Portrait Studio Wall Color
 

Until well into the 20th century, artists

A lot of artists have adopted this color. I use it and love it and I know several other artists who do too. The Scottsdale Artists

A few people have asked me to make a color sample for them. If I make a few, I might as well make a few more. Therefore, if any of you would like a sample of the color, send a dollar and a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Whitaker Studio Color
4325 Ivy Lane
Provo, UT 84604

You can take it to your local paint store and easily find a color like it, or a color you think is even better. Go ahead, modify away! Sherrie and David have recently built two new studios and are using a modified color for them that is even darker and a bit richer. (I thought it was pretty hard to tell the difference.) Below is a photo of Sherrie and me in her new studio.
Be warned: the color looks horrible in the can! You will think it looks like the color the Bulgarians use to paint their military vehicles. In your studio it is magic though.


If you can't paint your studio walls, you can make a portable backdrop out of foamcore board and use the color there.

You don't need to paint your ceiling. My studio ceiling is white and Sherrie's ceiling is wood, traditional for Taos. Both work just fine.

Thanks for reminding us about this, Bill. And thanks for posting the gorgeous photo of your model with that wall color. If I ever build my dream studio in the backyard it will have all the features you described.

Scanning that wall color:
 

Dear Bill,

The following is as accurate a method I can come up with to reproduce your famous wall color for this Forum. I scanned it tonight (again) with my Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One Photo color spectrometer (image inset) and got the following readings on the L.a.b. scale: L: 48.0, a: 0.1, b: 11.7.

The nearest values in Photoshop are: L: 48, a: 0, b: 12. I painted a color patch and saved it in the color space used on this Forum.

My can of Benjamin Moore paint was tinted to the exact formula you have posted above. Thanks for the brief sketch of the color's evolution and historic provenance.

Edit: Your photograph portrait above is wonderful! The color does appear richer and greener to my eye in the daylight, than in this photoshop swatch, so the color effect on your photograph is right on target!

Enjoy,

Garth

Garth,

Your technological savvy is wondeful.
I envy you.

Art AND science!

Bill

Thank you
 

Dear Mr. Whitaker,

I am one of your (many, I'm sure) silent admirers. I have been reading your posts, studying and admiring your portraits, and most recently printing them on my new printer to put up in my 'studio'. I am happy to finally take the opportunity to tell you how incredible your work is and to thank you for your many posts that have been so helpful to me.

I went to the paint store this morning to get a quart of paint to paint a background for my 'studio'. I will share with you and the forum what I found:

I went to the local Benjamin Moore store and had them mix up a quart according to the formula above. Well, it was close, but had too much yellow in it, making it too green. After some conversation with the salesperson, I found out that Benjamin Moore has recently (in the last 18 months) brought back the 'old' colors. The store I was at is computerized and has the info on a CD now. So, he was able to look up the number GN-25 and mix the original paint color. This second mixture was what, I believe, I was looking for, a dark greenish grey.

I asked the salesperson to write down the formula for anyone who doesn't have a Benjamin Store nearby, or if that particular store isn't computerized (as the salesman said some of the stores aren't).

Benjamin Moore & Co. GN-25
319-3B (that's just the base color, and it also means 'eggshell' finish)

UTC Gallon Formula
OY 1x 24.50
RX 0x 2.25
BK 2x 6.00
GY 0x 12.00

I bought two large pieces of foamcore, 60" x 40", from our art store and have painted one side of each of them. It's not really practical to paint my 'studio' walls since it's half studio and half computer room, and the walls are covered with bookcases and windows anyway. The color is, as you say, sometimes grey and sometimes more green. It's pretty dark though! I am anxious to put a model in front of it and see what happens!

Joan

Dear Joan,

If you can mail me some swatches of your color(s) on some 3 x 5 card, or whatever works, I can scan them too for comparative purposes to what I have posted above. I can email you my address. It will be interesting and informative to compare your GN-25 color with my sample. If you send me a sample, apply two coats of paint to hide the support completely.

Actually anyone is welcome to send me original samples to analyze and compare of any color. It doesn't have to be green-gray.

To explain your mixture having too much yellow, I wonder if the formula margin of error varies slightly between a quart and a gallon? The salesman told me he could not accurately match a quart to a gallon formula, so I opted for the gallon, which fortunately looks about right.

Good luck!

Garth

Wall paint
 

Dear Garth,

Hi, I would be happy to send you samples of the colors. I actually had to buy both :o since I asked the paint guy to mix up the color according to the formula first. It looked too green/yellow. Next he pulled out an old color sample fan and found GN-25. There are a lot of older homes around here and that paint store has been there a while, I think people come in and want paint colors from years ago, so luckily they saved the old fan. Anyway . . . . we compared the GN-25 color on the fan to what he just mixed me. The color on the fan was more like Bill Whitaker described, a dark greenish grey. He had the formula on a CD that Benjamin Moore has just released. So he mixed that up for me and I wrote down the formula for that. That's the formula I put in my last post.

The paint guy and I decided that the formula that I came in with (from Bill's post) was probably color matched to something, some sample of GN-25, in 2001, before the 'old' color formulas were rereleased. It was close, but different from the GN-25 the Benjamin Store had on file. If you notice the first formula in this post, it's not a Benjamin Moore store so maybe they didn't have the true formulas. And we thought it was more green/yellow because there is a lot of orange in the formula.

I hope I've explained this well enough! I can certainly send you samples of both. I think my e-mail address is listed on the forum, if not, I can post it.

Did you get a gallon of the formula since Bill posted it yesterday? You're quick too. And, yes, it would be interesting to compare the colors.

thanks,

Joan

The paint looks considerably more yellow before it dries. I suppose you compared it dried by a hair drier though.

You might have a point here. We will have to ask Bill if his paint dealer has exactly the same pigment colorants as Benjamin Moore. I guess I'll have to order a sample from Bill. I did get my paint at a Benjamin Moore dealer.

If one went to another place like a Home Depot and ordered a different brand of paint, in all likelihood the paint base would lhave a different degree of opacity or white added, so even if the colorants were the same formula, the tint or color may differ.


Joan, I got mine a while ago. Michael Georges also posted the formula here a year or more ago, where I learned of it.

Anyway, I can still scan samples on the L.a.b. scale and post comparative numbers side by side with Photoshop generated color swatches to post here. These will not give any insight into the paint store formulas, but just compare apples to apples on the Forum. :)

I will email my snail-mailing address.

Garth

Many variables in paint color
 

Hi Garth,

Well, you are certainly right in that there are many variables in paint color! I had only thought of about half of them.

I have your address now so I'll get those samples in the mail tomorrow. I'm looking forward to your comparisons!

Joan

Joan,

I think you were pretty fortunate. You obviously went into the right Benjamin Moore store!

Actually, I've given up on the formula. Instead, when I paint my new studio, I'm just going to go in and choose a color that matches my paint chip sample - or maybe a little darker.

Your backdrop is a fine idea. I think you will be very pleased with it.

And by the way Joan, let me thank you and Garth for so graciously sharing your information with everyone here. Your contributions join with a great many others in making this forum a great resource.

Bill

Paint chip
 

Dear Bill,

I am just so happy to be able to contribute the teeniest bit of information to this forum, I have gained so much from everyone here.

Since you put your studio address on this thread, I will send you a sample of what I just got from Benjamin Moore. You might find it interesting to compare it to what you've got. ;) I'm sending the two paint chips to Garth, we'll see what his spectrometer thingamajiggy says.

Joan

I just had a revelation. I too am redoing my studio but am trying to match Bill's color to a Dunn Edward's paint chip. Interestingly the reflectance of that color is one of the lowest of the various grey mixtures. That means that there will be little reflected light colors influencing color mixtures. Another reason to go with a traditional color.

Yes, Richard, the low level of reflectance is very true. Lacking a decent window, I need supplimental artificial light (a bank of six fluorescent T-8 tubes). To get that artificial light to work, I have had to throw up two large white foamcore panels to coax the light over toward my easel. The light certainly is not bouncing off the Whitaker Gray-Green walls! That's for sure.

Garth

Artificial lighting
 

I hope I'm not getting too far off the subject with this question about artificial light, but it stems from the comments about the studio wall color and how it affects the lighting on the model.

Hi Garth,

Hmm, lighting. Such a challenge for me. I am so inspired by the photos that Bill puts up that I am determined to get some decent lighting. If I can't take great reference photos, I'll never paint great portraits. I believe I have searched every post related to artificial lighting on this forum and finally ended up with a Commerical Electric flourescent bulb. But after a few months of using it, I've realized it's not bright enough. So, in order to go with something portable (since I need to take photos of models someplace other than my tiny crowded 'studio' space), I' m thinking of going with a white-lightning set-up like Bill described or . . . the local camera store has a couple of 250 and 500 Watt bulbs (halogen or tungsten, I was looking at flashes and wasn't completely focused on the individual bulbs, can't remember exactly what they were). This would be the 'easy', i.e. cheap, way out, but I'm not convinced this type of light is what I'm looking for. My question, when it comes to portable lighting, is the white-lighting set up the best to emmulate north light?

It's late at night, but I don't understand this at all! If you're using artificial light, why can't you just move your easel or move the lights?

thanks,

Joan

Joan, I have no strobes for photography yet (as in White Lightning). Perhaps Bill could better address this. Since this type of light just makes a flash, your would need another light source to paint by.

Well my studio space just evolved in a quirky way. The fluorescent lights are somewhat fixed in position overhead, so I can't move them. My easel is actually about 6 feet away at a downward angle, which is not so bad. I would not want it any closer. I just needed the lights to be more intensified than they would be if they only had the dark walls as a (non)reflectve surround; hence the white foamcore panels as reflectors. This at least doubles the lumens on my easel and feels about as lumenous as the best hour of natural diffused daylight streaming in. Effectively it gives me daylight at night for extended studio time without adding more lights than I already have. Of course, nothing beats daylight itself, but I get very little of that. I would not want to convey that my studio is anywhere near an ideal setup, because it certainly is not.

Garth

Joan,
Lighting is always an issue. There is a thread on the forum that goes into detail about lighting. However, I suggest that you visit this site to order light bulbs (http://www.lumiram.com/fluorescent.html). The bulbs you probably want to order are either the lumichrome 6500K (temperature in Kelvin) with a 98CRI (color rendering index) or the 5500K with a 95CRI. These bulbs simulate natural north light very closely. I have the lumichrome 6500K 98CRI in my studio.

Thanks!
 

Hi Garth,

Thanks for clearing that up. I understand it now. Well, your studio may be less than perfect but it must be near perfect from the incredible work that you turn out!

Hi Richard,

Thank you for that website. On the same site are some 'compact' flourescent bulbs. I need a portable lighting system of some sort to take my reference photos with. I have plenty of daylight in my little studio, I just don't want people trapsing up here, through our masterbedroom (!) to get here. On the same website is this page:
http://www.lumiram.com/ecolume.html
and there are a number of full spectrum flourescent bulbs, the hightest having a wattage of 23 and temp of 5000 Kelvin. I have a similar bulb that is 19 watts and it just doesn't put out enough light to even create much of a defined shadow on the face. I need to supplement it with north light, which is sometimes difficult. There are a lot of trees around our house so there really isn't a great window to take photos by. But I could try their highest, the 23 watt.

Does anyone know if the 23 watt bulb would be significantly stronger than the 19 watt bulb that I'm using? I suppose I could buy two light stands and point two at my model (from the same direction, of course).

Joan

Bulb
 

After rereading through some of the very helpful threads on this forum, I have found a couple of bulbs I'm going to try on the site www.1000bulbs.com, a website that Chris Saper wrote about in a post. But I have a couple of questions and it's Sunday so I'll call tomorrow, get my questions answered and then order them. I'll report back when I get them.

Joan

Joan,
The 1000bulb site 23 watt bulbs are only 2700K and will be very biased to the red. I would recommend 5500K fullspectrum bulbs from Sunwave which have a CRI of 93. I use 4 of these bulbs in my overhead fan light for when I want a lot of light in the studio. Two or three would probably all you would need for your work.

Confused
 

Hello


This is a very enlightening thread, but I'm confused. Previously I had thought I needed a well-lit painting room, with the most north light possible. So I've situated my studio in a bright, north-facing room with a high value (slightly greenish) color on the walls and white on the ceiling to reflect the most light onto my work.

Now I read that a very low value room works better. Obviously the photograph looks incredible and I assume the model would be in a perfect setting for life-work with that color wall behind them, but if the whole room is this dark value, doesn't that affect your perception of the colors you're working with? I realize you're all using some artificial lighting to make up for this.
Sorry. I'm confused.

Would it not work just as well if the room were well lit, north facing, and just the back drop behind the model were the dark value? I'm certainly not arguing with your methods, just trying to understand how and why it works.

Thank you.


Cheryl

Cheryl,

You will either have to come to one of my workshops or experiment on your own to see what it is like.

Remember that what we do is paint the light on a subject, not the subject itself. To see the light, we must have shadows. The only tools you have are colors and values. Our paints are limited in range. Therefore for something to look light, it has to be against a dark. Check out the portraits by the best old masters -- and current masters.

If you want to experiment, block out most of your north windows, starting at the bottom and working to the top. All you really need is a window opening as small as 3x4 feet and usually no bigger than 4x6 feet. All the other light must be blocked off completely. Then place a backdrop behind your subject and wrapping around it slightly like a trifold screen. This backdrop can be as simple as sheets of cardboard and should be covered with a mid to dark greyish cloth or paint such as the color of my studio walls. Move your subject around until you find the magic sweet spot where the forms really glow. It's magic.

Do this right, and your subject will have plenty of light on it, right up to pure white highlights. It will have lovely shadows too.

It looks like I will have to make a DVD on this. Either that, or you will have to come visit my studio.

How about this?
 

Hi Richard,

Thank you for all your help with this. On that website they advertise a 42 watt full spectrum screw-in bulb. The site says it's 5100 Kelvin. It also says
"Incandescent Comparison = 150 Watts
Color or Hue = Stark White with Blue Tint "
which sounds pretty good. Are you saying it's not really 5100 Kelvin? They advertise their 23 and 27 watt bulbs as 5100 Kelvin too. Now I'm confused. What do you think?

Oh, I was going to order one of the 42 watt bulbs and one of the 27 watt bulbs, but on the photo of the bulbs I'm not sure it's a standard screw-in neck, that's what I wanted to check. I want to be able to screw it into my light stand.

I pretty much have the situation Bill is describing for taking photos and painting at home. I supplement the north light with my 'weak' bulb and I am happy with the results. I usually don't attempt to paint after dark, though sometimes I just can't leave a painting alone and I make minor adjustments. What I'm looking for is a set-up that I can bring to someone's home. Maybe this isn't the smartest thing to attempt. When someone says "would you paint my son?", I would prefer to go to their house, just because my studio is not very professional looking. And I don't want relative strangers going through our masterbedroom on the way to my studio space. I can drag my big painted foamcore backdrops to a model's home without any problem. I do realize it's more challenging to attempt this at someone else's home because there are many variables: reflections, availability of north light, no north light, and many more I'm sure I can't even think of.

I guess one option is just to decorate the masterbedroom and get over it! Or . . . . find a spot downstairs where I can successfully take photos. But I still need a decent light. I'm beginning to think the White Lightning idea might be the easiest and most consistent. I can put that on my list for Santa!

Joan

Sad reference photography
 

I posted some examples of my sad reference photography using a weak flourescent bulb and then natural light here:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...7433#post57433

thanks,

Joan

William,


Thank you for the reply.

I understand how this would be incredible lighting for the model. Sorry if I wasn't clear at first.

I was confused as to whether the entire room needed to be this dark, or just the area or corner where the model poses.
Your canvas shouldn't sit in a well-lit area of the room?

I believe from your explanation that yes, the entire room would be rather dark. This explains the need for supplemental lighting on the canvas.

I still think my perception of colors would be distorted.
I guess I'll just have to try it!
Some day, when I'm doing a portrait other than my usual posthumous. Or when I can get a similar model to pose for reference shots.

And if you live nearby I'll be coming to see your studio.

Thank you.


Cheryl

Joan,
We were looking at two different pages on the 1000bulbs site. I found the page you referenced and yes those bulbs will work for you at 5100K. A single 42 watter will throw plenty of light if a reflector is used. I suspect the problems with your reference photos are with the settup of the camera....shutter speed may be too fast, f-stop too low, iso number too low. Hope this helps.

Camera
 

Hi Richard,

I think you must be right. I need to spend some time over the Thanksgiving holidays reading my camera manual. I usually take lots and lots of photos and usually end up with some good ones, only having a vague idea why they turned out well.

I'll order one of those light that seems like it would be strong enough. I'll let you know, hopefully by way of a nice reference photo!

thanks again,

Joan

When I'm trying out a new camera or a new setting I make a list with the number of the shot I just took and a description beside that of what I did: "Used Incandescent table lamp light, White Balance set to Tungsten, model was sitting 10 feet from light," for example. Then I change one variable for the next shot: "Same setup, White Balance set to Indoor" or whatever.

Finally, Back to You, Joan! (and back on topic)
 

Dear Joan,

I finally received your excellent note and included color wall paint samples. I think the mail carrier dropped them into my next door neighbor's mail. She's the Dean of Moore College of Art here in Philly (Dona Lantz). After a couple of weeks she found it and sent it into my mail slot. I bet you thought it dropped off the edge of the world somewhere!

Anyway, you sent two very nice wall colors. The Benjamin Moore GN-25 is more of a gray-green and the other card marked "Formula Bill posted" happens to match my wall color pretty exactly. It's the same formulation.

I scanned them both as promised with my Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One-Photo color spectrometer and have posted the results and nearest Photoshop color equivalents below. Note I do not have a dual color picker in Photoshop (as the montage suggests), but that would be so cool (are you listening, Adobe?)!

Thanks, and enjoy,

Garth

Garth-

Can you tell me about that spectrometer doo-hickey you have there? Being an artist AND a geek (and married to a total nerd) I'm suprised I don't know about it already myself!

Sure Lacey:

The Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One Photo is an all in one device. The link will explain it all. True, it isn't cheap; it's kind of like a good digital camera that's a bit specialized and myopic at the same time. The build quality is excellent (I dropped mine onto the floor once, which knocked the activation button out of kilter, but did no harm to it's operation and functionality. It's fine now, the button popped back into place, and my heart recovered!). It will scan and profile your monitor and give you the best possible display profiles, it makes superb printer profiles, with unparalleled color and tonal fidelity, it will tell you what color the ambient light is, it will also tell you what color is on your palette or canvas in digital terms (Very Risky business with wet paint!!!), and the current model since mine also profiles your digital camera! That's a lot. I've put mine through a lot of creative experimental usage.

Hope this helps!

Garth

Samples
 

Hi Garth,

I did wonder if you got the samples, I just figured you were very busy. I have been planning to post and ask if you had gotten the samples. I'm glad you got them. All of the photos you posted are very helpful to really see the difference between the two colors.

That's pretty cool to see the differences between the two analyzed, and amazing that yours is a pretty close match to what I had mixed (Bill's formula) even though it was mixed 1000 miles away.

Thanks for the info!

Joan

Joan,

Sorry I've been so tardy in thanking you for the samples you sent me in the mail. I compared them to my sample and found them close, but not exact. My color is a little darker. It makes me wonder if there is that much variation in batches when they make up the formula!

Without trying to be biased, I think the color I have is the best of the three variations.

The Scottsdale Artists School decided to use it for the walls of at least two of their studios, but at the last minute got "cold feet" and lightened it up too much.

Darker is better!

How much darker?
 

Dear Mr. Whitaker,

I suppose I should follow up on your kind offer and purchase a paint sample of your wall color. I don't know if you can judge by the bottom-most photo I posted above whether my studio wall color made to the published Benjamin Moore formulation is on target with your ideal color choice or not? Maybe I am just splitting hairs, but I thrive on exploring these issues of colors and their associative standards.

Thanks,

Garth

Gosh, Garth, you are amazing!

My studio walls (you've seen them) are a slightly cooler and less saturated version of the Scottsdale Artists' School and what I think Bill's walls are.

Mesa Gray, a Home Depot Behr color - from the staining palette. In the matte enamel (not shiny, easy to clean).

Linda Brandon has painted her studio in what seems to be a true gray.

I am building a studio in our in-process spot in Prescott AZ, and I think that I need both colors. So the family room walls will go Mesa gray, (unbeknownst to all, just another studio backdrop) and my studio walls a true gray ( whatever that is). I like the option of either a warm or cool neutral, both in mid values.

Garth, thanks for the info and the link! That is one cool, and expensive, doo hickey! Is it something that you use every day? I can tell that my ideas of how to use it have only scratched the surface. (Wet paint!?! Wow.)

Joan, I like your idea of painting the foamboard to use as a backdrop! I have no studio, so this is ideal for me to use in my livingroom and for taking reference photos at other peoples' homes.

I am really enjoying this thread! I, too, am a silent Whitaker admirer (*waving from the crowd* "Hi Mr. Whitaker!") and love the fact that so many people are willing to take the time to share information with others.

:D

Hello back Lacey.
Lucky for you that you're not in Arizona. I know a lot of folks who would draft you for a workshop portrait painting subject so fast! You have that "stepped right out of a painting" countenance.

You have a fine website and a great future. Paint on!

Garth and everybody, a good backdrop or studio wall color is indeed very important, but there can be a great deal of personal variety. Both Chris's and Linda Brandon's studio walls are wonderful.

Just remember that white walls destroy shadows and shadows are what we need to create proper form on canvas.

If you are going to paint a wall or a backdrop for photography, keep your color lighter than the color you'd use if you were painting from life. My studio walls are rich and dark. Wonderful!

Ahem... I would be very, very lucky if I was in Arizona! I am DYING to take a workshop with you, and to study with and meet others on the forum who live in Arizona. I would gladly trade hours of modelling for that!!

No one comes to Kansas City. ;C

P.S. I've now printed out post #39 on parchment, framed it, and hung it in the livingroom. :D