One Inch Project, Numbers 6 and 7

In painting number six I started with the blue wash in transparent watercolor, then made a mix of pale orange and white gouache for the distant clouds. I like to mix grays from all kinds of colors, basically combining complements until I have the shade I want. I used different mixtures for the paler gray clouds and the warm gray foreground trees, varying the tone to suggest more distance in the gap. My favorite bit is the telephone pole! That took two tiny, quick strokes and telling myself to STOP! 

Number seven also began with a wash, but I created the bright blue with a dab of white gouache and blue watercolor. I used a bit of the mixed grays already on my palette from number six, with some darker blue added. The greens are a mix of sap green with orange, and a bit more hooker's green for the darks. I particularly like the way the funny brush made leaves dotted against the sky and clouds. 

These are the brushes I routinely use for the one inch paintings. I start every one of them with a few sketchy lines, drawn usually from a photograph, though not always. Then I use the biggest brush, here on your far right-hand side, which is a #8 chisel blender. It's HUGE on a painting this size, of course, but I turn it at various angles to get shapes in place. There's a 'funny brush' next to it that I use to make leafy or grassy shapes. I rely on the tall Chinese brush in the middle for the teeniest of lines, especially fine straight ones. I also like the one on the fat left side for dots and dashes, Oddly, the Kolinsky liner brush, second from the left, I don't often use. It's more suited to fine lines in a larger painting, I think.