New city – New pencil colours

After a few sketches in Melbourne, I realised that the Faber Castell watercolour pencils colours that I had used to draw Sydney buildings in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook were not going to capture the buildings of my new city. 

It was only a subtle difference, but I could tell and was very aware of it. Often I feel that getting the colour just right can make or break a sketch for me. And sometimes colour makes an object or building recognisable, even if the actually drawing is way out of kilter!

SYDNEY




St Stephens Uniting Church


Sydney hospital and eye hospital

The sandstone of many of the historic buildings in Sydney gives the city some of its personality. It is called Yellow block  and is known for its warm, golden straw colour. The main public buildings in Sydney, completed from the 1850s until the 20th century were built in sandstone from Pyrmont where some 50 quarries operated.  Pyrmont yellowblock was hard, and had good texture, and colour, and it was also suitable for carving. By coincidence Pyrmont is the suburb I used to live in in Sydney . No quarries now, just streetnames, pub names the landscape continue the history

In Sydney I used to following watercolour colours to sketch buildings:
  • Ivory
       combined with either

  •  Burnt Yellow Ochre or
  • Light Yellow Ochre or
  • little Raw Umber (which is a Derwent colour)

 The other colour I used in Sydney was Magenta on the ironlace and rails of buildings.
  • Magenta



    MELBOURNE

    In Melbourne, the city buildings have more grey than yellow to the stone. There are also other building materials such as  the completely different bluestone.
    I made a quick trip to explore a new art store where I tested a few new Faber Castell watercolour pencils for their colour, with and without water, and I came away with a few potentials.

    My new watercolour pencils are:

    • Warm Grey !
    • Warm Grey II
     and for the red ironwork
    • Burnt Carmine
     
     

     

     

     I have only had the chance to try out my new colours a few times, but I already feel a lot more comfortable with the colours and I think they are going to work just fine.  I will still continue to use Ivory and just a touch of the other colours, but now have a new set of colours for my new city!

     

    Supreme Court
    Melbourne Town Hall


    and here are the tested watercolour pencils drawn on a page together

     

      8 thoughts on “New city – New pencil colours

      1. Valerie Gardiner

        What an interesting post Alissa, I love how the landscape and cityscapes change in colour as we move around the country. It’s much the same here in France. You must have had a lot of fun trying out the different shades in your new city.

      2. Alissa Duke

        Thanks Valarie . I have heard watercolour painters discuss the different light in other countries. I had not even considered the building stone. And yes. I am having a wonderful time exploring the my new city and its colours

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