Primary Colors

[Karin Wells]

Cute. (As a kid, I had to wear an eye patch and really hated it!)

[Douglas Drenkow]

Thank you, Karin!

When I was in the sciences, my lifelong pre-occupation with the nature of color was considered "weird". Now that I am in the arts, it's nice to have my interests appreciated.

But analyzing is one thing; practicing quite another.

You are obviously extraordinarily gifted when dealing with color (etc.) -- your work is rich, sumptuous, and elegant.

It is as amazing to me to learn that you are partially color-blind as it was for me to learn that Beethoven was deaf.

If you don't mind my asking, is your one eye "red blind" (red looks green), "blue blind" (blue looks yellow), or "green blind" (green looks tan)? There we go back to the "primary colors"!

As I understand it, you work in the traditional method of glazing colors over a monochrome underpainting. I would imagine that in glazing you rely more upon your "color" eye (even if you don't realize it), while in underpainting you rely more upon your "black and white" eye.

When I have a particularly difficult passage to paint in regards to form, I dim the room lights and/or squint: I then rely more upon the rods than the cones in my eyes, to see the scene more in monochrome.

Incidentally, my technique is like that more common amongst post-Renaissance artists: My underpaintings are also in color. In fact, my overpaintings are typically not transparent glazes, except for patches of water or the like, but rather translucent "velaturas", particularly for the lifelike translucency of skin.

I pre-mix all my colors, as Jim said Daniel Green does and as many if not most of the Old Masters did, for the very reasons Jim noted. However, with unfilled tubes so hard to find, I have learned how to store my "stockpiles" in tiny, inexpensive plastic cups (from restaurant supply companies) -- the trick is not to use the lids that come with the cups but rather to use one cup as a "stopper" for another -- one must exclude air from above the paint to prevent drying, by oxidation (The paints stay workable for quite some time that way).

P.S. Jim, I don't know what that discussion of money was about; but if you have any extra lying around, feel free to send it my way (ha, ha)!

[Karin Wells]

You asked..."If you don't mind my asking, is your one eye "red blind" (red looks green), "blue blind" (blue looks yellow), or "green blind" (green looks tan)?"

Compared to my good eye (the right one), the colors in my left eye register in the following manner: Red looks greyish, very dull, but I can definitely tell that it is in the category of "red." Blues seem to get darker and greyish. And yellow seems to lose a lot of its warmth. When both of my eyes are open, I only register what I see from my right eye.

According to my eye doctor I don't have depth perception...however, I can drive, catch a ball, and I don't stumble over things. I haven't got a clue about what I am probably missing.

Also, I'm not sure that this has anything to do with my pecular vision, but when I am "building light" in a painting, I sometimes work in dim light so I can see the effect. I once read that some Old Master (Titian maybe?) checked his work by candlelight so that he could see if the light in the painting was strong enough.

[Jim Riley]

Doug,

John Sanden used to provide (and may still) premixed paints in flesh tones and neutrals and from him bought a paint box that would store 22 colors in 1" square sections and 8) 3"x1"x1" sections. I will try to find a pic (or check the web site below). The hinged top has a rubber seal and latches tightly. I added several drops of "oil of cloves" to slow drying and this tool served me well when traveling. The additive also suited my wet in wet technique.

I also used it at home because I didn't need to sqeeze out paint each day or watch it harden when not in use. Maybe I'll clean it up and start using it again.

Try: http://www.jhsanden.com/institute/brochures.htm or: [email protected]

[Karin Wells]

I'm not sure how we got into this subject but here's three things that I do when I have a batch of paint pre-mixed that I want to save....

1. If the paint is all oil (no alkyd), I pile the "glob" in the bottom of a ceramic dish and cover it with water. Since oil and water don't mix, the water seals out the air and prevents the paint from drying....I can often keep paint this way for weeks.

2. I cover my palette with "Cling-wrap" and stick it in the freezer. It can keep for months this way.

3. I have some small 2" square Zip-Loc bags that I found on ebay (they are for coin collectors). I put the paint in the baggie and squoosh out all the air before I seal it. When I wish to use the paint again, I poke the bag with a pin and squeeze the paint out on my palette again.

[Cynthia Daniel]

Jim,

Are these the JHS paints to which you refer?

http://www.jhsanden.com/institute/promix.htm

[Jim Riley]

Cynthia,

Yes they are Sanden's Pro Mix and they're still available. I couldn't find the paint box on his site but await an e-mail response regarding same. A small tag on the box indicates it was made by "UM Professional Tools for Artists".

[Douglas Drenkow]

I'm definitely printing out all of this and will follow up. Thanks!

Karin, if you can see anything out of each eye, then you have at least some depth perception (even if one eye is dominant). My roommate in college had a glass eye and could still drive etc. very well. And of course, your paintings present a very convincing illusion of depth (You do love a good illusion, don't you?).

Jim and Cynthia, Mr. Sanden's palette -- with its blues and greens, for neutralizing warm tones -- reminds me of that of Van Dyck (who, however, achieved his translucent fleshtones only by glazing, not with completely pre-mixed paints): Lead white, Naples yellow, yellow ochre, vermillion, red lake, Titian green, ultramarine, raw sienna, charcoal black, and -- of course -- Van Dyck brown.

Which brings us back to the "primary colors" (Imagine that!).

For shadows, I have been using a mixture of ivory black and burnt umber -- in effect, Van Dyck brown (I'm about to try using the Old Holland synthetic version, which unlike the original is permanent).

One of my biggest objections to considering black as truly neutral is that all too many portraits created with a black-and-white underpainting and then glazed very thinly over the shadow areas produce very bluish shadows in the fleshtones: I cringe every time I see a Rubens or a Gainsborough lady with a "five-o'clock shadow" in battleship gray (although I'm sure they're not turning over in their graves in response to my reactions).

Black is surely in the blue family; a true neutral is the deepest, darkest brown one can possibly imagine -- the blue, yellow, and red pigments absorbing every wavelength of the incident spectrum.

By the way, my prejudice towards portraits with black backgrounds may come from my name, "Douglas", which means "out of the black depths".

But you can call me Doug (or Mister Schnook).

[Douglas Drenkow]

My apologies to disciples of Rubens and Gainsborough.

Anyone who can paint a blacksmith's son to be "The Blue Boy" is a supreme portraitist -- my hat's always off to Gainsborough.

And as long as we are on the topic of color, I must acknowledge Rubens as unsurpassed -- perhaps unequalled -- as a colorist.

On topic, Rubens succeeded magnificently with a black, red, and yellow palette oftentimes set against a vivid blue sky -- satisfying both the critics and the public.

I just don't care for the "blue bearded" women in SOME old portraits (by them and others).

[Karin Wells]

Indeed, in many museums around the world I have noticed many unfortunate portraits with a "five-o'clock shadow" on unlikely subjects. I can think of two possible explanations for this:

Firstly, some artists unwittingly may have used a "fugitive" red pigment, i.e., a red that turns black with age.

Secondly, the artist may have made the underpainting too dark and/or didn't put enough of a paint layer over it. Oil paint is translucent in nature...not opaque as many people assume. As a painting ages, more and more of the underlayer begins to visually emerge. Mostly this interesting characteristic of oil paint enhances the painting, but sometimes it makes something goofy happen, i.e., an extra arm emerges, a "five-o'clock-shadow", etc.