Chris Saper's Palette

[Chris Saper]

Painter: me

Oil colors:

Cadmium lemon (Winsor-Newton)
Cadmium scarlet (W-N)
Permanent Rose (W-N)
Alizarin Crimson permanent(W-N)
Dioxazine Violet (optional)
Ultramarine Blue (Utrecht)
Pthalo Green (Utrecht)
Thalo yellow-green* (Grumbacher)

Titanium White (Utrecht)
Ivory Black (Optional) (Utrecht)

Notes: This is what I consider to be a very limited palette. I intially learned to paint in oil from Phil Beck, who uses a basic 7-8 color palette. After working with this palette for some time, I revised it based on the color research of Stephen Quiller. Same number of colors, more attention to the accuracy of tube complements. Thalo yellow green is a color I have added every time to my palette (after writing "Painting Beautiful Skin Tones", so it doesn't appear in the text). It is a wonderful neutralizer for warm skin colors, and is of value since ITS value is equivalent to cad scarlet. If you neutralize your lighter reds with a complementary green like Pthalo or Viridian, they become so much darker, that you then need to lighten and also temperature correct the mixed hue.

As I am much more an alla prima painter than a glaze painter, I don't deal much with transparent colors. Depending on the circumstance, I might add other optional colors (like Cad Yellow light for florals, or Sap Green for landscape backgrounds), but these colors don't rountinely find their way onto my glass.

Despite my bias that "less is more", I do continue to experiment with other colors. Over the past six years, the only color I have added as a standard is the Thalo Yellow-Green. In the back of the closet, I have a box filled with hundreds of dollars of almost-new colors I will never use again. Recently I picked up John's Old Holland Naples Deep and Cobalt Violet, and will play with this pair for a bit.

The only other color I would mention is Terra Verte, which I use to tone canvas, and to under-sketch in oil. Verdaccio, without knowing it!

[Daniel Arredondo]

Dear Chris,

Your palette is very similar to what I use. I also paint ala prima. I will try your Thalo YellowGreen and let you know what I think. Thank you for this valuable information.

Daniel

[Brenda Ellis]

Chris,
I realize that this post of yours is years old, but I'm wondering if you could tell me how you manage without cerulean blue or cobalt blue?

Am I crazy or is it true that the minerals/chemicals used for pigmentation of oil paints are the deciding factor in how that paint will act and how it will mix with other colors? I am fascinated by the fact that one person swears by Permanent Rose and another only uses Quinacridone Rose. I probably couldn't tell the difference between them. But I am assuming that they react differently when mixed with other colors.

There is so much to learn about color mixing that I feel a bit overwhelmed. I am at the point where I'm looking at other people's palettes but some of the colors are foreign to me so it often doesn't help me to know what other painters use; I can't see it in the painting.

I hear you say that it is handy to have the accurate complementary colors, so you're not darkening when you only want to neutralize. And I see the sense in just finding a palette to adopt until I learn more what various colors do. Hmmm, as I write this it occurs to me that I should a) save my pennies and attend a workshop, and b) check out your book.

Is there anyone willing to just post a list of the best complements they've found?

Oh by the way, if you still have that closet full of colors I know an experimental painter that could put them to use! Have you thought of selling them or have you already donated them to a good cause?

[Chris Saper]

how you manage without cerulean blue or cobalt blue?

Gosh, I never thought about it.

Paint chemistry is not of particular interest to me, although I know there are many here and on other Forums who are experts, and very involved. They would be of far more help to you in pigment behavior than I.

I have studied with a number of teachers whom I consider to be museum-quality painters. I rely on the lifetimes they have spent, and trust their judgments as to various paint and pigments.

Is there anyone willing to just post a list of the best complements they've found?

I am unaware of any more extensive research than that of Steven Quiller, as published in Color Choices. You can search here for more information on Steven, or pick up a copy of his book.

Actually I will donate those unused paints to my kids' school

[Brenda Ellis]

Thank you, Chris.
I've ordered that book. I'm not much for paint chemistry either. But for a minute there, it seemed like I'd have to learn it in order to be a painter!

Thanks for the suggestion about the book.

[Elizabeth Schott]

Brenda thanks for bumping this up!

It gives me a chance to ask if anyone else finds Dioxazine Violet, seems too get more intense in color as it dries?

I'll use it and walk in the studio the next day and whoa... that is some violet!

[Lacey Lewis]

Hi,

I don't mean to bring up a point that was already touched on by Brenda, but would you mind listing the complements within your palette listed above? I am not personally familiar with many of the colors on your palette and would benefit from any pairing up you could do.

[Chris Saper]

Dear Lacey,

Let me do my best here...I am putting together as best I can the charts from "Color Choices" (1989) and Steven's recent color wheel (2000). If there has been a reprinting of "Color Choices" It may use the newer information.

Cadmium lemon (Winsor-Newton) -- Mauve (Holbein)
Cadmium scarlet (W-N)- Winsor Blue (W- Pthalo Blue)
Permanent Rose (W-N)- Veridian Green (W-N)
Alizarin Crimson permanent(W-N) Permanent Green Deep (no brand available)
Dioxazine Violet (optional)
Ultramarine Blue (Utrecht) Cadmium Orange (W-N)
Pthalo Green (Utrecht) Alizarin Carmine
Thalo yellow-green* (Grumbacher) no brand available

Titanium White (Utrecht)
Ivory Black (Optional) (Utrecht)

And although this is bit late and probably $5 short, I have changed my palette since to more closely resemble Bill Whitaker's/Daniel Greene's. I still use the Cad lemon periodically, but all the other above colors are still on my daily palette. I have added a few, mainly earth colors:

Asphaltum
Transparent Earth Red
Raw Sienna
Yellow Ochre
Raw Umber
Gamblin's flesh
Gamblin's Portland Gray Medium.
Flake White (which I use predominantly)
Caput Mortuum Violet
Studio Products' Pyrrolo Red