Mis?Adventures in Watercolor-Introducing Lunar Blue

A while back I posted about the California Quail triad from Daniel Smith.  I really liked the colors and with what I've learned the past couple of weeks between my class and my triad experiments, I knew I'd get more out of this pigments this time around.

Lunar Blue is a fantastic color.  If you paint it thick, it's a dark gray, similar to Payne's gray.  But juice it up with lots of water, and the most wonderful thing happens.  Look at this close-up.  Particles in the pigment separate, and you get an almost Robin's Egg blue with marvelous black specks.


Mix that with French Ochre (very similar to Yellow Ochre) and Quinacridone Burnt Orange) and you think rocks and deserts, and parched stone.  But remember.  Daniel Smith chose to use it to paint a quail!  It's surprisingly versatile.  After painting this, I'm of a mind to try for a painting of small brook with water running over the stones, and perhaps a brilliant tiny fish or two, weaving around them.

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