Quick Lessons on Color Mixing

Lesson #4

ROGER'S SECRET FORMULAS :-) I am always reluctant to pass out painting formulas as if they were, in and of themselves, some panacea for painting success. The formulas and suggested palettes I am about to give you should act only as a starting guide which leads to your experimentation and creativity. However, until you become more accustomed to your paints these will serve as a starting point. PALETTE SELECTION THE STANDARD PALETTE - Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue. *Ultramarine Blue is semi-transparent and the Cadmium Red is very opaque. The Cadmium Yellow imparts some degree of transparency. The mixtures have considerable expressive possibilities. Many artists use these pigments as the foundation for their color work. This is an excellent landscape palette. THE DELICATE PALETTE - Cobalt Blue, Rose Madder, Aureolin. *These colors combine to make an exquisite high-key color circle, limited in contrast and very transparent. The delicate tints are excellent glazing colors and are exceptionally expressive in mixtures. Flowers are delightful subjects for this palette. THE INTENSE PALETTE - Winsor Blue, Winsor Yellow, Winsor Red. *A very transparent, staining triad, this palette. Dramatic, bold statements may be made, featuring rich, intense darks. The color/value range is at its most complete. These dramatic pigments generate tremendous energy, brilliance, and sharp contrast in any subject, including cityscapes, landscapes, and flowers. THE OPAQUE PALETTE - Indian Red, Cerulean Blue, Yellow Ochre. *These hues are extremely dense in mixtures, having great covering potential. The Indian Red is powerful. Use it sparingly. The opaque palette is unusual and difficult to use, often resulting in a low-key moody painting. Subjects appropriate for this palette might be rocks, machinery or the concrete of a cityscape. THE OLD MASTERS PALETTE - Burnt Sienna, Paynes Gray, Yellow Ochre. *The old masters triad is an unsaturated palette variation that gives semi-transparent, subtle mixtures: Burnt Sienna represents the red, Yellow Ochre is the yellow, and Paynes Gray stands in for blue. The old masters palette is surprisingly effective, particularly if you emphasize light and dark contrast in the manner of the Renaissance painters. Any subject is suitable, although the palette lacks brilliance. SKIN TONES ABBREVIATIONS: BS-Burnt Sienna CR-Cadmium Red LY- Lemon Yellow YO-Yellow Ochre W-White AC-Alizarin Crimson U-Ultramarine PB-Prussian Blue RU-Raw Umber CY-Cadmium Yellow NY-Naples Yellow RS-Raw Sienna PALE SKIN-Basic mixture-BS+W Darker Tones Basic+RU*Basic+CY*Basic+CR*Basic+LY*Basic+AC*Basic+U Lighter Tones BS+RU+W*BS+CY+W*BS+CR+W*BS+LY+W*BS+AC+W*BS+U+W Lips BS+W+AC*BS+W+CR+U*NY+CR Hair NY+RU*YO+RU+CR*YO+RU*CY+BU Eyes RU+PB*PB+RU+W*YO+U*NY+PB MID-TONED SKIN-Basic Mixture-BU+W Darker Tones Basic+RS*Basic+CY*Basic+CR*Basic+BS*Basic+AC*Basic+U Lighter Tones BU+RS+W*BU+CY+W*BU+CR+W*BU+BS+W*BU+AC+W*BU+U+W Lips CR+RU*AC+PB+NY*CR+U+W*AC+NY Hair BS+PB*BU+PB+NY*RU+U*BU+U Eyes BU+RS*CR+U+CY DARK SKIN-Basic Mixture-RU+W Darker Tones Basic+CR*Basic+NY*Basic+AC*Basic+U*Basic+CY*Basic+PB Lighter Tones RU+CR+W*RU+NY+W*RU+AC+W*RU+U+W*RU+CY+W*RU+PB+W Lips CR+RU*AC+U+NY*CR+RU+W*CR+PB Hair BU+PB*CR+U+RS Eyes BU+NY*BS+PB+NY Now there is some boring stuff. But it will serve you well when all else fails and you are searching for a workable mixture. Just copy them and keep them on hand. PAINTING HAIR Shape texture and sheen are the qualities to emphasize when painting hair in a portrait. We also have to notice the way an individual wears his or her hair, or the style; this is an expression of personality and an important part of the likeness. Painting the hair well takes some observation, but it's not difficult - in fact, it's fun to do. Like fleshtones, hair color varies considerably from one person to another, but there's one rule you can rely on: Natural hair colors are seldom the same all over the head. You'll see lighter and darker places, warmer and cooler colors, all on the same head. Artificially colored hair, however, is not likely to have the variation of warm and cool, lights and darks. You'll need to use a slightly different brushing method for painting hair. The quarter-inch flat brush is about right, along with a small pointed brush. Less mixing of the colors is required. Allowing the brush strokes to show lends a more convincing hair texture. If you want a more smoothly brushed look, sweep your hair mixture very lightly in the direction of the strands of hair with the flat brush; this will give you the hair's sheen. (Be careful because your work can become very slick looking if you "polish" it too much.) Following are the color mixes you'll find in a variety of hair colors, plus specific color traits to look out for. LIGHT BLOND Titanium White, Lemon Yellow(a cool yellow), Raw Umber and a touch of Cobalt Blue. This color hair is never really yellow; of course, lemon yellow and Cobalt blue will turn green when mixed together - just be careful to balance them properly. For platinum blond hair, you really have to build up the lights in an impasto (thick paint). You might have to heighten them with white, allow them to dry and glaze them with titanium white and lemon yellow to get them light enough. LIGHT BROWN or ASH BLOND Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Cobalt Blue. We want to avoid any look of red in this hair; raw umber is a dark yellow, and yellow and blue give us green, so we will have to adjust these two carefully. RED Titanium White (not much), Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, sometimes flashes of yellow-orange. The major color to use is burnt sienna, but you will see that mixing white with it kills its intensity. You can heighten with white, let it dry, then glaze it with burnt sienna, or you can paint the lights with burnt sienna and use a slightly damp brush to lift out where you want the lights to appear, allowing the light ground to glow through. Darks are burnt sienna and purple made from alizarin crimson and Cobalt blue. There are never any greens in red hair. DARK BROWN White, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue. Warm the highlights with yellow ochre, cool the highlights with more blue. Too much white and they will turn gray so go easy! Darks are burnt umber and ultramarine blue. BLACK Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson give a rich colorful dark, but you need to add burnt umber to give the color weight and body. Highlights are cool blue from white and ultramarine blue, applied with a very light touch. Don't mess around in it! I never use black paint in black hair; black oil paint turns grayish when dry and doesn't have the depth of alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue. GRAY Titanium White, Raw Umber, Cobalt Blue. Observe this hair color carefully; often a gray-haired person has some dark hair as well! Raw umber and cobalt blue will do nicely for that. Usually people don't want yellows or gold in their gray. Your job is to paint gray hair in a very crisp and clean way so that it doesn't look drab or "dirty". This concludes our rather short, three lesson, discussion of basic color mixing. (although I am quite sure that we will revisit it many times in the months to come). This, in no way should imply that we know all there is to know about color mixing. Some of these mixtures will work so well for you that you will be tempted to use them, and only them, for certain subjects. However, the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", hardly applies here. Once you have found a formula that works well for you, keep it on hand, but remember that experimentation is the mother of creativity! Start with basic mixtures and add other color to it. Play with color, make discoveries. And when you come up with a mixture that is "just right" to convey a certain feeling, mail me and let me know! You will invent, one always does, and sharing that invention with other artists is a joy in itself. See you next time!