Portrait Studio Wall Color

Garth Herrick · 11-14-2005, 02:49 AM

Dear Bill,

The following is as accurate a method I can come up with to reproduce your famous wall color for this Forum. I scanned it tonight (again) with my Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One Photo color spectrometer (image inset) and got the following readings on the L.a.b. scale: L: 48.0, a: 0.1, b: 11.7.

The nearest values in Photoshop are: L: 48, a: 0, b: 12. I painted a color patch and saved it in the color space used on this Forum.

My can of Benjamin Moore paint was tinted to the exact formula you have posted above. Thanks for the brief sketch of the color's evolution and historic provenance.

Edit: Your photograph portrait above is wonderful! The color does appear richer and greener to my eye in the daylight, than in this photoshop swatch, so the color effect on your photograph is right on target!

Enjoy,

Garth

William Whitaker · 11-14-2005, 03:04 PM

Garth,

Your technological savvy is wondeful.
I envy you.

Art AND science!

Bill

Joan Breckwoldt · 11-14-2005, 04:42 PM

Dear Mr. Whitaker,

I am one of your (many, I'm sure) silent admirers. I have been reading your posts, studying and admiring your portraits, and most recently printing them on my new printer to put up in my 'studio'. I am happy to finally take the opportunity to tell you how incredible your work is and to thank you for your many posts that have been so helpful to me.

I went to the paint store this morning to get a quart of paint to paint a background for my 'studio'. I will share with you and the forum what I found:

I went to the local Benjamin Moore store and had them mix up a quart according to the formula above. Well, it was close, but had too much yellow in it, making it too green. After some conversation with the salesperson, I found out that Benjamin Moore has recently (in the last 18 months) brought back the 'old' colors. The store I was at is computerized and has the info on a CD now. So, he was able to look up the number GN-25 and mix the original paint color. This second mixture was what, I believe, I was looking for, a dark greenish grey.

I asked the salesperson to write down the formula for anyone who doesn't have a Benjamin Store nearby, or if that particular store isn't computerized (as the salesman said some of the stores aren't).

Benjamin Moore & Co. GN-25
319-3B (that's just the base color, and it also means 'eggshell' finish)

UTC Gallon Formula
OY 1x 24.50
RX 0x 2.25
BK 2x 6.00
GY 0x 12.00

I bought two large pieces of foamcore, 60" x 40", from our art store and have painted one side of each of them. It's not really practical to paint my 'studio' walls since it's half studio and half computer room, and the walls are covered with bookcases and windows anyway. The color is, as you say, sometimes grey and sometimes more green. It's pretty dark though! I am anxious to put a model in front of it and see what happens!

Joan

Garth Herrick · 11-14-2005, 05:10 PM

Dear Joan,

If you can mail me some swatches of your color(s) on some 3 x 5 card, or whatever works, I can scan them too for comparative purposes to what I have posted above. I can email you my address. It will be interesting and informative to compare your GN-25 color with my sample. If you send me a sample, apply two coats of paint to hide the support completely.

Actually anyone is welcome to send me original samples to analyze and compare of any color. It doesn't have to be green-gray.

To explain your mixture having too much yellow, I wonder if the formula margin of error varies slightly between a quart and a gallon? The salesman told me he could not accurately match a quart to a gallon formula, so I opted for the gallon, which fortunately looks about right.

Good luck!

Garth

Joan Breckwoldt · 11-14-2005, 06:36 PM

Dear Garth,

Hi, I would be happy to send you samples of the colors. I actually had to buy both

since I asked the paint guy to mix up the color according to the formula first. It looked too green/yellow. Next he pulled out an old color sample fan and found GN-25. There are a lot of older homes around here and that paint store has been there a while, I think people come in and want paint colors from years ago, so luckily they saved the old fan. Anyway . . . . we compared the GN-25 color on the fan to what he just mixed me. The color on the fan was more like Bill Whitaker described, a dark greenish grey. He had the formula on a CD that Benjamin Moore has just released. So he mixed that up for me and I wrote down the formula for that. That's the formula I put in my last post.

The paint guy and I decided that the formula that I came in with (from Bill's post) was probably color matched to something, some sample of GN-25, in 2001, before the 'old' color formulas were rereleased. It was close, but different from the GN-25 the Benjamin Store had on file. If you notice the first formula in this post, it's not a Benjamin Moore store so maybe they didn't have the true formulas. And we thought it was more green/yellow because there is a lot of orange in the formula.

I hope I've explained this well enough! I can certainly send you samples of both. I think my e-mail address is listed on the forum, if not, I can post it.

Did you get a gallon of the formula since Bill posted it yesterday? You're quick too. And, yes, it would be interesting to compare the colors.

thanks,

Joan

Garth Herrick · 11-14-2005, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joan Breckwoldt

It looked too green/yellow.

The paint looks considerably more yellow before it dries. I suppose you compared it dried by a hair drier though.

Quote:

If you notice the first formula in this post, it's not a Benjamin Moore store so maybe they didn't have the true formulas. And we thought it was more green/yellow because there is a lot of orange in the formula.

You might have a point here. We will have to ask Bill if his paint dealer has exactly the same pigment colorants as Benjamin Moore. I guess I'll have to order a sample from Bill. I did get my paint at a Benjamin Moore dealer.

If one went to another place like a Home Depot and ordered a different brand of paint, in all likelihood the paint base would lhave a different degree of opacity or white added, so even if the colorants were the same formula, the tint or color may differ.

Quote:

Did you get a gallon of the formula since Bill posted it yesterday? You're quick too. And, yes, it would be interesting to compare the colors.

thanks,

Joan

Joan, I got mine a while ago. Michael Georges also posted the formula here a year or more ago, where I learned of it.

Anyway, I can still scan samples on the L.a.b. scale and post comparative numbers side by side with Photoshop generated color swatches to post here. These will not give any insight into the paint store formulas, but just compare apples to apples on the Forum.

I will email my snail-mailing address.

Garth

Joan Breckwoldt · 11-14-2005, 07:48 PM

Hi Garth,

Well, you are certainly right in that there are many variables in paint color! I had only thought of about half of them.

I have your address now so I'll get those samples in the mail tomorrow. I'm looking forward to your comparisons!

Joan

Garth Herrick · 12-02-2005, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joan Breckwoldt

Dear Mr. Whitaker,

I am one of your (many, I'm sure) silent admirers. I have been reading your posts, studying and admiring your portraits, and most recently printing them on my new printer to put up in my 'studio'. I am happy to finally take the opportunity to tell you how incredible your work is and to thank you for your many posts that have been so helpful to me.

I went to the paint store this morning to get a quart of paint to paint a background for my 'studio'. I will share with you and the forum what I found:

I went to the local Benjamin Moore store and had them mix up a quart according to the formula above. Well, it was close, but had too much yellow in it, making it too green. After some conversation with the salesperson, I found out that Benjamin Moore has recently (in the last 18 months) brought back the 'old' colors. The store I was at is computerized and has the info on a CD now. So, he was able to look up the number GN-25 and mix the original paint color. This second mixture was what, I believe, I was looking for, a dark greenish grey.

I asked the salesperson to write down the formula for anyone who doesn't have a Benjamin Store nearby, or if that particular store isn't computerized (as the salesman said some of the stores aren't).

Benjamin Moore & Co. GN-25
319-3B (that's just the base color, and it also means 'eggshell' finish)

UTC Gallon Formula
OY 1x 24.50
RX 0x 2.25
BK 2x 6.00
GY 0x 12.00

I bought two large pieces of foamcore, 60" x 40", from our art store and have painted one side of each of them. It's not really practical to paint my 'studio' walls since it's half studio and half computer room, and the walls are covered with bookcases and windows anyway. The color is, as you say, sometimes grey and sometimes more green. It's pretty dark though! I am anxious to put a model in front of it and see what happens!

Joan

Dear Joan,

I finally received your excellent note and included color wall paint samples. I think the mail carrier dropped them into my next door neighbor's mail. She's the Dean of Moore College of Art here in Philly (Dona Lantz). After a couple of weeks she found it and sent it into my mail slot. I bet you thought it dropped off the edge of the world somewhere!

Anyway, you sent two very nice wall colors. The Benjamin Moore GN-25 is more of a gray-green and the other card marked "Formula Bill posted" happens to match my wall color pretty exactly. It's the same formulation.

I scanned them both as promised with my Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One-Photo color spectrometer and have posted the results and nearest Photoshop color equivalents below. Note I do not have a dual color picker in Photoshop (as the montage suggests), but that would be so cool (are you listening, Adobe?)!

Thanks, and enjoy,

Garth

Lacey Lewis · 12-02-2005, 01:48 PM

Garth-

Can you tell me about that spectrometer doo-hickey you have there? Being an artist AND a geek (and married to a total nerd) I'm suprised I don't know about it already myself!

Garth Herrick · 12-02-2005, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lacey Lewis

Garth-

Can you tell me about that spectrometer doo-hickey you have there? Being an artist AND a geek (and married to a total nerd) I'm suprised I don't know about it already myself!

Sure Lacey:

The Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One Photo is an all in one device. The link will explain it all. True, it isn't cheap; it's kind of like a good digital camera that's a bit specialized and myopic at the same time. The build quality is excellent (I dropped mine onto the floor once, which knocked the activation button out of kilter, but did no harm to it's operation and functionality. It's fine now, the button popped back into place, and my heart recovered!). It will scan and profile your monitor and give you the best possible display profiles, it makes superb printer profiles, with unparalleled color and tonal fidelity, it will tell you what color the ambient light is, it will also tell you what color is on your palette or canvas in digital terms (Very Risky business with wet paint!!!), and the current model since mine also profiles your digital camera! That's a lot. I've put mine through a lot of creative experimental usage.

Hope this helps!

Garth