs them until they are back where they need to be.
Put it to Practice:
Watercolor works on a moisture ratio scale.
You’ll get weaker colors when your water to pigment ratio has more water and less pigment.
You’ll get richer color when your water to pigment ratio has more pigment and less water.
By starting with a yogurt consistency, you still have enough water to move the paint, and you are beginning your painting process with rich, deep color.
Most beginning painters start mixing tea-like consistencies from piles of dry paint. This creates a very light or weak color. And it becomes almost impossible to build up rich color from that starting point.
Even if you don’t want to paint like McGuire, try prepping your color so that it begins as yogurt. That way it's there if and when you need it.
After all, you always water it down on the mixing tray if you need something lighter or to act more as a glaze.