Billy Idyll

Monthly Retrospective: September 2024

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I didn’t know it at the start of the month, but September was my last calendar month in British Columbia. I’ve been dreaming about moving back to Massachusetts due to homesickness pretty much from the moment I arrived five months ago, but recently, the feeling switched over from “I miss home, but I am determined … Read more

Where to buy art supplies in Canada

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In the U.S. I did not find it difficult to find places to buy watercolor supplies, especially online. National chains Blick, Cheap Joe’s, and Jerry’s Artarama are common and do a lot of online business, and regional specialty stores like St Louis Art Supply or Wet Paint Art in St. Paul, MN are also good enough to be worth ordering from even if you live far away.

In Canada, I have found it difficult to source the good stuff. There are fewer giant chain art stores and those that exist carry smaller selections at higher prices. However, I have poked around carefully and found some specific sources for the specific brands, colors, etc. that I like. Here are some of the more promising art stores that ship nationally.

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Limited Palette Study: Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Indian Yellow, Perylene Violet

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I chose this palette for a night sky painting – and to play with two new Schmincke colors, Indian Yellow and Perylene Violet! Phthalo Blue Green Shade is a classic cyan: bright, but transparent enough to achieve dark masstone. Indian Yellow is a combination of two warm yellows (PY154 and PY110), similar to DS New Gamboge. Perylene Violet is an oddball choice for me, because I usually find it too dark and dreary, but it’s perfect for the deep, dark violets of a night sky.

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Limited Palette Templates

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I’m on my limited palette kick after reading Hazel Soan‘s The Art of the Limited Palette, and I have more thoughts!

How do you go about building or choosing a limited palette for a particular painting? It’s easy to default to a primary triad (blue/yellow/red), the most common type of limited palette, but what are the other options? From my observations of Soan’s examples in her book and other sources, I’ve categorized common patterns.

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Autumn Leaf Studies

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Reference leaves. Vancouver, September 18, 2024.

Trees are still mostly green as we pass the midpoint of September here in Vancouver, but the first few leaves are starting to change. I decided to take the opportunity to paint with my 2023 fall foliage palette and see if I can refine the colors to make it an even better palette for autumn leaves.

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Limited Palette Study: Indanthrone Blue, Rich Green Gold, Transparent Red Oxide

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Welcome to a new series where I take a look at a specific limited palette, usually consisting of 3 colors. This is inspired by my newfound interest in limited palettes (after reading Hazel Soan’s book), and also by my need to find a new post series now that I’m no longer doing Color Spotlights because I have tried (almost) every color available to me.

We’re starting with kind of a weird one! Instead of a traditional blue, yellow, and red, this is a blue, green-yellow, and earth orange. I used 3 Daniel Smith colors: Indanthrone Blue (PB60), Rich Green Gold (PY129), and Transparent Red Oxide (PR101).

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Kolbie Blume’s 10-Day Painting the Wilderness Challenge, Redux

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Along with my watercolor discord, I decided to redo Kolbie Blume’s 10-Day Painting the Wilderness challenge from 2021, the same challenge that I found super valuable in helping me get into watercolor in the first place 3 years ago!

It’s fun to read back to my original post and see how much this challenge meant to me the first time. Doing it again reminded me of that excitement – the anticipation and joy of listening to those first strains of the video theme song and the ritual of taping my paper down each time. I followed the tutorial less this time than I did originally, opting more to do my own thing.

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