You don't really need a tube Orange on your palette, since it is easy to mix an Orange with any Red and Yellow. You can mix many different shades, between Red-Orange and Yellow-Orange. And, many of the tube Oranges are not lightfast, so I always mix my oranges. A really beautiful Orange is made with New Gamboge and Quinacridone Rose. I even use that mixture, watered down, for flesh color in my portraits.
1. COLOR MIXING OF ORANGES
Flesh-Tones. Do a page of Flesh tone mixtures, which is really just a pale orange.
Use different combinations with the Reds and Yellows that are on your palette right now. Make notations right on the paper, so that you remember what colors you used.
Orange Grid (a la Paul Klee) -- Draw a grid of squares, and in each one, make a notation of the color you will try to achieve there. (And, include one Blue square, just for contrast). Then, paint each square, either mixing the color on the palette first; or, wet-in-wet mingling (water first, then add the colors to the wet square and let them mix on the paper.)
The complement of ORANGE is BLUE. When placed right next to each other, they really pop. Mix them into each other to create Browns. Orange and French Ultramarine, especially, make colorful neutrals.
A very versatile and effective complementary color combo is Quinacridone Burnt Orange and French Ultramarine. This is a good color scheme for landscapes. And, when mixed together, these two colors make a lovely gray (similar to Payne's Gray). When your painting is mostly Orange, the French Ultramarine can be added to make a nice dark.
2. PAINT A "FEELING" OF FALL -- Don't draw first. Just paint a simple little landscape, using oranges and other autumn colors, with just a touch of blue.
3. PAINT A BOUQUET-- Look at a bouquet of orange flowers, or part of a bouquet which contains some orange flowers, and start painting the color and shapes, without drawing first. Mix the oranges right on your paper. Let that dry -- and then come in with a black ink drawing.
4. CARROTS -- Buy some carrots, with the greens still attached. They are more fun to draw and paint that way. Draw them, and then paint with watercolor. Do a yellow underpainting on the carrot and the greens. Then, paint the rest of the background a light blue. Mingle the Oranges in the carrots, using Yellow, Burnt Orange, and a warm Red like Cadmium Red. Leave some of the yellow showing, especially in the middle of the carrot, to give it a rounded look. Then, use the blue to paint a cast shadow.
ORANGE is a warm color, that visually comes forward. It can have an exciting effect in a painting.
5. ORANGE-LINE DRAWING/PAINTING -- Set up a still-life, or look at your pet. (Use a photo, if your pet won't sit still.) Mix up an orange paint with your watercolors, and start "drawing" the shapes with your brush and the orange mixture -- no pencil drawing first. Start in the middle, and keep drawing shapes until you run out of paper. Then, fill in the shapes with mingled colors -- exaggerate the colors! Paint up to the orange line, but not over it, so that you get the nice contrast.
6. AUTUMN LEAVES -- Collect some leaves from outside, or find pictures of leaves, and draw/paint a few small leaf studies, in various ways:
An invaluable ORANGE, that you SHOULD have on your palette, is Quinacridone Burnt Orange -- which is similar to Burnt Sienna, but is very transparent and mixes well. It is more transparent and intensely-colored than the earth pigment, Burnt Sienna. And, it's especially good to use when you need a brown, other than in a landscape; and when you want to darken your oranges.
7. SMALL ORANGE FLOWER STUDIES -- Using a square format, draw a single orange flower blossom, and then paint it.
8. SMALL ORANGE FRUIT STUDIES -- Buy some orange fruit -- preferably, the kind you like, so you can eat it after you're finished drawing/painting. Do a few small drawings, and then paint them, mingling the oranges within the fruit.
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