Project 2: Transparent and Opaque, Exercise 4 Tonally Graded Wash

 Transparent Tonally Graded Wash
 It took ages to get through this exercise - mainly because of  numerous frustrating  attempts I made to obtain the desired results.

Oils part 1

The instructions were to mix strong but fluid paint with the aim of achieving a smooth transition of paint between each further dilution, but this did not happen. The paint was fluid and strong and not dry, yet I instead ended up with obvious bands between each gradation.
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I started with oils using ultramarine for .......no washes and one in cadmium red.,
I wrote copious notes about techniques and brushes used, consistencies and quantities of paint. All kinds of methods were used from painting on dry paper to painting on pre wetted paper, beginning with the darkest richest concentrations at the top to beginning with the weakest dilutions at the bottom. I tried out different brushes ranging from size 10 round hog bristle to a 2" goat hair hake and various brushes in between, on oil and watercolour paper.

Acrylic red part 1

As I'd had no success using oil paint I changed to acrylics but without much (if any) improvement.
It was also taking too long for the oils to dry when I wanted to move onto the second stage.
With hindsight I could have reduced the time if I had used Cobalt or Prussian Blue rather than Ultramarine.

Acrylic pt 2 -
light end first

Acrylic orange part 2

Wet-in-wet - acrylic orange only and red and orange, part 3 

In the final part of this exercise I found the instructions slightly confusing  - to paint a graded wash wet-in-wet on a sheet containing the first colour. By then all sheets with the first colour were dry so I had to start again. Here the intense tone of the second colour was applied to the pale end of the first colour while still damp, diluting gradually again to about halfway down the paper to meet the first colour. The resulting effect was meant to be reminiscent of a sunset or sunrise. In this case I would say only the two to the right come close.