Beautiful Watercolour Greys and Neutrals
![andrew hodgson](https://painting-commission.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ahodgson.png)
Watercolour Greys and Neutrals
Greys or neutrals were probably my least favourite of all watercolour mixes – grey = dull = mud, or so I thought!
One day I was playing around with my paints , concentrating on trying to create the effect of bark on a silver birch tree, I mixed a couple of colours willy nilly for the back ground and accidentally produced an absolutely beautiful translucent grey.
![lumious grey](https://painting-commission.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/birchopt.jpg)
![greys left](https://painting-commission.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/grey-l-opt.jpg)
The Perfect Surrounding
I began to study grey –
red & green (because green is made of blue and yellow)
A Luminous Grey you can see through.
1. Make sure you are using transparent pigments not opaque.
2. If you you are using three different pigments ; ie a blue, a yellow and a red, make sure that it is biased/leaning towards one of the primaries, not equally mixed. ie slighly blueish grey, slightly redish grey or laening towards yellow = a slighly yellowish grey.
3. The scan on the right shows the 6 greys with their complimentary colours in the centre of the squares.
For example the top left square is a grey leaning towards blue and in the centre of blues complimentary colour of cadmium orange. To show you the maximum contrast you could have by placing an octanic colour against a luminous grey.
The Large Grey Squares are all RMG (Rose Madder Genuine) +CB ( Cobalt Blue) + HYM (Hansa Yellow Medium) mixes.
The colours are abreviated as –
- CO=cadmium orange
- QC = Quinachradone Gold
- HYM = Hansa Yellow Medium
- Pth bl = Pthalo Blue
- VI = Viridian
- LR = Light Red
![greys watercolour](https://painting-commission.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/grey-r-opt-745x1024.jpg)
Mud Glorious Mud!
Great Little Video from Angela Fehr on American Watercolor Weekly ,showing the mixing of complimentary colours.
![greys and neutrals](https://painting-commission.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/greys-and-neutrals.jpg)
Essential reading
Brilliant article from American Watercolour, with Dan Marshall explaining the beauty and importance of neutrals.