Seeing the World in Colour

  

 Blog 7

 

In July, I continued what I started in June. I decided to dedicate three days each to one colour. A simple colour wheel shows pure hues (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet), while this month’s objects possessed mainly colours that are created by mixing colours. 

 

The first three images are mostly brown, which belongs between red and yellow, in the orange family, but with lower brightness and saturation (intensity). 

 

Next I captured predominantly grey objects. Grey is a neutral colour with no dominant hue. It is made by mixing black and white or by mixing complementary colours, sometimes adding white. 

 

The next colour was black, the darkest neutral. It is used to create shades of colours by darkening them. Usually, you don't find pure black in nature because the reflected light gives some areas a warm brown or cool blue undertone.

 

Finally, I chose three pink objects. Pink is a tint of red, made by adding white to cool reds with a blue or purple undertone. As I had a pink watercolour pencil, I only added more water. I struggled with the piglet’s legs, which I adjusted several times. I had to add colour to the background to cover some of the dark lines. I am still not completely satisfied, but I considered the drawing finished when I realized I could not improve it.

 

 

I wanted to add images of turquoise objects next because it is another of my favourite colours. However, I had trouble finding any objects in my surroundings while I was on vacation, and I was also missing the colours to mix a satisfying turquoise. Instead, I created images consisting mainly of two primary colours and their secondary colour, a mix of these two primary colours. 

The daylily consists of yellow, orange and red. I added a yellow-green for the leaves and in some of the petals. 

Blue grape hyacinths surround the red and purple tulips. I added a green with a blue undertone for the plants’ leaves.

The lily is the only image that consists of only the two primary colours, blue and yellow, and their secondary, green.  

 

Next, I experimented with complementary colours: the primary colour combined with the secondary colour created when mixing the other two primary colours. The final piece was a colourful flower bed.

 

In my children's courses, I have had many children who were reluctant to add colour to their drawings, and I often encourage them to add at least a bit of colour to parts of their images. I LOVE colour. Therefore, I wanted to go the other way and attempt to draw some of the previous colour subjects in black and white.

My favourite one was the gerbera. I prefer the black-and-white drawing to the coloured one I did in June. The Gentiana acaulis drawing was extremely difficult because the reference photo showed the blossoms clumped together, making it challenging to identify the shapes of each blossom.

 

On July 29, we drew the garden snail from a previous month again because many of our regular members had missed the first time. Again, I had more trouble drawing the right-facing snail than the left-facing one. I have noticed during this daily drawing project that it’s more challenging for me to draw something facing right than left, which is interesting because I also prefer parking spots to my left. I will explore this phenomenon further in the upcoming months.
 

For the last two days, I picked an iris and the individual mousse cake, which seemed an easy drawing to finish before publishing this blog.

 

To bring some relaxing creative fun into your life, join me for the free Art Café on August 23, 2026, from 2 PM to 4 PM. We will chat, enjoy some treats and create beautiful fruit-inspired doodles. I will provide all the materials and some light refreshments. You are welcome to bring a treat, especially if you have any dietary restrictions. I have space for up to seven people.

For more information and registration, please go here.