Limited Palette – What colors does that guy in Idaho use?
March 28, 2010
Cover of workshop booklet
There’s been an interruption in my intended flow of weekly posts because I became engrossed in writing a 21 page booklet for my workshop students. I gave a workshop entitled Plein Air-The Art of Study to a group at Indian Rocks Beach Art Center in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. The booklet was well received and I was able to distribute a few extras to my weekly class at Suntan in St. Pete Beach, Florida. I amended the booklet’s history section this morning to include more information on French Impressionism. I am giving a workshop on painting the impressionist landscape March 29-31, in Boca Grande, Florida. Between the booklet and the workshops I let the blogs slide.
from workshop - a guy named Michel!
from workshop - a woman named Randel!
We were in the middle of thread on How to Paint Water when I left off. I’ll return to that thread in the next post. Meanwhile, a reader commented on an older post about my experiences in Idaho at Scott Christensen’s workshops. She asked specifically if I would tell her what colors are used on the limited palette espoused in those workshops. So I thought I would talk a little about limited palette, reveal what colors were used and plug that manufacturer.
The point of painting with a limited palette is that it simplifies the mixing process. For example, if one wants to darken a specific mixture, his/her choices for doing so are limited. In the case of the three color palette like we used in Idaho, blue is the darkest color. So if I wanted to darken my red, blue was the only option because it was the only color on the palette which was darker. Likewise if I wanted to lighten the red, options were limited because yellow and white were the only colors available that were lighter. Most mixtures become a combination of all three plus white with a single color dominating. Skillful use of the primaries to create secondaries and neutrals is the key to using this palette. The palette inherently promotes the development of that skill. The skill in turn becomes a strength whether the artists chooses to continue using a limited palette or not.
me in Victor, Idaho
It should be obvious that with so few colors on the palette it is impossible to match our subject tone for tone. In fact it’s so far out of the question that we are forced into painting relationships, one mass to another, or within a given mass. I call this sensitivity training because it teaches us to be sensitive to changes in temperature and value. Thinking in relationships may sound something like this: A blue sky, at it’s apex, is redder and darker than it is half way down to the horizon where it is greener and lighter. I may also sound like this: Shadows on the foreground trees are darker and warmer than the shadows on the distant trees which are lighter and cooler(bluer). Basically relationships are comparisons in value, color temperature and color intensity.
Benefits to using a limited palette include the inherent color harmony due to the fact that most mixtures contain all the colors on the palette in varying amounts; and enhance expressiveness because of the shift from copying to painting relationships.
A three color palette can vary from artist to artist. Anders Zorn is said to have used black, venetian red and yellow ochre as his limited palette. A key consideration for choosing which three colors to use is value. You want three colors with three different values (dark, medium and light). That was true about Zorn’s palette and true about the Christensen palette too. The colors used for the Idaho workshops, which I still use, are Ultramarine Blue, Permanent Bright Red and Cad Yellow Lemon made by Vasari. They are handcrafted and of very good quality. They stay open and useful on the palette for days without skinning over. I like the Permanent Bright Red more than any other color I have used. It is bright, rich and warm but not too warm.
One final note: I still consider my self a practitioner of the limited palette although I have added colors. I now include a cool red (Ruby Violet-Vasari), and a second blue. Currently my second blue is actually Viridian (a cool green) but it could just as easily be Prussian Blue, Thalo Blue or Thalo Green. This is to create an extra level of variety in my cool mixtures, especially greens. On occasion I also use the tubed grays that Vasari makes for Scott Christensen. There’s another topic for an article if anyone is interested.
How To Paint Water – Part II
March 11, 2010
Me on a blue run called "Maverick"
I haven’t posted in almost two weeks because I was on vacation with my wife, snowboarding in western Colorado. We went to small, largely uncommercialized, resort called Powderhorn which is on the edge of the Grand Mesa not far from Grand Junction. I like snowboarding because those who do it well (not me) seem to possess a casual elegance when they “ride”. It’s a disposition that reminds me of the “relaxed intensity” I perceive when watching good painters work. Both are states of mind which afford the ability to respond to the subject with spontaneity. Snowboarder to mountain and painter to landscape, model or setup.
Last time I started explaining some of the things I’ve learned about painting water. I mentioned three major factors which contribute to the colors we see in water, especially shallow water. Let’s pick up where we left off.
We said that the color of what’s underneath the water (the bottom), the color of the water column itself and the color of what’s above the water (the sky), all contribute to what we see in a body of water. I posted an Antoine Bouvard painting of the Venice backwaters and said that I thought his method was to paint a midtone first, grading it darker to lighter from foreground to back, let it dry then glaze and scumble lights and darks on top.
Study - Black Mangroves
Here’s another method which I have employed with good results, both in the field and in the studio. Based on observation I decide what colors I think I am seeing in the water. Also based on observation, I decide which are attributable to the bottom, the water column and the sky. (It’s also important to take note of any colors attributable to reflections of trees, boats, birds, buildings and etc. We’ll talk about those in a separate post). Notice I used the phrase “colors I think I see”. That’s to emphasize the importance of trusting your own judgment. No two sets of eyes are exactly the same. I premix the colors I think I see, side by side on the palette observing their relative values and harmony prior to placing them on the canvas. In still water, the bottom color is usually darkest, followed by the water column and then the above color. I then proceed to paint the area in successive layers, wet into wet, bottom color first, above color last. The secret to this approach is a series of “Z” shaped brushstrokes, superimposed upon each other, whereby the “Z” flattens in the background and expands in the foreground. This approach works well for relatively still water and especially when those areas are small compared to the overall size of the painting.
"z" stroke...okay so my photoshop skills need work, but you get the idea
This is a technique borrowed from the paintings of Emile A. Gruppe, who was a prolific, one shot painter of marine scenes in Gloucester, Maine during the mid to late 20th century.
This thead on painting water should continue for a few weeks. I want to cover topics such as reflections and waves, too. In the course of doing that I’ll introduce you to more of my historical favorites.
