Colour Balance
Copying the exact colours and tones of nature is a difficult thing and probably undesirable as the idea of making a painting is to bring something new into the world , to interpret what we see, not try to remake it. Accepting the limitations of pigment on paper and turning their qualities to advantage is where true painting begins and is in itself a very liberating experience. The transparency of watercolour paint is one of its many virtues and the skill comes in learning to balance light with dark, colour with tone all at the same time as holding the composition in harmony. Keeping to a limited palette of say one red, one yellow and one blue will bring colour harmony as all the secondary and tertiary colours will be made from the that range and so are , by definition, related to one another. Even so the possibilities are limitless, you can try placing subtle, mixed colours next to the pure primaries from which you have made them working with only subdued,subtle colour using only assertive e.g.. primary colours. Whichever option you go for, remember that varying the tonal values of your colour can have a massive impact . A picture consisting of only subdued colours in dilute washes may well look insipid, but by placing dark next to light you can create something far more dynamic
Contrasting complimentary colours and tones can bring attention to a specific part of a picture. Consider also the amount of space you allocate to strong areas….for instance placing too much of a strong colour close to a skyline may distort the perspective by appearing to jump forward, whereas a sliver of dilute wash in the same colour may create an illusion of vast distance.