Limited Palette

[Paul Foxton]

I'm a bit late to this discussion, sorry.

Originally Posted by Michele Rushworth

Many artists feel that a limited palette is easier to learn on.

I'm in exactly this position, just learning and using a very limited pallete because of that:

Flake or Titanium white
Alizarin Crimson
Cadmium yellow light
Ultramarine
Windsor green

I used to use black too, but substituted it for windsor green since when mixed with alizarin it makes a beautiful, shimmering near-black which has much more life to it. This idea I got from a book by Kevin MacPherson. When I was at art college many years ago they banned us from using black. I used to use a mixture of ultramarine and burnt umber back then as a substitute for black.

I find I can mix pretty much everything I want just with those five colours. You can get very close to a tube ochre, or sienna. It's true that it takes longer when you have to mix every colour, but I think that can be a good thing. It makes you look at the colour you're trying to match much more closely.

I made a handy little device, a piece of card painted flat grey with a few holes holes punched in it to look through and isolate colours with. It never ceases to amaze me how different colours really are compared to what I think they are at first glance.

I do think that the extra effort and constant comparing required to mix every colour trains my eye to see colour better. I also think that a limited pallete can give more unity to the painting. I sometimes see paintings where all the colours harmonise well except for one or two which look like they came straight from the tube and were used largely because the painter likes the colour, which is fine I guess, but they can stand out somewhat and disturb the harmony when used this way.

[Michele Rushworth]

Flake or Titanium white
Alizarin Crimson
Cadmium yellow light
Ultramarine
Windsor green

This sounds like a perfect palette for plein air painting too. (Also, for those not familiar with Winsor Newton colors, Winsor green is also called Pthalo green.)

[Sharon Knettell]

Thanks to Marvin Mattleson, I have managed to whittle down my palette to:

All Micheal Harding except for the Alizarin which is Blockx in the order as they are on my palette,

Flake white #2
Naples yellow light genuine
Yellow ochre
Vermilion genuine
Alizarin
Venetian red
Burnt umber
Raw umber
Black
Viridian
Ultramarine

And occasionally cobalt violet.

I only mix a range of greys. It is really simple and I am amazed at the range of colors that I can get from those particular paints.

I used to use the Daniel Greene palette, but I found the skin-tones were much to orange and rather dull. It also took a lot of time.

This is quick and easy.

[Richard Budig]

I see that back in Feb. I dashed off a note (as though I really knew it all) about how Zorn used an extremely limited palette (red, yellow, black and white).

Blush, blush, blush.

I just read an article in the American Artist Magazine telling how Zorn did use a somewhat limited palette, but not that limited. I was happy to hear this because some of his paintings had some colors that looked suspiciously like they may have contained blue.

And, recently, I just received a CD put out by Everett Raymone Kinstler. It's new, and it knocked my socks off. His palette is also very simple, and, to my eye, very effective.

It consists of alilzarin, cad red light, raw sienna, cad yellow light, cereulean and ultramarine blue, burnt umber, burnt sienna, sap green, and white.

He does all those outstanding painting with this simple set of colors.

I think it's worth the money. Made me change a few of my ways.

[Paul Foxton]

You also said you were sure he used some more colours though, and it sounds like you were right

Personally I'm glad you posted that because it made me a have a much closer look at Anders Zorn's paintings. Pretty inspiring, I'd love to see one of those in the flesh.

Sharon, I noticed you use naples yellow and no cadmium yellow, is there a particular property to naples yellow that you like? I found this description on a web site today:

coveted for its soft glowing light and mixing qualities, this classic pale Naples is close to but brighter than our Dutch Yellow while being as warm and opaque as the Cadmium Yellow Light, yet less harsh

I can't remember ever having tried it, but I thought I might do one painting with it instead of my usual cadmium yellow light just to see.

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Paul Foxton

Sharon, I noticed you use naples yellow and no cadmium yellow, is there a particular property to naples yellow that you like? I found this description on a web site today:

I can't remember ever having tried it, but I thought I might do one painting with it instead of my usual cadmium yellow light just to see.

I also like the Naples Yellow and find that it works well as the light, bright, sunny yellow that is easy to incorporate in complexion colors.

But I recently found a wonderfully transparent gold ochre that almost resembles the Naples Yellow when mixed with white.

There is a small dot of the Naples Yellow from W&N in the middle of the picture of my palette. The other mixtures are made from Cadmium Yellow Light and Transparent Yellow Ochre and Titanium White.
The upper mixture is only Transparent Yellow Ochre and Titanium White and is pretty close to Naples. A tad of red would do the trick or maybe if it was mixed with Zinc White that is more yellow ?

The point of all this is that I want my colors to be inter mixable and not the static "notes" that i press when I need a certain "skin" color or "grass" color.
By mixing all the time I will get different notes all the time and hopefully a greater variation.

With the Cadmium Yellow Light I can mix it in the red line and also in the blue to get vivid greens.

Allan

[Paul Foxton]

Thanks Allan, that's very interesting. The Naples yellow definitely looks a bit more peachy next to the transparent yellow ochre and white.

You mention it's transparency. Forgive my ignorance, but what does this quality give you? Better mixing with other colours or a glaze like effect over other colours perhaps?

I must admit I'm too busy trying to get my colours anywhere near right at the moment to have time to think about qualities like the transparency of the paint! I find this very interesting though, I'm very conscious of how little I know about the materials I work with.

[Linda Brandon]

Originally Posted by Paul Foxton

Sharon, I noticed you use naples yellow and no cadmium yellow, is there a particular property to naples yellow that you like? I found this description on a web site today:

I can't remember ever having tried it, but I thought I might do one painting with it instead of my usual cadmium yellow light just to see.

Sorry to show up late to this discussion. 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.

Sharon, I agree with you about Vermillion (I have Michael Harding's on my palette) - much easier to control than Cad Red Light.

I think a lot of contemporary figurative colorists have pumped up the chroma on their palettes because they frequently use warm artificial lights in studio setups (I'm thinking of Robert Liberace and Jeff Watts at the moment).

[Elizabeth Schott]

Linda you could be right about the lighting, but I think it's also a kind of "who you hang with" thing. I am not sure what kind of light Shanks uses but Ii do know Rob is very tight with him. Marvin uses artificial and his palette all earth. Funny huh?

Sharon most people are ... "yikes, what color does that make?" with Liberace's palette. The first time I learned it we had a very olive skin colored model with both natural and artifical light hitting him. I keep saying there was no way, but it becomes a mindset of seeing and pulling the color to make it better, not just what's there - granted you have to like the colors!

When I think of your dancers I think the color is so vibrant and full of life that it shows - if you have 10 colors or 20, it's how all really about understanding the relationship of each to another to get the most bang for the palette. You are so good at this!