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Shades of White

Pale Whites, Complementary Shadows (Watercolour)
Pale Whites, Complementary Shadows (Watercolour)

Looking for inspiration today I dipped into the book I bought recently, Making Colour Sing by Jeanne Dobie. Chapter 9 is called White Glows and discusses techniques to make whites stand out from the page by using very subtle shades of primary colours to tint the white area and then choosing a complementary shade for the halftones, or for the transition between white and the darker shades.

Following an exercise she gives in the book I achieved the various ‘white’ flowers you see above. I think I need to understand this a bit better as my results were mixed… some of that was due to my unrealistic flower designs, and I think I got the glowing primaries a bit too bold – I ended up with coloured flowers rather than whites that glow 🙂 . Very interesting theory though, I think I shall have to practise some more.