Painting with dirt

[klwilliams]

Eliska came over for scribe night tonight, and I sat down to paint the trees in the miniature. I had decided as a base to use burnt sienna, then shade it. Unfortunately, my Windsor and Newton burnt sienna guache was completely dried out. Ah! thought I. I had some real burnt sienna in a little bottle, and gum arabic (since glair takes planning to have around. And eggs.), so I got out my dirt, mixed it with water and some gum arabic, and painted a wash on my tree trunks. Then came time to do the shading. I wanted to do a lighter brown and an almost white for lightening, and I usually mix in Naples yellow as my lightening agent since it doesn't make colors as chalky as white does. But Naples yellow was dried out, too. But I had Naples yellow powder. Which contained lead and antimony. Which I mixed into my burnt sienna anyway.

Sigh.

I totally and completely suck at mixing colors. Is it dark into light, or light into dark? Anyway, that first mixture failed.