Re: your best recommended palette to work with ( primary colors preferably)--esp red?

In Reply to: Re: your best recommended palette to work with ( primary colors preferably)--esp red? posted by rhoward on 09/01/00 at 7:57 AM:

: Hmm, that's an interesting palette, James, and one which would work for anyone studying how to mix colors.

: For actual work on a painting, I have found it wise to eliminate squeezing out any colors that will not be used. Color is so difficult to deal with that I have found it best to simplify. Thus, a portrait palette (for flesh tones) will seldom have green in it and almost nver any blue.

: I also prefer to work with a set palette on which the individual mixtures have been divided according to Value.

I have found that it is useful to have available a full spectrum of colors (although I squeeze them out on the palette only as I need them since they are too expensive to waste); as such Stern's palette is quite servicible. I think that it is not useful to the novice to proscribe specific colors or palettes for flesh painting, for instance, since flesh may require blue pigment, as an example, under certain cooler light conditions and require nothing colder than raw umber under warmer light conditions. In 18th and 19th century portrait painting manuals, elaborate palettes and mixtures were proscribed for the underpainting and overpainting of the portrait, being so specific as to suggest exact mixtures for the cheeks, for instance; these elaborate palettes took many minutes to lay out and were used regardless of the sitter's complexion or the lighting conditions. This was a good idea when efficiency and time saving was important as in a short and intense portrait session and when the standard studio set up was a north window of prescribed size, height, etc., Modern portrait and figure painting can be done under many different (and sometimes mulitple) light sources of varying color temperatures so a full palatte capable of obtaining these varied colors is more useful . An additional consideration in the choice of colors for the palette is not simply the availability of the full spectrum of colors; certain colors have special properites and are not easy replaced; for instance, I use transparent colors for glazing and these are not easily substituted for with more opaque mixtures; many of the earth colors have unique traits that are not easily duplicated. You will need to experiment with the many colors available to find the ones that suit your temperment and technique.
 
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