Limited Palette

[Paul Foxton]

Originally Posted by Richard Bingham

Make a couple of value scales in neutral grey, swatches about an inch by three inches wide, "pure white" at the top, "dead black" at the bottom, and eight stops between.

When you approach your subject, assess a "local" value for light and shadow. For example, if you number the scale with black being "1", a white cloth on a table may be value 9, in shadow # 6, say,depending on the lighting. The shift of three values will hold true across the board.

Richard, that's an interesting way to approach it. I will give it a try. My only problem with it is that I don't believe I've ever seen a neutral grey in nature. But I can certainly see the point in terms of working from value first and THEN looking at colour. I currently work with colour and value at the same time, in a way I feel that they're indivisible. But of course I won't know for sure about that until I've tried the 'relative value' approach too. I think I'll try it by trying to paint the same subject three times in different keys, high, medium and low.

I must admit it goes against the grain a bit for me, but I do believe in being open minded about these things and certainly wouldn't dismiss it without trying it first.

Originally Posted by Linda Brandon

Paul, was that from the Vasari website? I say this because I have both the Dutch Yellow and the true Naples from that company and I like them both.

Yes Linda, it was the Vasari site. I think I just ran a search on google for 'naples yellow' and that site came up. I was quite relieved not to see any mention of the urine of cows fed on mangoes...

Originally Posted by Chris Saper

if I just look (a lot) it is easier to see color.

Hear hear. Especially the 'a lot' part. I also find it helps to cross my eyes slightly to blur what I'm looking at and thereby get an overall impression of the colour. Otherwise I tend to get too tied up in minute modulations and miss the big picture.

Of course I'm quite aware that for many painters, colour is a personal thing, a method of expression, and they may not be trying to match the colours they see. For me, colour defines light, matching the colours in nature is an important part of learning to see.