Oil study, limited palette
 

Hello to everyone.

I experimented with a limited palette myself, having been inspired by Aaron Coberly

Carlos, this study turned out beautifully! What power a few colors can project.

Carlos,
This is great! I would'n call it an oil study, but a finished portrait. Beautiful !
Did you liked this experience, or did you feel limited ?

I've been thinking about working with a limited palette ever since I joined this site but this painting has convinced me that it's a must.

Brilliant painting Carlos.

Enjoyed looking through your website. Maybe you could start a thread on what it's like to work in a museum in front of a Master work? Must be exciting.

Wow!

Carlos, this is incredible. I can't believe you got such a lively looking work with only three colors?! I have to agree Marina, this might have started out as a study, but sure looks like a successful finished painting.

That's very nice, Carlos. Not only do you get such a range of colour with the three you chose (how did you get orange with yellow ochre and prussian blue?), but you get such a feeling of solid form with such thin paint. Great work!

... terra di pozzuoli ... that's the orange, isn't it? I thought at first it was the name of the prussian blue you used, but looking again, I think it just be orange (or red). (My palette is pretty limited - not in number but in type - for me, using a cadmium seems like an exotic adventure into the unknown! So I am a bit ignorant.)

So it's 3 colours and white you used, is it?

Thank you all for the responses.

Mischa...this is like Zen...less is more (?) In the drawing realm, I have seen wonderful things done with a few abbreviated strokes. Jusep de Ribera was a master at that, so I

Carlos,

The composition is beautiful and subtle as well.

Elegant, beautifully painted and understated.

Wow!
 

Dear Carlos,

This is an accomplishment! Your limited palette is very effective and versitile; both earthy enough for a flesh palette, and chromatic enough for everything else. Those are great mixed blacks and neutrals too. This painting is as elegant and understated as the palette itself; perfect cohesion!

Garth

Thanks Sharon---always appreciate your words. Thanks for taking the time to view.

Garth--I find this combination of colours quite effective. The Prussian blue when mixed with earth colours produces a greenish quality to the resulting colour that can be used for a great deal of things. Burnt sienna and prussian blue, for example, produces a luscious, deep green perfect for evergreens (for landscape purposes)...and mixed with white, it serves as my neutralizing colour for flesh tones, that cool needed to balance off the warm. The Pozzuoli earth has its counterparts in other brands, I suppose, although with some subtle differences; and the yellow ochre is pretty much a must in any earth palette.
Thanks for your comments.

Carlos, this is so impressive, both in terms of what you have achieved with these colors but in beauty of composition as well. I like this painting very much and you're convincing me to experiment with my collection of red earth colors. Very beautiful work!

Dear Carlos,

A very fresh, and very lovely piece. Congratulations!

Apart from the technical mastery...there is so much soul!

Carlos, this is stunning and it has a different quality than your other work: unstudied, yet well-thought out, more of a naturally-ocurring moment that you happen to observe and record. The emotion in this piece is beautifully expressed. The fact that you've done it all with a limited palette almost seems beside the point. Maybe it was, once you got started! I know that's how it is when I'm painting.

Linda, Chris, Tom and Alexandra,

Thank you all for viewing and for your comments. They are all very encouraging... Alex, when we don

Oh yes Carlos, at least I do relate...!
This work is full of feeling and intimacy.
She inhabits the canvas with a certain shyness. I like that.
Ilaria

Carlos that is beautiful. I am currently using a Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Ivory black and Permalba white pallet. I have been very surprised at what can be achieved with those colors. Since I have enjoyed using this pallet so much when I have done landscapes or flowers I still use it as my base and just add the higher chroma colors when needed.

Aaron

I just saw this resurrected.

Thanks for your reply Ilaria (I

It deserved to be resurrected !

Most artists agree that great art is a distillation. Say as much as possible, with a minimum of brushstrokes. Leave out as much detail as possible and still convey the whole picture.

So it seems a natural extension of that philosophy to use a minimal palette: to convey as much color as possible with as few colors as you can get away with.

A few years ago I was priveleged to see an exhibit of Wyeth's Helga pictures. He may have had an even smaller palette than you're using. I never once felt he should have used more.

Your painting is a joy.

Carlos I was actually surprised how much you can get away with using Ivory black. If you look at this painting for example http://picasaweb.google.com/aaronpai...99274807046450 I didn

Jeff,
Thanks very much for your very nice comment. It is true...we, as painters, have the prerogative to include or exclude; to eliminate or to add as each of our creative processes dictate. I

Wow, I hadn't ever seen this painting before. It's wonderful! I really, really like your composition. The gesture of her body language coupled with her position on the canvas is so perfect. I really enjoyed it - thanks for bumping it up so I could see it!