Potter's Pink, Walnut Ink
A little abstract playtime in my sketchbook
While in Italy, a box filled with tubes of watercolor was in the back end of the conference room. We were encouraged to pick out a couple colors each — since I already have a huge box of paints at home, I waited til the last day in the last hours, to let everyone else go first.
I looked in the box, and saw a few colors I already have in my palette, so grabbed those for eventual refilling. But I also looked for unique colors I haven’t played with. I “have” swatches of every color since I did that from a Dot Card (you can order one here) but not all those swatches inspired me to buy a tube (thankfully!).
Potters Pink is one of those. It’s a Primatek, a soft, desaturated pink color - and highly granulating. I hadn’t wanted to spend the money on a tube, but if it’s here just for me to play with, I nabbed one. (In coming weeks I’ll share a few other colors I found in that box, too!)
Watch the video below - and if you could, pop over to YouTube to leave a thumbs up to feed the algorithm!
Supplies (affiliate links provided at no cost to you; thank you for using my links and supporting my work!) Lake Michigan Book Press Sketchaday with Arches Bright White Cold Press in it. Colors are Daniel Smith Potters Pink BLICK | AMZ | JACKSONS and Daniel Smith Walnut Ink BLICK | AMZ | JACKSONS along with a Daniel Smith Watercolor Stick in Lunar Blac BLICK | AMZ | JACKSONS. Lines added with a Rotring Isograph Pen 0.50.
On Sunday the 10th, Atelier members should keep an eye on their email; I’ll be posting a 10 minute video of the pots and some further thoughts on Potters Pink.
Thoughts on abstract painting
This is going to be rather unsatisfying, but I’ll try anyway! This precludes using my jar of prompts which makes random the selections so I can’t guide the choices nearly as much. But these are the decisions I make first, then places to take it later:
Decide what to use. Do I feel like making something based on a particular color like today’s painting? Or choose a colorway?
Decide on the vibe. Hard and linear? Soft and flowing? Do the colors dictate how it’ll feel?
Decide on the composition. Quadratic? Freeform? Curvilinear shapes? Touching edges or not?
Start with washes, add lines, marks, paying attention to white space, areas of interest, small vs large elements to balance them out. Where does the eye travel, and is that what I want?
Step back and take a fresh look. Is anything appearing out of the elements to enhance? Or does something need to be diminished?
What else isn’t on this list?
News from the studio
On Tuesday I’ll be posting a video talking about air compressors; the new one I bought at my local store came with an airbrush for paint, so I’ll be showing that and giving specs you might consider for your own compressor. In coming weeks I’ll be launching a class for marker airbrush; I’ll find out how to airbrush watercolor, and it could take me longer to work out a class on that since I’ll be brand new to it.
Dad jokes
About pottery, what else?
What did the potter say to their partner?
I’m mold over heels for you.Why was the potter so good at their job?
They were on a roll.How do potters make decisions?
They just spin the wheel (of fortune)!