Limited palette oils

[PJL]

When I first started to paint in oils I used a limited palette and a technique similar to my charcoal drawings..This is what happened.

I put the oils away at that stage, but I'm now looking to pick them up again.. I just dont know wether to progress along the same lines, or to try a brave new approach

Some constructive critism is needed I believe.. come on guys, sock it to me.

another fork in the art road... which way to go??????


http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/04-Jul-2001/Highlight-01.jpg

[deevaa]

I love it!

I really like the expression on her face, my only niggle would be that you've done a deevaa and made her arm to skinny, and why I can see that on your work and not my own I've NO clue!! :D

[ZOTMA]

I think it's evident I'm no art teacher.
I'm going through the same thing with oils though. Long time without, trying to do my thing again...but different. So from my experience, one way would be to chisel away from both directions. I've done shocking color and monochrome, messing with both, finding the ways around the mud, etc. I find that they are now meeting in the middle with some fair results. Your limited palette is lovely, try doing something totally out of control, see where letting your hair down gets you. Would love to see that post! Just an idea.

This by the way is lovely, full of expression

[Mario]

A limited pallette is very effective for working with the figure...and just because there are only 4 or 5 pigments on the pallette dosen't make it limited..It's suprising how many tones you can get from just transparent red oxide and white.....I've seen fully balanced (Light/Dark, Warm/Cool) portraits that were done with only two colors and white...burnt sienna/blue black.
I recommend that you stick to the discipline of painting what you see, in that way, a teacher is always with you. Training the eye to be sensitive to what is in front of it, is the whole Art in a nutshell. ..CONTROL is EVERYTHING...staying in control is the way to learn and progress. When out of control you do not have control of the brush and what is occuring on the canvas. You may as well throw dice and see what comes up...."artists" all over the world are taking the easy way out (including me, at times)..much more fun than working at something but the fun is quickly gone and then just the same ol' same ol' is what is left.
I guess what Zotma means by doing something "out of control" is that you try a color that isn't there or add an imaginary object etc. in other words, don't be "restricted" by what you are painting. That might make sense if you have already exhausted what is in front of you but what Im seeing on this forum are a lot of paintings that don't even scratch the surface of responding to the subject matter. We are still painting from mental images that we've formed of "arms" etc..many years ago and are blind to what is in front of us...Unfortunately, there are many "art teachers" around that are encouraging their students to "let their hair down and be totaly out of control"...that's because they never learned the craft themselves and so have nothing to teach...sad, but true. Anyway, I feel that you are on the right track instinctively and a good figure painting teacher could really give you a jump start after 3 or 4 months of training...good luck and I hope you find that control can be fun.

[PJL]

BTW... The colours were Cad. Yellow light, Titanium white, burnt sienna and lamp black..

The pic looks a lot more contrasty than the actual painting..Sometimes its difficult to get the colours right with a digital camera

[Miltz]

My initial impression here is that you have a good grasp of drawing, composition and value here. This piece is like a charcoal in that it is essentially a colorized greyscale. I think the place to look now is a sensitivity to color temperature, transparency, and texture.

You could easily get into this color temperature exploration with a very similar pallet as you are using here, though there is no good reason to limit yourself to any specific one. I completely agree with Mario that a limited range of color can do the trick. However, a couple of pointers that could be helpful are...

If you are going to use a black as a cooling influence, consider using ivory black, because it is a semi-transparent pigment and blends better. It is also slightly cooler in color than lamp black. The downside to ivory black is that the paint film is weaker and tends to crack if used pure, so for a large area of solid black, the lamp black is safer. However, it is also pretty boring (see below).

Consider making your darks with colorful, transparent layers. They will be darker in final appearance than an opaque layer of solid black, and much more interesting. A layer of ultramarine superimposed with a layer of burnt sienna gives a wonderful black that is warm or cool depending on the order they are painted. they work nicely as a pallet mix as well as the resulting paint film retains its transparency and its easy to control the temperature precisly. There are a lot of other interesting combinations that work too (sap green and Alizarin crimson). Just remember when mixing darks to use transparent pigments.

If you are interested in a high drama lighting scenario, follow the lead of the classic chairiscuro painters (Carravagio, Rembrandt) and paint your shadows transparently and thin, and your lights opaque and with more impasto. You want your viewer to look at the lights, not the shadows, so minimizing brush strokes in the dark areas prevents distracting specular highlights later when the painting is varnished.

In interior settings, remember that light is COOL and shadows WARM. This seems counter-intuitive, but this is a lighting convention that evolved from the north light studios used before the advent of artificial lighting and color corrected bulbs. Try it, it works!

A cooler paint color will read as lighter than a warm color at the same value. This can allow you to control the number of values in the painting without restricting the apparent value range. Fewer values, stronger tonal structure in the composition. More values, more subtlty. It is always a balance between subtlety and power. How do you spell subtlety, anyway?

You can make planes turn away from the viewer by cooling them. often a little of the background color works well for this.

Warm colors grab attention and usually come forward, cooler colors receed. Duh! I guess you knew that one, huh? BUT, a forward warm (say a nose) with a COOL highlight will jump off the canvas! It is not just the value shift but the temperature shift that makes this work, you need less value change than you might think. It can also work with a warm highlight off of cool flesh, but in that case you need more value shift for the highlight to work. Plus it is trickier, but that is the fun part, huh?

I might recomend the book of David Leffel's tips, written by Linda Coutoure, "Painting Secrets of a Modern Master". It has some very interesting insights in ways to think about the painting process, and a lot of simple practical tips as well. Too bad the color reproductions are not really up to par...

Good luck, Charge on! Oh, yeah, I agree with deevaa about the arm, but you weren't looking for advice on this specific piece anyway, were you?

Oh yeah, EDGES! Think about them, too!

[Mario]

Hi Miltz, I really liked that quote at the bottom of your post about the canvas fighting back...that is EXACTLY what I experience when I paint...sometimes, the canvas dosen't fight fair and sometimes I give away my advantage and boy am I suddenly in trouble....anyway, a great quote and I want to see a thread on that one.
I liked the rest of your post also, shows that you really are a teacher and a good one.
Then, best of all, there is the "process" of painting and seeing a taught concept suddenly come to life, that is where the learning happens.

[PJL]

Mario and Mark,

Thank you for your advice.... quite a lot to digest.

As you have rightly guessed, I started my art life (is it 3 years already), with charcoal drawing.... This has been extremely valuable as it has honed my drawing skills (still a long way to go) and let me feel comfortable with values... In my attempts at painting, I have had a great deal of problems with colour (both mixing and temperature).. I have all the books, colour wheels, charts that you could ever want, but still have problems.

One of the biggest hurdles for me is to stop being discouraged by works that "don't turn out well".. I want everything to be perfect first time, and unfortunately have a high perception of what perfect is. I want to paint like Rembrandt (don't we all). He is my favourite painter of all time. I just love the way he plays with light.

The other problem I have is that I chose a career that keeps me busy 12 hours a day, and its not in the arts :( (but it pays well :) )The art classes I have found are during the day, so I am not able to take any formal instruction, which is what I feel I badly need at this stage in my art.

Thank goodnees for WC. a mixture of fine accomplished artists and hobby artists such as myself. We can learn so much from each other. I know that this forum has given me not only valuable guidance, advice and insight, but has also provided me with the inspiration I need to keep going... eg: I hadn';t lifted a pencil or brush for 7 weeks before I found this site.... Now my wife is complaining she never see's me.

Mark... I have printed your reponse and plan to read it again a few times.. Thank you for the time...

best regards

[Miltz]

Originally posted by Mario

Then, best of all, there is the "process" of painting and seeing a taught concept suddenly come to life, that is where the learning happens.

Oh, man, that IS the truth, Mario! Till you see it happen in front of your eyes, advice is just words...the map, not the territory. Like you said, learning only really happens at the tip of YOUR brush.

I liked that quote, too, it is often how painting feels to me as well. Unfortunately, I don't know the story behind it, I found it in one of those pithy artists sketch books I recieved for a gift. Maybe someone else knows something?

By the way, thanks for the compliments. I seem to be heading that way, I can use the encouragement that leaving the commercial art world is not a stupid thing;).

Hey, PJL, what are you doing?! Go paint! Who needs sleep, anyway? Actually, I admire your work ethic, it is tough to get up for art when you are cooked from a 12 hour workday for sure! Slug on, soldier.

[wnabors]

Occasionally i get asked to explain interesting (read:odd) elements in a drawing or canvas..they are usually the result of having my butt kicked by a subject...if they like iit..I'm a genius...if not..Hey I'm just a misunderstood genius..;)

[jwaskey]

In response to Mario's post:


We are still painting from mental images that we've formed of "arms" etc..many years ago and are blind to what is in front of us...

Alltogether too true.

I do have a great exercise to help get past that though, something I was taught at college. It takes a while to master, and isn't very forgiving in the beginning, but it will help you *SEE*.

This is a drawing from life exercise.

Materials:

#7 watercolor brush
india ink
water
18 X 24 inch newsprint

Utilizing 3, 5, 10 and 20 minute poses, draw the model's exterior countours-- as if you were chalking a corpse's outline.

Here's the messy bit:

1. You can't lift your brush off the paper. One continuous line for the whole outline.

2. You can't look at your paper while your drawing the figure.

Period.
You don't watch the hand-- just the figure.

You can look to start drawing, but that's it. No peeking!

The first few that you'll do will look like poo. It'll seem like you aren't making any progress, and that you'll never get it. But after 3-4 weeks of twice weekly sessions, you'll notice a change-- in both what you're drawing during the session, and how you draw away from the session.

cheers,

Jason

[Miltz]

Excellent excersize, Jason. Boy is it tough to discipline yourself like this! Once you commit though, it gets pretty fun!