Daniel Greene's Palette

[Patrick Gillooly]

Regarding Daniel Greene's palette, there is a fantastic article on his palette, specifically for portrait painting and for flesh tones in particular, in this month's (April 2003) edition of "The Artist's Magazine".

It started many years ago as a piece of canvas with mixtures he knew to be skin tones, and then he literally held these up to Sargent, Vermeer, Cassatt and Rubens in galleries, and refined it to the palette he uses now.

It's followed by an article on building the structure of the head by Michael Shane Neal, which is also excellent!

[Richard Budig]

As to that pesky sap green thread...I've discovered you can make those lovely burnt reds, rusty reds, and reddish browns several ways, none of which use sap green.

A little aliz crimson, burnt sienna (transparent oxide red, too), and ultramarine blue. Fiddle with it until you get the depth and warmth you want.

Plain old cadmium red light and ivory black will produce some interesting rusts, reds, browns.

Alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow med and Prussian blue will also make some of those intense rusts/browns. You have to fiddle with, and tweak these colors too. But, actually, you can make any color (almost any color) there is with these three and white.

I used to mix Greene's sepia green mixes (also using sap green, alizarin crimson, and cadmium yellow). You just go heavier on the sap green, dull it with alizarin, and lighten it with cadmium yellow. However, I found few uses for this. If I need greens, there ares raw umber/yellow ocher, ivory black/yellow ocher, raw sienna/black, and so on.

[Cynthia Daniel]

For those who have wished Dan Greene had a web site, there is good news. He will have one in the next months done by none other than your's truly.

[Chris Saper]

Richard,

You just go heavier on the sap green, dull it with alizarin, and lighten it with cadmium yellow.

About two years ago I started using Grumbacher's Thalo Yellow-Green as a neutralizing color for the red/orange/yellow bse in skin tones.

When you squeeze it out of the tube, it looks like a neon mistake, but it has the advantage of desaturating the reddish color, without changing the value, which in turn eliminates (or at least reduces) the need to use white to return the mixture to the desired value.

Cynthia, How exciting! His site will be spectacular, I have no doubt.

[Richard Budig]

Odd, and fun, to see this thread still going.

Over the last several months, I've begun modifying my palette away from Greene's. I've moved more to Indian and Venetian for reds, yellow ocher, and burnt sienna pretty much round out this palette. Greens can be mixed from various colors when needed for neutralizing, and I've begun using a mix of black and raw umber, lightened in about seven values from DARK to very light. I use these as a general neutralizer.

Another good palette, especially for delicate female skin tones, is very limited: A darker Naples yellow, Rose Madder (for those who are afraid of fugitive alizarin), and Cerulean blue, with white, of course. Actually, you can mix the yellow and blue in varioius proportions to make a good neutralizing green. You can get those slightly bluish/greenish cool tones, aw well as some soft oranges and pinks with these few colors.