BREAKING THE GREEN RULE

 

As many shades of green that I could make

Most watercolor artists that I know like to mix their own versions of green. The greens, like Cobalt Teal, Sap Green, or Hooker's Green, tend to look unnatural right out of the tube when painted on the page. Mixing a little Cobalt, Cerulean, or Aquamarine Blue with either Raw Sienna, Aurelin, or other yellows, gives the painter a more natural green than usually can be found straight from a tube of green. That practice has been hammered into my head for millennia, which made me feel a quiet sense of betrayal when an instructor decided to add green right out the tube to her paintbox. I had to step back a minute and think about my response to the action. "Yikes, a rule was broken. Never say never. Wow! Green all by itself." 

I know I tend to be a rule follower, not a rule breaker, but I've always considered my art to be the place I could break the rules. I came up short with green. I decided to make a palette of various mixtures of blues and yellows as well as straight greens from my forlorn tubes of Phthalo Green, Diopside Genuine, and Green Apatite Genuine that I had purchased and never used. After that experiment, I now have added green straight out of the tube to my paintbox too. I do continue to mix the green with the blues and yellows to make a better version of green.

You learn something new about yourself every day.

Trees sketch with greens mixed from various blues and yellows

This week I am spending time in Minnesota, a state that is filled with a variety of greens.