color mixing/limited pallete

[oilpainter23]

I've noticed that there are alot of people having problems with color mixing. I thought I'd give some basic advice that has helped me out a lot.

Anyone who's relativly new to painting should probably start with a limited pallete of four to seven colors. This way you don't waste as much paint and achieve color harmony faster. You also learn how to mix just about any color you want this way.

My limited and all purpose pallete:
(arranged from left to right)

pthalo blue - leans towards green
cad yellow lemon - leans towards green
cad yellow medium - leans towards orange
cad red light - leans towards orange
permanent alizaren crimson - leans towards violet
ultamarine blue - leans towards violet
titanium white - a cool white

It's very important to learn the color wheel (primaries, secondary, compliments).

There are a couple of really good books on the color wheel:
The Artist's Guide to Using Color by Wendon Blake
Blue and Yellow don't make green by Michael Wilcox

I've learned from my studies that there are three main things that you should ask yourself when you are painting (regarding color).

Is the color light or dark enough?
Should it be more or less saturated? (color intensity)
Is it the right color?

I've found that if you constantly ask yourself these questions while you're painting, it will become almost second nature to you.

example: painting a light blue sky

You have a nice light blue color you're painting in for the sky. First you have to make sure you have the right color blue that you want (greenish blue/violet blue). Once you have the right color, you have have to ask yourself is it light/dark enough. Let's say it's getting too dark. Add white to lighten the color. Then it becomes less saturated and loses the intensity of the blue. You have to fix this by adding small amounts of blue until the correct intensity is acheived. To desature a color, just add a small amount of it's compliment. Also any time you mix a new color without using a new/clean brush, the color will be less saturated.

I've found this method to be very helpfull.

I am also interested in other approaches/methods anyone uses to mix their colors.

I hope I explained it well enough. It's much easier to show how it's done than to write about it.

-Duncan

[Mario]

Thanks oilpainter23, for describing a solid approach. I would have a slightly different starting pallette..I like yellow ochre and burnt sienna.. I like your approach and I like the Wilcox concept, too. With the limited pallette you ought to be able to find any color again that you had previously mixed, more easily.

[plec]

Duncan good advice I agree with Mario and would also add a yellow ochre and a Burnt Sienna.
Regards, Ken.
P.S. of course you know that we all suffer from "lets buy as many colours as we can" syndrome, it's half the fun.

[oilpainter23]

Yeah, I think alot of artists prefer using colors like yellow ochre and burnt sienna out of the tube. They are also kind of a pain to mix . I do think it's more worth it if you can mix those colors. I find that the yellows/ browns are more vibrant and have a more pleasing look if you mix them.

The other downside (or upside) to the burnt siennas/ochers is that they dry alot faster than other colors. I like to paint in the alla prima style, so I like my paint to stay wet as long as possible. So I use the yellows, blues, and reds to make my browns.

Although I find that yellow ochre is a great tube color to tone your canvs/panel with (I never liked painting on a white surface!).

[LarrySeiler]

and again...its amazing what one can learn is possible from very VERY few...and then one might question just how necessary yellow ochre is, burnt sienna and that..."lets buy as many colours as we can" syndrome

I came from the split-primary palette camp, having used it near 25-28 years, a warm and cool variant of each primary. Well famililar with your list, Duncan. For the past two years, I've been painting primarily with Utrecht French Ultramarine Blue, W&N Bright Red, Cadmium Lemon Yellow and titanium white. I have Naples Yellow on hand for convenience, used quite often as a substitute tint instead of white (warmly tints ratherly than cooly tints), and viridian (but used very rarely and sparingly).

I've used this palette instudio and outdoors...and my blog shows the results. I average close to about 200 paintings per year.

I've been playing with black the past couple months, which I have never used outdoors since the 90's, but in studio...messing around with some palettes...but again, amazing how one learns quite well to not miss many pigments thought previously required.

I predict as an art instructor...that many color mixing issues folks thought they might have had will be resolved with this limited limited palette. The insight of what is possible to suggest with the few is missed by many for the obvious reasons...but it is an insight worth understanding. The difficulty I encounter after such a self-education is how I now find the need to expand the palette to more pigments if I do not find I've yet exhausted after two years the possibilities of such a limited palette, and have not therefore yet discovered the need?

I request that what is not read into my comment is I do not recognize the creative right of others to use whatever pigments or palette they want. I am giving only a personal testimony for what I've discovered for myself...and then demonstrate to students.

I do think though that much confusion of what pigments are necessary...what leads to mix what(?) and holding the painting to work for many various color issue reasons could be eliminated and expedited by any artist willing to work with such a limited palette for a short while. My short while began with one month's time in mind...but then it went two months....six months, and as I began...now two years.

[Mario]

Ok Larry, that's pretty convincing..gee, two years and at the prolific rate that you paint..that's a good test.
Can you comment more on the pigments. I'm guessing the the WN bright red is a Napthol color? and a bit to the orangey side, just slightly?? and the Utrecht FRENCH ultra marine...is it lighter than regular U.M.?? the cadmium yellow lemon is pretty much described as is and how about a substitute for Titanium like maybe Flake white? the Viridian is also self described.. you actually convinced me to try this...I'm thinking that i now have collected so many tubes that perhaps I will just use kissing cousins for these five colors and go from there until I use up my pigment stash..less colors = less confusion less mistakes.. but what you are saying here is that the split-primary palette even is too much, too redundant...that is pretty eye opening..I got to try it. ..many thanks.

[LarrySeiler]

Originally Posted by Mario

Can you comment more on the pigments. I'm guessing the the WN bright red is a Napthol color? and a bit to the orangey side, just slightly?? and the Utrecht FRENCH ultra marine...is it lighter than regular U.M.?? the cadmium yellow lemon is pretty much described as is and how about a substitute for Titanium like maybe Flake white? the Viridian is also self described.. you actually convinced me to try this...I'm thinking that i now have collected so many tubes that perhaps I will just use kissing cousins for these five colors and go from there until I use up my pigment stash..less colors = less confusion less mistakes.. but what you are saying here is that the split-primary palette even is too much, too redundant...that is pretty eye opening..I got to try it. ..many thanks.

For one thing...it will become something of a personal quest. One, I paint perhaps 90% of my time outdoors. I am sure the light I see and the colors I experience outdoors here in northern Wisconsin does not define say that light and color of southern California...North Carolina and so forth.

The split-primary palette is an all around great palette for conceiving and birthing near any color required. I'm sure I could travel near the world round, and the split-primary (color temperature driven palette) could well equip my every needs. However...the limited limited palette (I say it that way because some would already say the split-primary palette is limited ) will teach much more on just what is possible.

Now...having said that...if one then only regards those simple mundane stilllife objects I've painted in my art room that is very prevalent on my blog (which I called "Incidentals") from January '06 to about June '06...(which was done in any common typical light available to us all), there should be no question to the efficiency of the colors I chose to work with.

As I said...I'm NOT a tube numbers guy. We simply didn't discuss numbers on paint 20-30 years ago, and I didn't know anyone that did. I learned by experience and trial to trust my eye to what looks good for my eye. To my eye and my needs I chose W&N Bright Red...because it looks like a very true and truer red than other reds I've used over the years. No...not too orange at all (again to my eye)...which Cadmium medium red does feel, or Rembrandt Permanent Red...for that matter.

I wanted a red that looked more red. It need not lean to orange, for a touch of yellow to the red remedies that need for me. It need not lean toward a violet, for once again...a touch of blue should satisfy that need. I needed a red that would well represent red....and to my eye this one did. The works I produced speak for themselves.

Of the blues...when working with a limited palette and not carrying a black pigment with me whatsoever when painting outdoors, I needed a blue that would be very dark and rich, for this would be my source for attaining the potential of how dark a value I might be able to produce. After experimentation with many blues...and a head's up from JamieWG...I was convinced that Utrecht's French Ultramarine Blue fit that ticket the best. I have even (and to some extent still do...) ground up some FUblue.

Color works relatively speaking...as to what you learn in making harmonies, how adjacent areas of color play on a color mark made and so forth...and I found some tricks that I'll detail later that work quite well. Phthalo blue is a greenish blue and very strong and requires the rest of the painting to adjust to accomodate it and make it feel its presence reads right. The whole of the split-primary palette serves best to give phthalo blue its rightful place, but as you will learn you can paint quite effectively without it.

As for yellow...yellow relatively as compared to red and blue will appear as warm..regardless if it is a cool yellow or warm yellow. That being said, I don't need a Cadmium Yellow medium because yes...just a touch of the red produces that warm yellow look. But no touch of any color will produce the cool side of yellow...so a Hansa yellow or Cadmium Lemon Yellow works well. There are many good brands of that...so I am not so locked into it...but when I order my order from Utrecht for the blue (and they carry W&N Bright Red) I just resolved to try and liked their Cadmium Lemon Yellow paint.

Now...every painter seems to favor a couple colors additional...and mine are Naples Yellow and sometimes viridian.

First of all with variation in greens of nature...a touch of viridian gives me that option (not one I often use)...but also (one of those tricks) with just a touch of viridian and Naples yellow to my FUblue and white...I can simulate a sense of what feels the warmer green as phthalo blue provides...but with greater control.

However...I find that often..just a bit of Naples Yellow to the FUblue and white does the trick.

Now...Naples Yellow....
I use Utrecht's as well...pale and regular...

when one paints outdoors especially, you'll learn over time that white cools color too much in wishing for values to be lighter. Bright color from the sun is lighter...but warmer, and using white to lighten sucks the life right out of color causing it to flatten and lose its strengthen to contribute to depth perception.

So...I often tint with Naples Yellow instead, which lightens and warms to lovely tints. IF I use white to tint...I'll add a bit of Naples Yellow to warm it back up. I find also that Naples very often represents well grasses and so forth naturally.

However...that all being said, that's if I use the full extent of each color in my palette. If I determine I'm going to paint with a split-complementary palette...I'll use my limited three primaries and white to mix up the dominant color, my two splits...and then work only from those three piles. At which point the mood the palette scheme is geared becomes the sole palette. Three piles of paint plus white...(sometimes black). Talk about a limit then!!!

...but oh, how informative it is...and insightful to why master painters of the past 20th century developed its use...Payne, Gruppe and so forth.

have fun...

[Mike Finn]

Originally Posted by oilpainter23

I am also interested in other approaches/methods anyone uses to mix their colors.

I have just recently discovered that mixing on the canvas is very effective especially with transparent low staining colours. My next painting is going to be completely painted directly from the tubes and mixed on the canvas.

There is certain confidence one gets from knowing exactly the colours one can 'easily' mix from a limited palette AND knowing that those colours can 'represent' any colour out there. Of course if you are a realist painter then maybe not.

It has also only recently been forced into my thick head that an apple/sky/human can be any colour you want to make it.

Mike Finn

[Mario]

Originally Posted by Mike Finn

I have just recently discovered that mixing on the canvas is very effective especially with transparent low staining colours. My next painting is going to be completely painted directly from the tubes and mixed on the canvas.
There is certain confidence one gets from knowing exactly the colours one can 'easily' mix from a limited palette AND knowing that those colours can 'represent' any colour out there. Of course if you are a realist painter then maybe not.

Hi Mike, your post leaves me a bit confused. What's a 'low' staining color? examples? ..
Also, are you saying that if a color has the 'right value' it can 'represent' any color? .. that it dosen't have to be 'right on' in a realist way?
I'm thinking that Larry is saying that he can do representational painting in a 'realist' way with five colors.
Of course 'realism' isn't the only way to paint (thanks god) but if you are going for a 'colorist' painting, why limit your palette?

[LarrySeiler]

Originally Posted by Mario

: but if you are going for a 'colorist' painting, why limit your palette?

well...I think a colorist that paints best is one that learns to understand just all that a few colors can pull off...then having an understanding of its potential is ready to add another pigment if necessary. I've seen purported works of colorists whose paintings have color that does not hold together. Colorful for the sake of color...and think their deficit is having the convenience of accessibility to so many paints without the asset of time having been spent first understanding their relationships.

I can tell you this...that by learning to begin a limited palette with various undertones or colored block-in's, you can produce a painting that would convince anyone that a much broader fuller palette must have been used.

A reddish brown undertone for one...

if you saw my 40"x 50" waterfalls painting built up on a reddish undertone, one would be surprised to think such came from three primary pigments, white and black...

MacPherson does not call the limited palette limiting...but instead, the "liberated" palette...

liberation is the feeling one has of a full understanding of what is possible. It is amazing the confidence that comes feeling fully armed and in control...

I'm not sure how colorful a painting must be (color ladened) before it is considered the work of a colorist...but I'd prefer to think of a colorist as one that understands and masters the use of color...

If color gets out of control...such is not the mastery of color.

Here's the thing...you might have only one red for your palette....but if you understand that mixing variations of green placed near the red...or blues will alter the perception of that red...then you have virtually created many more reds by means of manipulation and mastery. If more reds are perceived by the viewer what is to prevent the mistake of the painting to appear colorist?

If I can make yellows to appear to be many kinds of yellows....blues many kinds of blues...where then is the limitation?

It would do artists well to not think about the color just as it comes out of the tube applied to the canvas (as though ready to go and thus many pigments needed to assure variation), to know instead what is possible to take one color manipulated to be perceived as many as needed.

MHO...

[Mike Finn]

Hi Mario...

I mean by low staining colours, anything other than the Phthalos that stain the canvas almost instantly. There are others like Indian Yellow ... But I love it anyway

By 'represent' I mean an objects colour doesn't have to be painted the colour it actually is or is usually seen. Take a VERY limited palette say Yellow Ochre and Ivory Black plus a White. Paint a bowl of fruit...I think one can 'represent' the colour of oranges and cherries quite well.... Good values are a given.

Lets say you tripped near a cliff and all your tubes of paint fell over it....all except diox purple and white Okay, so you have to paint a figure in the landscape to finish what you are working on....could you do it?. Yes you could.. and by placing some of that purple near the figure and in other likely spots you would make it work.

A limited palette like Larrys enhances the creative process rather than hinders it. Most of the paintings I admire in galleries are limited in the range of colours...just used masterfully. Actually if you look at most things in the world.... there isnt much variety of colour there at all that would require more than six paints

Mike Finn

[Mike Finn]

Originally Posted by Mike Finn

My next painting is going to be completely painted directly from the tubes and mixed on the canvas.
Mike Finn

Ahem... well that didn't work very well

Too hard to get values right.
Too hard to get good blacks and pale tints.
Too hard to correct mistakes.

But..
Easy to get nice foliage.
Easy to get interesting expanses of colour like skys, walls, grasses etc.
Easy to get soft edges and misty effects.
Easy to clean up and as I use alkyds the paint doesnt dry on the palette.

Lesson learned

Mike Finn

[loulop]

Hi, I am new here, participating that is, I have been a lurker for quite a while, and I would like to answer to oilpainter23, but I would like to ask if anyone here in Wet Canvas to your knowledge work with Genesis paints, heat set oils.
That is what I have been taking classes on lately and we also use only five colors, Ultra Marine Blue, Genesis Red, Genesis Yellow, Burnt Umber and Titanium White.
I have painted a landscape, and I am now painting a seascape, and the next project is Study in Yellow that is for the month of May.
Lourdes

[oilpainter23]

Very interesting Larry, I'll have to try that palette sometime.

Mark,

I agree. Mixing on the canvas can be very effective. Sometimes I'll add a compliment to another color right on the canvas (if it's too intense).

My next painting is going to be completely painted directly from the tubes and mixed on the canvas.

Looking forward to that post!

Loulop,

I've never heard of genesis paints.

[Mario]

Well, you tried it.