In a never-ending pursuit of quickly and accurately matching colors using only 3 or 4 tube colors + black & white, I did a series of rapid landscapes to share with some painting buddies and a more experienced guru, Bernie Dellario.
Bernie Dellario tasked our zoom-based art group with painting a fairly complicated scene using only a palette knife. The idea was to force ourselves to simplify. I selected a photo that I’d taken at a Nats night game, courtesy of friends Doug and Toni. I loved the vibrant colors, the dramatic lighting, the sharp green grass, the movement of the crowd and vendors. . . .
Here’s the painting and references. A note for composition buffs: For a bit of extra drama and clarity, I combined positions of orange hands from the two photos. I also omitted the wonderful yellow foul marker because it would been too much for a small square painting. . . . Maybe I’ll do a larger version some time so I can add that color into the mix.
I did a study of some of my African violets yesterday, using a ‘split primary’ color palette (warm and cool red, yellow and blue tube colors + white). I found it virtually impossible to capture the near neon magenta of the flowers, but did my best with what I had, rather than digging for another tube color.
Our most recent Ed Praybe session called for considering types of compositions ~~ various ways to position the components of the painting so as to produce an intended effect on the viewer. We each selected two objects and then experimented moving them around to see how many different ‘stable’ or ‘dynamic’ compositions we could produce. We then painted one of them, using our primary triad of yellow, red and blue.
For homework, we had to paint three objects into a stable composition and then reposition them and paint a dynamic composition. Still using the primary triad color scheme.
Recently our class with Ed Praybe focused on painting a wide range of hues using only 3 colors – a ‘primary triad’ of red, yellow and blue. As you may remember, I’ve used such severely limited palettes many times, but only in oil paints so far. It was fun to try it with watercolors.
We did a test painting, blending the three colors before applying them to the paper. Our homework was to paint three versions of a still life setup: one monochrome to analyze the value (light and dark) structure of the scene; a second in which we mixed the colors before applying them to the paper; and a third in which we applied single color washes; let them dry completely, and then painted additional single color washes on top. This last technique creates new colors as the several layers combine optically.
Took an online workshop recently from Zoey Frank ~~ ‘self-portraits from observation’. It was weeks long – with almost 300 students (critiqued by five or six assistants). I didn’t get around to finishing the one self-portrait I started – just made a couple of smaller studies . . . before giving up in boredom at my composition.
I’m now taking a watercolor class with Ed Praybe. He tasked us with doing THREE monochromatic self-portraits during one week – facing front & diagonally to each side. Under the short and specific deadline, I produced these three. Warning – it’s impossible to smile AND paint simultaneously, but . . . here they are anyway.
Painters have a wide variety of ‘tube colors’ to use in trying to achieve their desired hues. I’ve got 30 or 40 tubes of almost every color you can imagine, most of them untouched. For quite awhile, I’ve opted to limit the number of tubes I use, challenging myself to mix a broad variety of colors from a handful of basic hues. Painters call this a ‘limited palette’. It lightens the load of what you have to carry around with you and it helps give a unity of color to your painting. Nice attributes.
There’s no specified set of colors for a limited palette. In the past, I’ve typically used a ‘split primary’ group, which includes two versions of each primary color, plus white and maybe black. Each of the two selected primaries ‘bends’ toward a different adjacent secondary color. For instance, cadmium red tends toward orange (yellow), while alizarin crimson tends toward a purple (blue). Blues may include phtalo or cerulean blue which tend toward green (yellow) and ultramarine blue which leans toward purple (red). Split yellows might include cadmium yellow light, which tends green (yellow), and cadmium yellow, which tends toward orange/red.
If you want to mix a bright saturated orange using such a palette, you’d combine cadmium red and cadmium yellow, rather than alizarin red and/or cadmium yellow light – a combo that produces duller, less saturated oranges. And so on.
Here are a few of my paintings using the split primary palette.
More recently, as a result of a zoom class with Bernie Dellario and a number of painting buddies, I’ve been working with an even MORE limited palette — just three primaries + white & a neutral earth red: Hansa yellow; pyrole red; ultramarine blue; transparent red oxide and Titanium white. What a challenge, but I think I’m getting the hang of mixing a broad range of colors from these meager starting points. Here are some recent paintings using this palette.
I just finished an intensive four day workshop with outstanding local artist and teacher, Bernie Dellario. We were expected to make up a ‘color chart’ exploring the ways in which 3 tube colors (yellow, red & blue) + white could mix together to make virtually all the colors you might want.
We also painted ten 3-value monochrome paintings; ten 3-value color paintings; and a plein air painting which we then translated into a larger ‘studio painting’ (hopefully retaining the 3-value structure of the studies). Here’s my 16″ x 20″ studio painting of our cannas, through which we can enjoy our neighbor’s yard.
Here are the initial monochrome and color studies. Note that I included the bushy Joe Pye plant (?) in the black & white study; left it out of the color study; and then re-inserted it in the larger piece. Am glad I did – it’s now my favorite part of the painting!
