I waited a long time to get Nathan Fowkes’ How to Paint Landscapes Quickly and Beautifully in Watercolor and Gouache from interlibrary loan. I’m not sure how I first head of it, but the title sounds great: I like quick! I like beautiful! Will I like this book?
I didn’t realize from the title that Fowkes would be using gouache and watercolor together; I thought it meant either/or. But he has a very specific style which involves the heavy use of white gouache with watercolor. In this way, he paints with watercolor as if it’s gouache: since nearly every color is mixed with various levels of white gouache, it’s essentially turned into gouache and can be painted light-over-dark. It’s sure interesting, and it’s not just the same-old same-old watercolor book.
Fowkes’ style isn’t my favorite, really; he paints very low-key, and I find it kind of dark and dreary. But there are occasional moments of shocking glow. This emphasizes an important point: glow and lightness comes from contrast!
Anyway here’s the palette
I found it a little difficult to decode the palette map printed in the book (and on his blog), but this is as close as I could manage.
All colors Winsor & Newton unless otherwise specified.
Top Row:
| Slot | NF Recommends |
|---|---|
| Orange | Cadmium orange (PO20) or Winsor Orange (PO62) |
| Middle Red | Cadmium red (PR108) or Winsor Red (PR254) |
| Crimson | Permanent Alizarin Crimson |
| Violet-Blue | French Ultramarine Blue (PB29) |
| Violet | Dioxazine Violet (PV23) |
| Cyan | Phthalo/Winsor Blue Green Shade (PB15:3) |
| Green | Phthalo/Winsor Green Blue Shade (PG7) |
| Green | Permanent Sap Green |
| Green | HO Leaf Green |
| Lemon Yellow | Winsor Lemon (PY175) |
| Orange Yellow | Cadmium yellow deep (PY35) or Winsor Yellow Deep (PY65) |
| Earth Yellow | Yellow Ochre (PY43) |
| Earth Red | Venetian Red (PR101) |
| Brown | Vandyke Brown |
| Brown | Raw Umber |
| Black | Ivory Black |
| White | LOTS of White Gouache! |
My totally subjective review
Fowkes’ colors seem to fall into two categories:
- bright, bold colors resembling the prototypical ROYGBIV rainbow color slots; the type of colors I’d call “on the nose” or “boy bedroom” colors
- the dreariest browns you’ve ever seen
My personal aesthetic preference as you know is for more “girl bedroom” colors: modern primaries, pinks, colors you’d see on a unicorn. So it’s hard for me to really like this palette.
I do think there is a good point to be made, though, that low-chroma color contrast is really needed to make the bold colors pop.
Wanna read for yourself? You can support the blog by shopping with my affiliate links.
How to Paint Landscapes Quickly and Beautifully in Watercolor and Gouache by Nathan Fowkes