Limited Palette

[Linda Ciallelo]

Originally Posted by Sharon Knettell

You have your own kind of color sense that adds to your style.

I had to get away from photos as my paintings came out sorta grey and dim.

I love the wax medium for large backgrounds I want to keep matte without the color sinking in.

Actually the Williamsburg Vermilion is the same color as the SP, but it handles like the Harding.

Is the Williamsburg Flake White stiff? I have been finding the Harding Flake rather too hard.

I like the SP Optical White because it does not lower the chroma, especially is I need to lighten a red, but my palette is not as quiet as your is. The beauty of the Optical White is that when you use it, the colors do not sink in as they do with Flake White./ I haven't had to use retouch varnish at all.

Linda, what is the texture behind your painting. It is a panel you made yourself?

Sharon, The Williamsburg flake white is not stiff at all. It's very stringy. I slap it on and use a lot of it. I am leaving lots of texture. It's use with colors is almost transparent and it dries shiney and quickly(over night).
It's 40$ for the large tube at Dick Blick so it's not cheap.

Yes I have become accustomed to making my own panels. I find others expensive and disappointing. It takes me a few days to make up a bunch of panels. The texture you see is lead white primer thinned down with OMS, or turps, and applied with a small house painting brush. I make no attempt to smooth the strokes. I like the strokes. There are two layers of primer showing. You are also seeing texture from the flake white that I applied in my first layer of color.

The thing that I am mostly thinking about now is the Rembrandt and Freud method of making lots of texture with the lead /flake or cremnitz white and then rubbing thin layers of color into the heavy texture making broken color. It's working well and I'm loving it. :-)

[Sharon Knettell]

Linda,

I find I am using less and less earth tones. I am always wanting to add a bit of blue, a tad of yellow, a smutch of red, well you know the drill: so I found the earth tones sitting on my palette unused, except for yellow ochre, raw umber and burnt sienna.

[Linda Ciallelo]

yes, I seem to be wanting to build a structure of perhaps lead white , black, red(not sure which red yet, maybe burnt sienna), and yellow ochre, maybe some umbers, and then scrub the color into the texture. I don't know yet. More experiments yet to do. It's not totally a monochrome grisaille but a toned down version of what the painting will be after I scrub in the little bits of oily color where it needs it, after the structure is in place and no major changes are needed.
I should try the cremnitz white,burnt sienna, yellow ochre, ivory black thing for awhile and see what turns up.

[Linda Ciallelo]

I ordered 11 tubes of Michael Harding paint from the Italian Art store on Monday. Tuesday morning it was delivered to my door. It is really different from Williamsburg. It's much softer and more translucent. It completely changes the way I am painting.

There is a huge difference between Old Holland Cremnitz white, Williamsburg Flake white, and Michael Harding cremnitz white. Williamsburgs is thick and sticky. OH is thick and slippery(waxy feeling). Michael Hardings is literally like warm butter. I bought the cremnitz ground in walnut oil. I am going to try the cremnitz ground in linseed oil and see if there is a difference. The use of whites seems key to the rest of the painting. The texture of your white greatly effects everything else, The white works like a medium for the rest of the paint.

Michael Hardings paint is most similiar to Doaks I think, in texture. It's very good stuff. I will stay with it.

I am using their red umber, venetian red, and alizarin crimson, raw umber, raw sienna, yellow ochre, naples yellow genuine, ivory black and burnt sienna. The burnt sienna is very near the red umber in color. The raw sienna is the same as Williamsburgs Italian green ochre . The red umber is similiar to Williamsburgs Terra rosa. The venetian red is similiar to Williamsburgs pompeii red. The texture is much softer though and very slippery. It's very very nice.

PS. There is no "texture" here with the Michael Harding paint. Instead you have thin veils of translucent color with soft edges. Oh no, yet another option. Actually I love this and will probably discard the heavy texture idea. Maybe I will start with the Williamsburg and then switch to Michael Harding for the top layers. Hmmmm

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by Linda Ciallelo

I ordered 11 tubes of Michael Harding paint from the Italian Art store on Monday. Tuesday morning it was delivered to my door. It is really different from Williamsburg. It's much softer and more translucent. It completely changes the way I am painting.

Do you have enough money left for FOOD?

I love the stuff! It is gorgeous paint.

Is the Cremnitz really opaque. I love the SP Optical white but it does not cover like a lead white. I like it because it makes beautiful bright pastels.

That Naples yellow is gorgeous. I like their Burnt Sienna as well. SP's is a bit dull.

I never liked OH. Kinda sludgy.

Have fun!

[Linda Ciallelo]

Of course I have money left for food ,I drive a bus 40 hours a week . They pay me well for that.

The Michael Harding cremnitz white (ground in walnut oil) is not opaque at all. Actually , next payday, I am going to try the cremnitz ground in linseed oil and I want something whiter like maybe their titanium/ zinc or if they have a flake/ titanium. I got small tube of flake and zinc. I know I didn't order that. They must have made an error. They also sent me Venetian red when I ordered Indian red. But I am actually liking the venetian when mixed with alizarin crimson.

The cremnitz ground in walnut oil is quite translucent. It's absolutely wonderful . You just have to try it. I don't know if it's because of the walnut oil or what. That's why I will try their regular cremnitz ground in linseed. It certainly won't go to waste. Drying time for the walnut oil might be longer.

So far I can't see any difference between their burnt sienna and their red umber . The only difference is that the red umber dried faster on my pallet. I will need to do some tests and see how close they are in color.

I actually have been using tthe Williamsburg to fill in large areas and then the M. Harding for the details tonight. The Williamsburg has more substance but the Harding can get details and blending that would be impossible with the Williamsburg. The Harding has a nice shine . The Williamsburg dries dull, good for an underpainting. The Michael Harding costs less.

[Linda Ciallelo]

The Michael Harding and the cremnitz ground in walnut oil is helping me get some dellicate blending and detail around the nose and mouth area. You can see it if you compare it to the last photo I posted in this thread.