Thanks for wading through those posts “comrade”. (HH would chuckle at that. He was a life long socialist.)

And thanks for the vote of confidence.
Re. the two questions stated above: the palette itself is important since one really does need a full spectral range of the relatively pure pigments in order to have some choices and avoid repeating the same color mixture for what are visually different colorings in different light keys. EG. a cad lemon produces different results than a Cad. Yellow Med. Similarly, an ultramarine blue produces different results than a cobalt blue. So, while beginners may not notice much difference, as one does the correct study method their vision of color distinctions improves. Having more choices in how these large mass colors are mixed is only possible when there is enough differences in the pigment choices. Limited palettes in general mistakenly make a student think color is mainly about differences in value gradations of generalized color, and i would not recommend any of those you mention above. If someone tells you they are teaching the HH color study method but then starts telling you to begin with a value scale ask for your money back immediately and don’t pay any attention. Value scales as well as correctly drawing shapes was definitely not part of the color study method, and neither was it part of the Charles Hawthorne study method. So ignore anyone who makes that assertion.
Second question was to the “colorless colors”, a term HH used to use , along with “nameless colors”, or “colors that have no name” as he attempted to guide students away from thinking about color as a word or as an object, such as “sky blue” e.g.. There is a definite learning curve here that one has to accept. The first part of the learning curve is beginning to use primary or secondary pigments , without regard to either value or corrected refinements of shape, to make large statements of either direct light or shade areas, which he called the “major masses”. The beginner is supposed to do a lot of these without trying to finish or improve them. The point is to get used to using simple flat color statements and not be thinking about a finished picture. The direct light statements or area is separated from the shade area by an unpainted area that has the white gesso only.
After doing a lot of these crude starts, the student can then take some of them and make a second effort, by restating the initial colors. So, if a light area was begun with a yellow, the next statement would use a different hue or two different hues and completely change the first statement, by observing how the light areas colors differ from the shade areas colors, and always making it clear that the shade areas differ entirely from the light areas as colors. (No more local color in value painting.)

Doing that, doing it the correct way, and doing it in outdoor light gradually leads to making color relationships that are complex mixed colors that describe a particular light key as seen in the large mass statements. Those statements begin to be less pure, saturated color and lean more toward complex mixtures that he referred to as “colors with no name”. But that does not mean they were gray or brown or based on a preconceived formula for “graying” any color.
So this takes time and also the correct method of study, not one based on preconceiving in terms of value or mid value or any of the old conventions about color being a result of value gradations.

Keep the color richer than you believe you see it, which means don’t use a lot of white to make color relationships. HH believed before one can paint well we first had to learn how to see color and this method and the learning curve is how he was able to get the student to begin seeing what he was talking about. Without that study method, there was no visual growth and students remained stuck painting in local color in values.

The next part of the study idea has to do with seeing the variations within the large mass areas, and the colors that make the transition from the mass of light into the mass of shade, or from the mass of shade into the mass of light, which we called the transitional colors. These are large variations in a mass at the perimeter of the masses.
All during the study, the student was learning to “see” color peripherally, or indirectly, by not staring into any mass, and instead, glancing across the entire scene or still life while noticing the color at the periphery of their vision. This is fundamental, and if not understood the student continues thinking in local color and value contrasts.
Not sure if the attachments made it on the post. They are all examples of correct studies, some from the actual school in the 70’s and 80’s when HH was still around to keep the direction intended.

some examples of the way color studies were done at the school [ATTACH]853170[/ATTACH]

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Happy to be of help .

Mainly by clarifying how HH had students do actual color study in the light key.
What is a “light key”? At the school, with HH, all color study was done outdoors, except of course if it rained. The reason for working outdoors was the stronger lighting made it more likely the student would be able to see the color light key.

So, a color light key is a harmonic chord of colors specific to an atmospheric condition, such as hazy sunlight, clear sunlight, gray day cloudy light, morning sunlight, afternoon sunlight, and so on. A light key is the atmospheric change produced on all surface colorings. In other words, it is not the local surface color, which is defined as the “constant color”. Instead it is the way surface colors are changed by the prevailing atmospheric condition the light source is passing through which the eye then senses. So, it is the visual sensation of color, which as everyone should know, is light. Color is light, light is color, to the eye.
By working outdoors with color HH felt students had the best chance to learn how to observe this color key change to the local surface colors, i.e.., if they did the study effort in the way he asked, instead of the way many had learned from commercial art schools. (Color theories, but little or no direct observation.)

You are exactly right about the why one should expand the palette instead of thinking limited palettes. Generalized color and repetitious color is the downfall for the sincere student. Having the expanded spectral palette is your best friend, in that regard.

Mainly the pigments needed are those that cannot be made from any other pigment. Also, those with the greatest tinting strength. Paint companies sell a lot of decorative color pigments no one needs for this study method.
Also, some pigments are best for more advanced painting problems, such as Cobalt Violet. As beginners one does not need that color because it is not a pigment intended to be mixed into any other mix since it would only be wasted. Save your money.

Cadmiums are very strong tinting strengths in most brands. Cad Lemon, Cad yellow, Cad deep would be sufficient for beginning study. Cad Orange, Cad Scarlet, Cad Red give you a sufficient range from orange to reds. Permanent Rose, the Quinacridones or a Permanent Alizarin are necessary. Dioxizine Purple, Ultra Blue, Cobalt Blue are necessary. Emerald Green is useful (Manganese Blue seems no longer available). Cad.Green and CGdeep and med. are very good tinting strength. Caput Mortem, Mars Violet, Burnt Sienna are useful, but for beginners these are probably going to confuse more than help. Once the basic idea of using hue contrasts is understood then these earth colors are more useful.
Titanium White..
That is a basic palette. I have used a lot of different pigments depending on what I was finding problematic. Best to experiment with the goal being to get more specific about the color relationships being described.

To do this study method correctly avoid thinking in a preconceived formula, such as “i can lower the chroma of a pure orange by adding some blue into it..” Which means before restating a color by mixing into it, look for how that area differs in the actual observed scene from the color initially painted in that mass.
The whole study method purpose is to first get the habit of making visual comparisons by quick glances and scanning across the whole composition and scene, and not to preconceive by using formulas memorized somewhere along the way. Avoiding formulas is essential, since the entire study method is to learn what you are seeing, and part of that is learning what you are not yet capable of seeing. A formula applied may give you a false positive, as if you see something that you actually have not yet seen . The study is to tell you where you are visually, not as a picture maker.

Keep the color richer is part of the learning effort. Often painters think in terms of value and adding white to get value relationships. We are not trying to do that in this approach, and instead we are trying to learn how hue relationships can make a visual volume and spatial relationships. If the color is richer it is easier to see what these hue relationships are, especially as the beginner goes from primary and secondary mixtures into tertiary and more complex mixtures.

When we begin studying this idea, the urgency is to produce something that resembles the level of a HH painting. But that is not what works best. As beginners we should be doing crude shapes, incorrect values and very clear strong overstated color, like that one at the bottom of the jpg.-s. Nothing that looks like a finished picture, because doing that misses the point of study. HH makes this very clear in his Art of Seeing and Painting. (Now available as a free pdf. on the Henry Hensche fb group page under the documents tab).

Let me know if I answered your questions and any others you may have.

For beginners, restating the initial mass color with one different hue, then restating the adjacent mass with one different hue (by different i mean not the same hue used initially, and not the same hue used in each mass) is less confusing. But just to clarify a previous point, beginners should first do one color in each large mass , which are either a mass of direct light or a mass of shade. They shouldn’t do any restating of any masses until they do a handful of these crude starts. By crude I mean the shapes are crude, the values are obviously not yet where they may end up, the white space between the large masses is left white, and it is not an effort to make a “picture” by any definition of what that may be. These first efforts are simply learning how to put different hues down as large mass colors. Do 10 or more where the objects are in different positions and different light keys. When beginners do restatements they miss the point of the beginning stage of learning. This is Henry Hensche’s directions given in his Art of Seeing and Painting in the chapter on Painting a Still Life. After you do these first attempts then drag out the first one and then do another session where you put down a different hue into the first hue and remix them both to make a new “restated” mass color. Do that on each of the first batch. All the while your eye is starting to get better at making color comparisons without getting sidetracked by the brain telling you to make a picture out of it. Values are the next to last thing to be thinking about at the beginning stage. The values for both of these sessions will be wrong and should be wrong because the student is still aiming to over state the color, not to make correct color values. Nor should the drawing be convincing. Forget about nice drawing at this beginning study phase, it is irrelevant entirely to the point of learning to see first by masses of colors. Also, very important, don’t fall into the bad habit of thinking you can make a “mid value” guess and that it is either right or relevant. It is not. That is the standard commercial illustrator technique and it has nothing to do with seeing color light keys no matter who tells you it does. After the beginner gets some actual skill at making these simple crude starts and a restatement then it is possible to begin starts with two or maybe even 3 different hues. But the goal isn’t to have a lot of colors in a mass. Instead it is to mix those all into a single mass color. Some people think they don’t need to learn to do that and they should have a lot of separate colors in the mass to show how great of an impressionist they are. But they don’t understand how color massing was studied with HH, or how he studied it before they were born.