~studio-workshopthe-grays
The Grays
June 19, 2024 6:59 pm #art#painting#watercolor#study
The Grays
Visual description
Two watercolor paintings sit side by side on a metal surface. The left piece shows a checkerboard grid of squares in varying shades of gray and black. The right piece has two sections, a solid gradient wash on the left and a series of angular horizontal bands in different grays and one pale pink stripe on the right. Small handwritten text near the bottom reads "Thad" and a date.
This came out of leftover Payne's Grey watercolor I didn't want to throw away. Rather than waste it, I put it to work, mixing it down into different shades of gray across these two pieces.
Fun facts: Payne's Grey was invented by William Payne around 1790. He came up with it to help students get away from the flat, lifeless shadows that regular black paint tends to create. The original mix combined Prussian blue, yellow ochre, and crimson lake.