[Chris Saper]

Dear Enzie,

Without actually seeing the painting you discuss, there are a couple of thoughts that come to min. Although I haven't ever used the Pro-Mix colors, I have the Sanden book, and I think that the Pro-Mix palette is fundamentally very similar to Daniel Greene's palette. Before getting too far down the "What color is that?" path, Dan asks himself a basic temperature question: is the color warm? cool? or neutral?

Sometimes "pastiness" can be the result of adjacent colors or neutrals where one of the temperatures is wrong, particularly if the colors are close in value. After my experience in the Whitaker class, I have also found that (at least in my own experience) too much blending of color, once on the canvas, diminishes its strength. Going too light too soon is another culprit. Painting from photographs makes decisions on temperature terribly difficult because film won't be able to show subtle temperature shifts.

The other thing you might consider is mixing your strong colors and then using the Grumbacher Thalo Yellow-Green on your palette to desaturate skin tones that are too warm. The TYG is a brilliant shocking green, which, when you first squeeze some out of the tube, makes you think, "This can't possbily be right!" It doesn't darken the original color the way, for exambple a Viridian or Thalo Green will.

I hope this is helpful.