Own Your Encore

My Encore Excursions

  • Hue Strings

    Keeping it simple… Color Week 41 explores ‘Hue Strings’. An example of a hue string is shown below for cobalt blue gouache. This string is pure color + white. The exercise is to develop skill in mixing and in recognizing small changes in value. So we create lots of strings! Color is inseparable of it’s […]

    MSRitzman

    October 20, 2021
    Sketching
    color choices, Color theory, Color week, Color wheel, Hue strings, watercolor practice
  • Apatite

    Apatite

    Color Week 40 explores Green Apatite Genuine. This is a fascinating sedimentary and granulating color that ranges from a fresh yellow-green to dark olive. My acquisition of the color was by accident – it was included in a boxed set that was on sale. I was getting started in watercolor and thought the colors looked […]

    MSRitzman

    October 13, 2021
    Sketching
    color choices, Color week, Foliage sketch, Granulating watercolor, Green Apatite, watercolor practice
  • Color Fundamentals. VALUE

    Color Fundamentals. VALUE

    How do we learn to see what we cannot yet see?  Aimee Erickson Color Week 39 we will start to explore the fundamental characteristics of color through the teachings of a class that I am taking with instructor Aimee Erickson. Erickson has laid out 3 fundamental characteristics of color which will be explored over the […]

    MSRitzman

    October 7, 2021
    Sketching
    Aimee Erickson, Checkerboard exercise, color choices, Color Fundamentals, Color value, Color week, Value scales
  • Vivid Colors

    Color Week 38 explores what makes fall colors and foliage appear so vivid and bold. The ‘warm’ colors of fall foliage [ Yellow. Crimson. Orange] are cast against the complementary ‘cool’ blue of the sky and mountains. It’s the basic color wheel at work, the colors are opposite each other [Blue & Orange for example] […]

    MSRitzman

    September 27, 2021
    Sketching
    Artist Ridge, color choices, Color week, Mt Baker, Mt Baker trails sketch, North Cascades sketch, Picture Lake, watercolor practice
  • Frog Visit

    A visit to my garden by a frog is the inspiration for Color Week 37. My frog was brownish and appears to be a pacific tree frog. [reference USFW] Seeing the Frog reminded me of my Wedgewood reproduction Queen’s ware ‘Frog’ service plate. And as luck would have it I listened to a V&A online […]

    MSRitzman

    September 21, 2021
    Sketching
    color choices, Color week, Daniel Smith Watercolor, Sepia, watercolor practice
  • Color Week 36 Purple

    Purple is generally, any color with hue between red and blue. In contemporary times purple is often associated with rarity, royalty, magic and piety. But purple has lots of history: The word actually derives from the name of Tyrian purple dye manufactured from mucus secreted by the spiny dye-murex snail. The dye came from the […]

    MSRitzman

    September 13, 2021
    Sketching
    color choices, Color week, Purple, watercolor practice
  • Douglas Fir Colors

    It is now September, Color Week 35. This morning I went out to the beach to sketch and found myself looking at the hills as they meet the water. The hills are a combination of evergreen and deciduous trees, but that tree on the edge of the beach, tall and wind worn is a Douglas […]

    MSRitzman

    September 8, 2021
    2022 Color
    color choices, Color week, watercolor practice
  • Rose Garden

    Color Week 34 centers around the colors of the Woodland Park Rose Garden, Seattle Wa. Originally established by Park Board in 1922,   the Rose Garden is one of only two dozen certified American Rose Test Gardens in the United States. At its picturesque best from May through August, the garden displays new rose hybrids […]

    MSRitzman

    September 2, 2021
    Sketching
    color choices, Color week, Quinacrodone colors, Rose garden, watercolor practice
  • The Colors of Plum Jam

    Color week 33 features the color mixes for ‘Plum Jam’. It is jam making season and here we have 3 jams with distinct colors along with distinct [and delicious] flavors. Mixing the colors included a base jam tone and building from that base, much like making the jam itself. The grid comes from my wonderful […]

    MSRitzman

    August 27, 2021
    Sketching
    color choices, Color week, Explorer's Sketchbook, Jean Mackay, Plum colors. Red plum colors, Plum jam, watercolor practice
  • End of Season Golds

    Color Week 32 captures the colors of the end-of-season seed pods. The early flowering alliums, the tall grass and drying seed pods are giving us signs that the flowering season is ending in the Pacific Northwest. Yellow Ochre. Quinacrodone Deep Gold. Raw Umber. Naples Yellow. watercolor choices

    MSRitzman

    August 20, 2021
    Sketching
    color choices, Color week, watercolor practice
  • Color Advice

    Recently I have been following Annie Sloan to learn more about her color background and training. Sloan uses bold color on home furnishing in ways that do not seem out of place. Recently a story she posted caused me to go out and purchase 2 new chalk paint colors … I never imagined I would […]

    MSRitzman

    August 13, 2021
    Sketching
    Annie Sloan, color choices, Color week
  • Choose a Color Scheme

    One of the tasks in a watercolor class assignment this week includes selecting a ‘color scheme’. It seems like a simple task – thus the topic of Color Week 29. Monet loved to use a limited palette. He achieved more luminescence by having to utilize more mixes rather than from a variety of colours. Typically […]

    MSRitzman

    July 28, 2021
    Sketching
    Belfair Wa, color choices, Color scheme, Color week, watercolor practice, Wetlands
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