Step-by-step Color Study for a Home Portrait in Watercolor
Watercolor landscapt painting demonstration

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Why do a color study

Color Study is a process of experimental color composition and value arrangement. It is especially helpful when you need to combine two or more reference pictures for a painting. For example, in my recent watercolor painting commission, my reference pictures were two photos of maple trees, and a picture of a morning scene of the house.

Here is my method for this color study in brief

Most often, I use red, blue and yellow, the three primary colors, most often, mixing them as needed for orange, green and purple. I also use burnt umber for brown and to tone down the other colors.

Drawing

For this color study, I first did a simple drawing on 11 by 15 inch watercolor paper. Keep in mind, this is an experimental process. You will be exploring the color and value relationships between the major subjects in the painting, not addressing the details and small subjects.