Page:The practice of water-colour painting (IA cu31924014501971).pdf/177

distinguishable. He keeps his pigments in a creamy consistency, moist enough to enable them to be laid easily on the paper, but not so wet that a touch will spread appreciably beyond the place that it is intended to occupy. What exactly should be the amount of water used in this mode of handling water-colours the painter can only find out by experiment. Mr. Powell has developed the method into a certainty, and much of the charm of texture which can be perceived in his paintings comes from the skill with which he brings his pigments to the right consistency and avoids that excessive fluidity of touch which is so difficult to control. Yet he equally avoids dryness, and the hard definition of washes which is undesirable in finished work and not always acceptable even in a slight sketch.

The colours he uses are lemon yellow, gamboge, aureolin, yellow ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, burnt umber, raw umber, Vandyke brown, sepia, blue black, orange vermilion, Venetian red, rose madder, brown madder, cobalt, Antwerp blue, indigo, and Payne's grey.