Manushree Mishra - Contemporary Color Theory: Watercolor Flowers: A Modern Exploration of the Color Wheel and Watercolor to Create Beautiful Floral Artwork

MANUSHREE MISHRA

Have you ever struggled with mixing the exact color that youve imagined? Perhaps youve poured your heart and soul into a painting created a good base drawing and a balanced compositiononly to realize that the colors look awful together?

Fret not! I know these challenges intimately, so much so that I invested a year passionately exploring color theory and mixing every tube or pan of color I owned. I ended up creating an array of color combinations, ranging from vibrant colors to soft pastels and even muddy neutrals. This extensive exploration resulted in transforming how I saw and understood colors, and it helped me make color choices that felt harmonious and worked in tandem with what I was hoping to express through my art.

If you find the subject of color theory and color mixing intimidating or complex, the good news is that its easier than you think! All you need to know are a few basics and be willing to experiment, and I assure you the process will be nothing short of magical. Ive taught thousands of creatives in my workshops and classes the joy of confidently mixing colors, and now I am sharing all that knowledge in this book.

Throughout this book, I share everything that you need to know about colors using simple language so that I can guide you through fun and easy, hands-on activities and projects, step by step. The book is divided into three sections, and every section builds on the previous one, so I recommend following through each section in the given order.

In the first section, we decipher the basics of colors, navigate through common terminologies, and develop an understanding of how colors work together. I also guide you through multiple step-by-step activities to reinforce your learning.

The second section is all about mixing colors. I share recipes to mix vibrant and clean mixes, soft pastels, muted vintage colors, earth tones, and neutrals. In this section, I answer why mixing red with blue yields a muddy violet as opposed to purple, and how a color bias affects mixing colors. This will deepen your love for color and enable you to mix your own unique contemporary colors. By the end of this section, color mixing will start falling into place and you may find that you dont need to buy every tube of color out there, as most of them can be mixed with your existing color palette.

Armed with all these necessary techniques and color theory understanding, the third section puts all that weve covered previously into practice: utilizing colors to our advantage. We start with a little warm-up and approach floral composition with an emphasis on cohesive and harmonious color palettes. At every step, I offer guidance and tips on creating evocative floral paintings.

By the time youve finished working through this book, youll feel more confident in mixing and utilizing what youve learned by curating your own unique color recipes or palettes. This, in turn, will help develop and strengthen your artistic style. I hope this book encourages and inspires you to connect with colors like never before. I cant wait to see what youll create!

Use the hashtag #createwithTWC if youd like to share your color exploration or paintings with me on social media.

Happy creating to you, my friend!

Just as an artists style evolves, so too will their supplies. Its best to start with whats economical when beginning your journey with watercolors. This will enable you to explore and focus on learning the techniques without the fear of ruining expensive materials. Eventually, as you become more confident and invested in your creative journey, you can choose to purchase professional-quality supplies.

Over the following pages, Ive shared my recommended supply list. These are the materials I use every day in my studio that have offered me the best results. In my personal experience, investing in quality supplies enhances the joy of the process. But, having said that, I encourage you to work with whatever you have. Throughout the book Ive included color swatches, and youre welcome to find the closest match in your own color palette.

WATERCOLORS

If youve ever visited an art-supply store, you may remember that fine-art supplies are mostly divided into student- and professional-grade. Whats the difference between the two? They look similar, but the price point varies significantly. Heres what you should know.

Professional-grade supplies are higher quality. For instance, a professional-grade watercolor will only have two components: pigment and binder. This makes these watercolors very transparent, luminous, and highly pigmented. Professional-grade watercolors will also offer a greater mixing experience. Student-grade comes with less pigment and fillers are added to compensate for that, which results in faded or chalky colors.

I recommend investing in professional-grade paints for the six pigments listed here (top right) to get the cleanest color-mixing experience and value out of your color explorations. To keep things simple and your choices limited, lets use these six colors (warm and cool versions of every primary color): lemon yellow, opera rose, phthalo blue, new gamboge, cadmium red, and ultramarine blue.

Limiting your colors when you are just starting out ensures that you learn to mix colors intuitively. If you already have a watercolor set, look at the pigment information. You may find an exact match or something very similar to the swatches of primary colors Ive shared here.

We will also use a white gouache, buff titanium (its fine if you dont have this color; we can mix a similar one using white gouache), Paynes gray, burnt sienna, raw umber (only for color-mixing purposes), as well as green, purple, and orange for convenience. Any standard 12-pan/tube watercolor set will include green, orange, and purple.

Optional: Just to offer a deeper understanding of color mixing, Ill also be using an earth-toned primary set to demonstrate the unique color wheel that these hues can create together.