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rapha ultramarine pro team softshell

rapha ultramarine pro team softshell

water colour painting has always been regarded as the preserve of the amateur, yet in my opinion, its relative complexity makes it a tad harder than painting with oils. watercolour relies on the luminosity of the paper to bring the painting to life; lighter shades, including white, must be gauged at the very beginning of any work, for there's really no practical way to correct an error of this type later in the work. oils (and acrylics), however, can be easily scraped away or overpainted at any point during the painting process. if the highlights are found to be wanting at any point, 'tis but simplicity itself to add white.

despite this rather tautological observation, when at art college, watercolours would only be accepted as studies for a final work in oils, acrylics, or as the trendier and more pretentious among us, would often ascribe, mixed media. for individuals such as yours truly, this situation had a rather detrimental effect on my progress in the drawing and painting department, for at the time, i had greater prowess with watercolours than tubes of oils.

rapha ultramarine pro team softshell

and as with many an artistic endeavour, there was often a reproducible trick that presented one's work in a more accomplished light than was truly the case. as one with landscape pretensions, all but very few of my watercolours would feature skies of varying demeanour. should it have been found necessary to depict a grey sky such as that afflicting the hebrides at this moment, there was a formula that created a luminescent grey that took great advantage of the underlying paper grain.

oddly enough and definitely not a process that i'd have discovered for myself, mixing even quantities of ultramarine (a bright blue) and light red (think teracotta) would result in an excellent grey with the added benefit of a delightful grain courtesy of, i believe, a chemical reaction between the two pigments. the latter proved to be heavier than each pigment on its own and thus sank to the bottom, randomly inhabiting the paper grain in a most attractive fashion.

rapha ultramarine pro team softshell

mixing ultramarine and light red oil paint would create an equally pleasing grey, but totally devoid of the effect engendered by their watercolour cousins. and to think this was thought to be within the domain of the amateur artist.

the original ultramarine in the time of michelangelo and leonardo was created by grinding the precious rock, lapis lazuli into a fine powder. the latter was imported by italian traders into europe from mines in modern day afghanistan, the name ultramarine being derived from the latin for beyond the sea. should you fancy recreating this for print purposes, the cmyk numbers are 100,75,0,0.

synthetic ultramarine pigment arrived in the early nineteenth century, bringing a welcome level of economy to the amateur watercolourist.

rapha ultramarine pro team softshell

in this context, it's as well that we are considering the influence of water, for the design boffins at rapha's imperial works have chosen ultramarine as the ideal colour for the latest edition of their pro team softshell, a jacket that purports (and succeeds) in keeping precipitation definitively on the outside while allowing the modest perspiration produced by the typically athletic cyclist to pass through unhindered. this, of course, is the holy grail of protective clothing, the very apparel that allows us to be #braverthantheelements.

and while we're also on the subject of art, it is a factor for which i am willing to suffer, having manfully embraced velominati's rule#9 for a couple of hours on sunday morning, when the winds had cancelled the ferries and turned relatively modest rainfall into a verisimilitude of a karcher power wash. despite this equivalent of lengthy shot-peening across the bows of the jacket for longer than is seemly in polite company, the jersey concealed beneath was as dessicated as it was on leaving the croft. pretty much the perfect result as far as i (and probably rapha) am concerned.

rapha ultramarine pro team softshell

and despite the official name for this brightly coloured jacket, peppered here and there with bright pink forcats de route stripes paying more than just lip service to the professional milieu, this amateur was greatly impressed by its grain, if you see what i mean.

as is to be expected on a garment of this quality, both cuffs featured gussetted zips that ease the wearing and removal of a pair of pro team gloves and can be closed to retain heat, or opened to heat the great outdoors with the sweat of our own brows (wrists?). the high collar featuring a set of those forcat stripes and a monogrammed rapha, keeps the worst of the elements at bay, while the plasticised strip over the centre rear pocket has proven itself to be a deal more than a gimmick. those pockets are capacious in their cargo abilities and accompanied by a fourth zipped edition for coffee money or a sable watercolour brush. fully-taped internal seams complete the forcefield.

rapha ultramarine pro team softshell

rapha are to be congratulated for exploring the colours less travelled in the quest for pragmatic alternatives to the ubiquitous fluorescent yellow, in this case, beautifully contrasted with bright pink detailing. the hebrides are now well into the season for which this jacket is expressly designed; it is a mere matter of varying the density of the undergarments to cope with the descending temperatures the sedgeway into winter will probably bring to our attention.

i may now laugh in the face of adversity with a gratuitous sneer.

rapha's pro team softshell is available in ultramarine, rich burgundy, or black, in sizes ranging from xs to xxl at a retail price of £200.

rapha ultramarine pro team softshell

monday 2 october 2017

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................