So we take a short break from the relentless hammering and I'll talk just a little bit about my palette and color mixing, since I promised Holly I would.
This is my palette. It's a 16 x 20 glass surface, and I have 11 tube colors on it. It's an expanded primaries palette - basically, it has a warm, a cool, and a low chroma color for each of the three primaries. (Except the yellows, of which I have four. But I'll explain that in a minute)
Clockwise from bottom left; Ultramarine, Prussian, Ivory Black, Titanium White, Cad Lemon, Cad Yellow Deep, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Permanent Red, Alizarin, and Transparent Oxide Red.
Starting with the blues. It's arguable which is warmer or cooler ; Ultramarine or Prussian. I just think of them as reddish blue and greenish blue. The black is my low-chroma blue. I don't think of it as black, and that's key.
My yellows; If I'm painting en plein air, I typically carry only Cad Lemon, and mix a warm yellow by adding a little bit of Transparent Oxide Red to it. But for this painting, I'm using some tube yellows to speed things up. Cad Lemon is my cool yellow, Cad Yellow Deep is my warm, Yellow ochre is my low chroma, and Raw Sienna is my warm low value. The sienna is easily mixed but again, it's just a time saver.
My reds; Permanent Red is my warm, Alizarin is my cool, and Transparent Oxide Red is my low chroma. I haven't touched Alizarin at all for this painting, but I like to have it out so I can compare.
Now talking about how to mix colors could take up volumes and I'm not prepared to do that, but I'd like to share with you a couple of strategies which will help you if you are having trouble with color harmonies. We'll have to get into theories at some other time.
This is my palette. It's a 16 x 20 glass surface, and I have 11 tube colors on it. It's an expanded primaries palette - basically, it has a warm, a cool, and a low chroma color for each of the three primaries. (Except the yellows, of which I have four. But I'll explain that in a minute)
Clockwise from bottom left; Ultramarine, Prussian, Ivory Black, Titanium White, Cad Lemon, Cad Yellow Deep, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Permanent Red, Alizarin, and Transparent Oxide Red.
Starting with the blues. It's arguable which is warmer or cooler ; Ultramarine or Prussian. I just think of them as reddish blue and greenish blue. The black is my low-chroma blue. I don't think of it as black, and that's key.
My yellows; If I'm painting en plein air, I typically carry only Cad Lemon, and mix a warm yellow by adding a little bit of Transparent Oxide Red to it. But for this painting, I'm using some tube yellows to speed things up. Cad Lemon is my cool yellow, Cad Yellow Deep is my warm, Yellow ochre is my low chroma, and Raw Sienna is my warm low value. The sienna is easily mixed but again, it's just a time saver.
My reds; Permanent Red is my warm, Alizarin is my cool, and Transparent Oxide Red is my low chroma. I haven't touched Alizarin at all for this painting, but I like to have it out so I can compare.
Now talking about how to mix colors could take up volumes and I'm not prepared to do that, but I'd like to share with you a couple of strategies which will help you if you are having trouble with color harmonies. We'll have to get into theories at some other time.
First, mix closely related colors next to each other. For example, light and shadow colors of a shared surface. Color is contextual so if you mix the light side and the shadow side away from each other, you can't really compare the two. You may easily end up with two isolated colors without any relationship to tie them together. Here, 1 and 2 are closely related, and 3and 4 are closely related. Now, separating light and shadow values clearly is absolutely essential to getting a consistent feel of light and shadow in a painting, BUT! they need to be related, so I like to mixing both colors from the same puddle. Or one from the other. This way you are guaranteed a common denominator. Just make sure the values are sufficiently apart, and be mindful of temperatures; warm light / cool shadows, etc.
Along similar lines of thinking, mixing each new color or color variation from something you've already mixed is a good way to maintain harmony. As you can see by following the arrows, every time I needed a new color, I started with something else.
Here's another path. These are examples of colors that are pretty similar, but they need not be limited to close colors. In fact, you can mixing the color of the wall (pale yellow) by starting with the blue of the sky and pushing it toward pale yellow. That's pretty much how I get the colors I get on my paintings.
OK, the break is over. Back to work! I'm working on the upper portion of the painting today; mainly, layering more thick paint on it and pushing it around. The roof is getting pretty thick.
It's like frosting!
See the subtle value changes as the form turns?
Some reflected light under the roof - just hints. Not rendered.
And this is where we are now. I am going to set it aside for a day or two and let it dry completely before doing more work on it. I need some mental distance! I just hope that I remembered to mix Liquin in every color... or I'll have to hang this painting wet and unfinished!
13 comments:
Thanks for taking the time to write this, with great illustrations! I find your addition of a low chroma version of each hue very interesting.
Great posting as usual, hard enough to do the painting without recording it step by step. But we love it, thanks for all the hard work.
Wow! Thank you Terry for writing one of the most interesting and informative blog posts I have ever seen. Your work is beautiful. I am so happy that I found your site through a write-up of the new book, in which your work is featured, Landscape Painting. I, too have never seen the addition of a low chroma hue to a painting palette.Interesting idea. Thank you again!
You're welcome, and thanks for reading, Ed, Mike and Loriann~
The low-chroma bit is pretty useful for painting muted, tonalist paintings. When I'm outside, even if I am painting tonally, I typically use a different system. A simpler primaries palette, and pre mix a few greys at different values (one light, one medium) and use those to control chroma. More on that stuff in the near future!
Wow! Great painting, great step-by-steps, and great palette lessons! This question may have already come up and answered: How many days into this sucker, and what is the average amount of daily painting time, not including gaps?
Didn't you at one time (or two) accuse me of taking on difficult structures? Do you live in a glass house?
David, six days so far, and total 45 or 50 hours.
Mine is a plexiglass house :-) Unlike your trussed steel bridges, I only have one vanishing point, and even that's only for the lines on the ground.
Besides, I'm using a grid and drawing from a 2D reference. Not nearly as difficult as drawing a complex structure from observation, in 3 point perspective. Not even close!
good explanation of your palette. The low chroma concept I don't understand very well, may be because my English is very poor or that I never was expose to it.Could you explain it in a more basic way?. the painting is coming good, and thanks for the demonstration is so interesting.
Thanks Jesus~ I'll be happy to get into the low chroma thing. I'll do a post on it in the near future :-)
Terry, thankyou very much for this little palette lesson, it is so helpful, and very kind of you to take the time to write about it. Yesterday I put to use your info aboug mixing light and shade tones next to one another on the palette ...it worked like a charm to keep them related!! Thankyou for your wonderful tips. By the way your paintings are just AWESOME. You will probably have a sell out at the show. Hope it goes well.
Hi Sally, I am so glad this was helpful in a very practical sense! I'll post other tips soon~
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this information! Next weekend, I'll have to try all of this and try to make a sample board.
Terry,
I appreciate all of your blogs ; the palette discussion was great, many thanks. Putting this together can't be easy!
This whole series on this painting has been extremely interesting to me and very useful. Thanks for doing such a great series - it's almost like taking a class.
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