Whether you call it burgundy, magenta, crimson or cranberry, a cool, dark, plummy red is the most popular color you’ll see in all the shops and magazines for the A/W 2011 season. Why not join in the fun and experiment with some of the reds and violets on your watercolor palette?
This grid shows some of the gorgeous hues that resulted from mixing 50/50 portions of the red-violet spectrum of my own paintbox. I included the red-trending earth pigments of burnt sienna and sepia, as well as one of the warm reds, cadmium red deep, in the group of colors used.
Isn't it interesting to see the slight hue difference between Winsor Newton's alizarin crimson and the same pigment by Holbein?
What colors will contrast and coordinate best with these dark reds? Try using complementary colors from the opposite side of the color wheel, the green family:
Green mixes, top to bottom: Ultramarine and new gamboge(WN); indigo & cad. orange (WN); ultramarine & cad. lemon (WN); Sleeping Beauty turquoise (DS); and indigo & cad. lemon (WN)
Analogous colors from the orange and yellow side of the spectrum will harmonize with crimson and plum:
![Watercolor palette mixes from the warm color spectrum]( "Red, yellow and orange watercolor chart, © 2011, Wren M. Allen")
Yellows on rows 1, 3, & 5: New gamboge, alone and mixed with vermilion (H), then with alizarin (WN). Rows 2 and 4: Cad. red light on the left and cad. lemon with alizarin (WN).
This chart looks very 1960s to me! I did use one complementary pairing—dioxazine purple is sandwiched at lower left between two slabs of new gamboge.
For further inspiration, here are some links to some classic artworks with palette mixes echoing this fall’s trend for deep reds:
- Mark Rothko painting using magenta with green and orange at MoMA
- Bonnard’s palette included a wide range of pinks, oranges and reds. He even used hot-toned crimson for shadows! Here are some videos from the Metropolitan Museum of Art about his late interiors.
- Paul Klee was a subtle and brilliant colorist. His Rose Garden from 1920 uses many tones of deep red and violet.
- Raphael’s portrait of Pope Julius II uses a sharp contrast of red with malachite green
- Maria Sybilla Merien, the intrepid explorer of Surinam’s tropical forests, combined purple with moss green in this etching of a butterfly’s metamorphosis. Note how the wing silhouette visually rhymes with the leaf shapes!
Happy painting!