Guest Post with Angela Fehr on Color Mixing With Watercolour
Hey Everyone! I’ve got a special guest for you today… Angela Fehr! I have started reaching out to some really special people who I want to have share their amazing heart and talent with you here on my blog from time to time and Angela is such a special guest to have! In fact, she’s my first on this blog and I’m honored to have her.
Angela Fehr discovered watercolor twenty years ago and fell in love with it. As a Canadian artist living in rural northern British Columbia, she loves painting the landscape and flowers of the region and believes that beauty can be sought and enjoyed everywhere! She’s taught students around the world in her online courses and her gorgeous paintings hang in collections across the globe. At home, Angela is wife to a hot rod building carpenter, and is a home schooling mom to three amazing children.
My goal with guest posts on this blog is to bring you a range of helpful and insightful information from amazing people, which can further support your creative journey with God. Angela is a wonderful Christian woman who loves the Lord and has worked hard creating inspiring and informative online courses. I’m enjoying getting to know her!
Angela is going to share with you about color mixing with watercolor and it is beautiful! You’re going to love this! Be sure to give Angela some love in the comments below and stick around to the end where she’s generously offered a special discount on one of her online courses just for my readers in case you want to learn more from her. I’m pretty sure you will! She is wonderful!
With that, I’ll leave this post in Angela’s creative hands…
I’m so thankful that God created colour! As a watercolour artist, I’m endlessly captivated by the range of hues in the world around me, and I’m always asking myself, “How would I capture that in paint?” It’s an infinite challenge to try to replicate the iridescence of a butterfly’s wing, or the contrasts between cloud and light in a sunrise.
I love filling my art with colour, and my palettes contain well over 50 hues to choose from. But I don’t use all of these colours in a single painting! Having too many colours to choose from can be a larger obstacle to creating good art than having just a few. I like to work with about six colours chosen from this colour library, and I’m always experimenting with combinations to see which colours play well together.
Here are some of my favourite colour combinations – the colour names might not match your own palette, but similar hues in your art box will create similar effects. While with paint it’s easy to mix two colours to create a new colour, you can similarly “mix” with coloured pencil, pen or other media by layering colours over each other, or using a “pointillist” technique of dotting similar colours side by side:
Violet (Dioxazine) and Phthalo Turquoise – this combination of royal purple and electric blue creates a lovely stormy blue that I love to use for painting rain heavy skies.
Green Gold and Phthalo Turquoise – want a bright green? This yellow green and turquoise combination will give you a vibrant green that has no hint of muddiness.
Prussian Green and Perylene Red – watercolour artists don’t as a rule use black since black absorbs light and appears dead in transparent watercolour. I love this complementary combination of deep dark green and vibrant red for a strong warm black substitute in my paintings.
Quinacridone Magenta and Cadmium Yellow – combining a gorgeous pink-toned red and pure yellow gives beautiful rose to apricot tones that I love to use for painting flowers.
Cobalt Blue and Burnt Umber – this is one of the first colours I learned to mix as a painter and is still my very favourite combination for creating greys from grey-blue to warm grey-brown.
Many artists prefer to use a very limited palette, choosing three primary colours (a red, a yellow & a blue), mixing in different proportions to create a rainbow of colours for their paintings. For any artist looking to create colour harmony, a limited palette creates a unification of the colours as each colour is mixed by using a combination of three original primaries. A limited palette doesn’t have to be limiting! When you are working with just a few colours you know you will get a result where all the colours work together. You also get to increase your colour knowledge, and once you start to get bored with your limited palette, you can add a new colour, or create an entirely new limited palette to play with and get to know!
Colour theory shouldn’t be your slave driver. Use colours you love, be playful, and experiment! In my watercolour classes, I spend more time encouraging my students to loosen up than actually teaching technique, because when we are genuine and intuitive, that’s where breakthroughs happen.
Rebekah here again… Isn’t Angela amazing? And her art?! It is never too late to learn.
What Angela teaches is totally achievable for beginners and she is very approachable. If fact, she has an online course specifically for beginners and has generously provided a 50% off coupon just for you as my readers!
Purchase Basic Techniques in Watercolour at 50% by clicking here:
http://learn.angelafehr.com/courses/basics?product_id=20061&coupon_code=RJONES50
I’d encourage you not to allow inexperience to hinder you if learning more from Angela interests you. I took one of her classes last year and found her to be a great instructor. You can also follow that link and check out the array of other classes in her online school.
Comment below and let us know if you’ve enjoyed this colorful post! Give Angela some love for me!
What have you learned? What are you going to go try out now? What are YOUR favorite color combinations?!
If you take nothing else from this wonderful post, take Angela’s advice today… “Use colours you love, be playful, and experiment!”
You are loved. x
P.S. Don’t forget to share this with friends who might want to know about it!
*To support your journey, I have affiliated with DaySpring, Scrapbook.com and Amazon. I receive a small percentage per order, when you click on their links found on my blog and then purchase. This is NO extra cost to you. You may see my full disclosure. Thanks for your support!
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Apr 26, 2016 @ 10:43 pm
What a blessing the Lord gives to us int he beauty He has created around us. I’m so excited to know about these classes. I’ve been an oil painter for about 40 years off and on, and I’m just starting to explore mixed media. Water-color is a technique I’ve long wanted to master and I love seeing the color mixing differences. Great post, Thank You!
Apr 26, 2016 @ 11:30 pm
Thank you! How exciting–I’ve been looking for an opportunity to learn about watercolor. I just enrolled in the Basic Techniques in Watercolor, taking advantage of the coupon offered here! Thank you, Rebekah and Angela!
Apr 26, 2016 @ 11:33 pm
I love the colors you can create with just what you have and I won’t tell you how many watercolor kits I own. I would love to be able to use watercolors to paint flowers and the beauty all around us that God has created. They’re amazing to me, different than any other type of medium. I started doing Bible journaling and I still do but I got off on mixed media and I like it because it is so different and I can do any crazy, colorful thing I want. I wish so much I could afford the course with you but right now with medical bills for my husband it’s out of the question. Do you ever do any tutorials on Utube? That way I could keep in touch until hopefully I can afford to take your course. I’m so glad you’re here today and thanks to Rebekah for bringing you to us. God bless and now I’m going to watch your tutorial.
Apr 29, 2016 @ 2:37 pm
Linda search Angela Fehr on youtube and you’ll find some lovely tutorials. Blessings on you and your husband in this season!
Apr 26, 2016 @ 11:37 pm
Thank you Angela. I love your approach of stressing using colors you love and don’t be intimidated. Praise Our God for the beauty He has created and His ability to live in our hearts.
Apr 27, 2016 @ 12:17 am
Thank you for your insight. I am just starting to return to watercolor after 40 years! I appreciate your encouragement in this wonderful medium.
Apr 27, 2016 @ 3:40 am
This is such a great tutorial on beginner color theory! Angela, WOW!! Your watercoloring is amazing and so beautiful!! I finally got a little bit better at watercoloring, but only within a heat embossed image. My all-time favorite color combinations in distress inks are picked raspberry and peacock feathers (pink and turquoise), & peacock feathers and dusty concord (turquoise and purple). However, mustard seed and picked raspberry/worn lipstick (yellow and 2 shades of pink) make a gorgeous shade of orange, so bright and deep. Thank you very much Angela for sharing your knowledge and beautiful painting with us and a BIG thank you to Rebekah for inviting Angela!!!!
Apr 27, 2016 @ 4:31 am
Love these mixes. Thanks for the wonderful ideas. I especially like the violet.
Apr 27, 2016 @ 6:51 am
Wow…. I have been wanting to purchase water colors, and the price is crazy, I didn’t realize that I could start with just a fee colors and beg I n there. You have opened my eyes. Thank you for sharing your talent.
Apr 27, 2016 @ 7:44 am
Thanks for sharing these tips… will start playing with colour mixing myself now…
God bless you and pray you are inspired to create for LIFE!
Apr 27, 2016 @ 1:52 pm
Thank you Angela and Rebekah for this wonderfully interesting and enlightening blog, and for the generous 50% discount of the class price. I hope to be able to sign up for one (or more) in the near future. God bless you both!
Apr 27, 2016 @ 2:11 pm
What am I going to do? I am going to go rummaging through my watercolors, see if I can find some similar colors and start enjoying the mixing process. Thank you both for this wonderful look behind the scenes and for the generous 50% discount. I hope it is available for a while as time does not permit me to take it currently.
Apr 27, 2016 @ 2:42 pm
I had to go take at peek at Angela’s courses and oh my pure excellence. I’ve had no formal training in watercolor and yet I knew I didn’t want to just learn to mix someone else’s colors. I totally love how Angela demonstrates the concept of learning to mix your own color. This is a must take class, as well as, probably more. I took a peek at the preview of the floral (daisy) painted and what a fabulous lesson just in the preview. Looks like I better start saving my pennies. Thanks again to both of you for sharing your amazing talent.
Apr 27, 2016 @ 3:28 pm
This was great Rebekah and Angela! Thanks so much!!!
Apr 27, 2016 @ 8:09 pm
Thank you! The color are beautiful – would not have thought of some of those combinations
Apr 28, 2016 @ 1:11 am
Thank you Rebekah! I took notes on color mixing from this blog post and then discovered the discount coupon for the beginner’s class and signed up! Thank you Angela!
Apr 28, 2016 @ 2:20 am
Thank you, Angela!! I’ve recently started watercolor painting and have attended two workshops. Finding the right colors to mix is the hardest part for me. Thank you for this wonderful lesson.
Apr 28, 2016 @ 3:33 am
Watercolor rocks! Thanks!
Apr 28, 2016 @ 8:48 pm
Thank you so much for the sharing these tips for color mixing and the coupon. I have wanted to take a class in watercolor, but could never afford to. I look forward to taking your class.
Apr 28, 2016 @ 11:08 pm
I have taken some of Angela’s online courses and they are worth every penny. I just love everything she does.
Apr 29, 2016 @ 2:03 am
Wow! I found this really helpful. I’m just getting the hang of watercolours but have had no idea where to start with mixing colours. I turned fifty recently and was absolutely blessed by my friends with real paint, not the $2 shop paint, not complaining about that though it was a starting point, but what a difference quality paint makes. I recently purchased phthalo turquoise and love this colour. I did an under water scene, using this colour and emerald. So pretty. I can’t wait to keep exploring and adding to my colour range.
Apr 29, 2016 @ 2:20 am
I have been following Angela for two years now. She has taught me so much. Rebekah I have recently been following you and am enjoying a renewed enthusiasm in studying scripture by combining it with my art. Thanks for opening the door to enjoying a new way to dig into scripture. Hreat to have my two favorite people join hands.
May 21, 2016 @ 4:12 am
I’ve wanted to take an on-line course on water colour as I live in a northern community and cannot get training anywhere here. Too bad Canadians are not offered the 50% off.
Nov 3, 2018 @ 8:05 pm
thank you soo much … for sharing tips for the grey blue i tried it and it works i love it