Wonder-Filled Wednesday No. 5: Creating 3D Form With Color

While this is a standalone episode, if you want to see the start of our discussion on using shading to create realistic drawings, watch last week’s livestream replay here.

Hey, friends!

Thank you

Charlene Alofs

,

Darcie Clark

,

Leslie Carter

,

Larry Brown

, and many others for tuning into the livestream! I look forward to our time together on Wednesdays very much.

Recap

Today we simplified shadow and light into two guidelines:

1. Cool and dark colors equal shadows, while bright and warm colors equal light;

2. NEVER allow your lightest dark to become the same color or lighter than your darkest light.

While mossy greens in general are “warmer” on the spectrum, I “cooled” the colors by adding various amounts of blue and adding dulling earth colors — in this case burnt and raw siennas — to dull the greens in steps as I went under the branch to create depth and make it look like the branch is rounding back into space.

Of course, this has more nuance (see the caption above) and thus not a “rule,” but for the purposes of keeping things simple for nature journaling if you keep these two points in mind, it will help you create a more realistic, 3D look to your visual journaling.

The materials I used today

• Watercolors

  • Quinacridone Gold (a warm, leans orange, yellow)

  • Quinacridone Rose (a cool, bright red)

  • French Ultramarine (a warm, red leaning blue)

  • Moonglow (a dark neutral that is as incredible in mixes as it is on its own — it’s a mix of Viridian, Anthraquinoid Red¹, and Ultramarine)

• Paper

  • Strathmore 500 Mixed Media paper — this was a sheet, but it’s the same paper in my nature journals

• Brushes

  • Water brushes - Pentel Aquash brushes

  • Golden Synthetic Spotter #5 from Rosemary & Co

• Pens

  • Micron 005 in Black

  • Pentel brush pen in Black

I also mentioned Jane Blundell’s discussion of triads, which you can find here. While I use a full mixing palette of carefully curated colors in my studio work, I love using triads in the field. The one above is my tried and true, but I will substitute other colors for fun.

Until next week!

xoSusannah

P.S. Keep scrolling if you’d like to see what’s on my easel this week.

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Every Wednesday at 1:30pm Eastern US time (Time Converter), we marvel in our nature journals together — draw along with me or just watch, ask questions, etc. Livestreams are hosted on Notes for everyone, and recorded/archived for paid subscribers.

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