Zoltan Szabo authored numerous books on how to paint watercolour including 'Watercolor Techniques' which had 12 demonstrations. I received a copy of this book probably a gift from Mom in the mid 90's and read it with enthusiasm. The exercises and instructions were a little too advanced for me, I don't think I ever completed one of the demonstrations! Today I decided to try one out, Snowy Creek which had 5 steps listed starting with background orange and shadow blues, distant foliage and trees, water and snowy rocks, reflection and finishing touches. Each step had many sub steps and complex advice about technique, colour and composition. He controls the warm/cool from top left to bottom right to give the feeling of sun coming through, and uses a limited range to create harmony. My result looks quite nice, it captures the spirit of the scene. I must say it took nearly all of my skill to pull this off, so as a beginner it would have been quite a difficult achievement. It was fun to follow another artist's methodology.
A few colour notes: Zoltan recommended new gamboge, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, antwerp blue, french ultramarine blue, and sepia. I used isoindo yellow (PY110), pyrol vermilion (PR255), iron oxide red (PR101), raw umber (Pb7), indothrene blue (PB60), quinacridone violet (PV55) and neutral tint (PB60, PB15, PV19). From this list, you will see some really heavy darks and wide range of browns.
Snowy Creek, Zoltan Szabo Exercise, 8 x 10" hot press 300lbs, November 2020
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