Tutorials |
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Color mixing with the 'Traditional Palette' |
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| This is called the 'Traditional Palette' because these particular pigments have been around and in use for centuries, and you
can make any color in the rainbow from them with very simple mixing. Read this even if you are a digital artist because all color theory is based on this palette, and it simplifies things to know how that came about and how it addresses our vision and application. All traditional media, whether paints, colored pencils, etc are made from the same materials, and those are pretty much some kind of dirt. Some of the dirt is used 'raw' and some is 'burnt' to make it darker. Dirt being what it is; minerals, these molecules can be made in a lab or mixer from those compounds, or they can be dug up from areas concentrated with the same chemical composition. These are both called PURE PIGMENTS because they don't have other enhancers added in. This is important later, so keep it in mind. Of course some minerals that work nicely in an oil medium behave poorly in water, or wax for pencils; so there is a little variation, but most of the materials for the traditional palette are the same no matter which form they come in. And the substitutes, when necessary, are almost always very similar (in behavior for mixing). 1. Pure pigments are usually lightfast. This means that the material is less susceptible to fading. Not completely, and some fade faster, but these traditional pure pigments are usually as good as things get. 2. Pure pigments are usually inert; that is, they won't turn pink in 90 days. There are a few chemical compositions to avoid, but for the most part they are stable. 3. Pure pigments are strong. If you add them in ANY quantity to a mix or medium, their influence is apparent and predictable. 4. Pure pigments in the limited traditional palette can be combined to make ANY color. 5. Digital color pickers are based on the pure pigment system of colors and their mixing results. When buying materials and setting up your palette, you will need this list of pigment names. (and these names are old, usually stemming from a traditional location where the pigment was once made) and you need to read the container carefully. If it says 'HUE' that is not a pure pigment. It looks the same, but it will NOT mix or thin predictably. The following names are for oil paints, and other types (watercolor for example) will have a few different names; BUT they will be the same general color. Check in a book or look for a likely cross-reference, or if all else fails, choose something of the same color that has a high pigment concentration. |
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The Traditional Pigments |
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You will note that each basic color comes in two's. There will be a dark red, and a bright red. Or a dark green and a
light green. These have nothing to do with more added white or yellow to make them lighter. If you were to thin these pure
colors out to almost nothing with a clear medium, they would STILL be a dark green and a light green.
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| There IS no black. Packaged Black colors are usually made from concentrations of dark colors, and their ingredients will ruin
your color mixing. For example, a black with a high concentration of dark green in even the smallest amounts will give all
your mixes a hideous green tint or neutralize all your reds. There is more about making your own black later. More about white at the bottom. |
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Pure Color |
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| With the above list you can make any color of the rainbow by mixing two or three colors together plus a little chromatic
toner. It is IMPORTANT to use as few pigments as possible to mix a color because: We all know that the visual color spectrum
is dependent on light rays bouncing around. Pure pigments are strong because they persist in bouncing light a certain way, and
this is dependent on the shape of their molecules. Since pure pigments don't have a lot of other impurities, the surface of
all these alike molecules together bounces a very stable and strong group of alike light rays. Once you add another pigment,
those different light rays run into each other and make a third color.
BUT WHAT'S ALSO IMPORTANT is that the concentration of both substances are spread out twice as much, -so the strength of both colors is only half as much as before. Once you combine more than three colors, the density of any particular molecule has been spread out too much, and instead of all those light rays being directed in a group, they are now going all over the room. This is another reason not to use hues; because they are already made from several pigments mixed plus white. Make yourself a test: Pick a pure pigment color, and smear it on some white paper. Then make the same color by mixing a bunch of the other pigments together. Smear it on the paper next to the pure one. Now tape them to the wall and walk back as far as you can. You will see that the pure pigment is MANY TIMES as bright and clear as the mixed color. |
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Reflectivity |
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| Note: this is difficult to address digitally; more about it in the digital section. Reflection of light (as well as color) depends on several things, some will be covered later; this is just about pigment reflection. Pigments come in two types; the dark transparent pigments are sort of slimy or jelly-like and behave like wood stain. The bright reflective pigments are stiff and clay-like and behave more like chalk (in dried watercolors or pencils the dark transparent are very hard and in water they are extremely strong. The bright reflective colors are grainier and scratchy). This is because the clay-like pigments have large rough molecules with many reflective surfaces, and the dark staining pigments have smaller, rounder molecules which penetrate surfaces more, and don't reflect as much light. This will be very important later in the discussion about developing depth in a painting; but for now you should know that the entire 'light' pigment list above consists of the reflective, stiff pigments, and the 'dark' list are all the slimy staining pigments. The only exception is yellow, which is reversed. About yellow: Pure Yellow Ochre pigment looks somewhat dark; about the color of brass. It is just about the stiffest pigment on the list; very claylike, and that means it reflects light more than all the other pigments. Try putting a layer of yellow ochre and cadmium yellow side by side on a sheet of paper, taping it to the wall, and walking VERY far away. You will notice that the bright Cadmium yellow virtually disappears while the Ochre yellow can be seen clearly for some distance. Also: Yellow Ochre is virtually the only yellow that has good lightfast tendencies; all other yellows fade quite rapidly. And the other yellows don't have very good tinting strength compared to yellow ochre because they are very transparent and they sort of disappear into a mix without influencing it well. Yellow Ochre has a great amount of body and has good mixing influence. And if you are ever going to reproduce your artwork in print; printing ink doesn't pick up the other yellows well, and light yellow inks fade very rapidly. So, you should reserve cadmium and lemon yellow for small details, and use Yellow Ochre predominantly for both your light and dark yellows. But try not to mix it with white, which deadens it (more about that in the 'white' section). |
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Mixing |
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| Now, break out your pigments and start mixing them to create some colors. The best thing to do is have a lot of paper, canvas or whitewashed cardboard. You'll want to see these after they dry, so have enough room to lay out samples or groups of dabs. Lay out a sampling of your colors side by side with all the darks on one side and their corresponding lights on the other. Start with one color. Then add a dab of the next color. And then repeat with the first color and add a dab of the second. Go all the way through the row of colors. Then start over with the second row, etcetera, so that you mix every color with all the rest. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This is part of a mixing sheet using chalk materials This is a mixing sheet using oil pastels |
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| You will notice when you are done that the stiff bright pigments, when mixed with many of the other stiff bright pigments;
become greyish or ugly. And the slimy dark pigments when mixed with other dark pigments become really inky. The mixing seems
to work somewhat the best when crossing the rows rather than staying within them. The easiest way to mix in three's is to
first pick the basic body color (for example, for a color that is mostly ORANGE, you would start with Burnt Sienna, or Cadmium
Red, or Raw Sienna) then add some of an obvious color to get there (like yellow ) then use a small amount of one of the others
to adjust it precisely. You will find out that you can arrive at any given same color with at least four different mixing
combinations. The mixing combination you would choose from these different mixes of the same color will depends on if you need that area to reflect light (which makes it brighter and seems to lie HIGHER on the surface) or if you want it to absorb light (and appear darker and deeper in the surface). When you let your samples dry, tape them to the wall and walk far back. You will see that the colors mixed from mostly the stiff reflective pigments appear closer and brighter, and the colors mixed mostly from the staining pigments appear less colored and further away. EVEN if they are the same hue. |
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Chromatics |
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| Now Pick
a couple of colors you have mixed. Then separate each into three parts. Add some Burnt Umber to
one side, some Raw Umber to the other side, and keep the middle as it was.
(If you are using a dry medium like colored pencil, digital, or pastel; brush a thin layer of each
pigment, layering them over each other and let the layers mix into the resulting mixed color). See how with the same original
color, you now have three saturations: The original is the most saturated. The one with Raw umber is
desaturated and appears cooler. The third with Burnt Umber is warmer but less bright. This gives you a cross section of one color that is
chromatically differentiated. It is similar to the idea of hue, saturation, and brightness, but the color is richer. It HAS NOT
been diluted with black or white. It is 100% color.
The key to color mixing is managing how to make any given color warm or cool. Mixing too many colors to accomplish this, or |
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| Next break out some white (any kind) and mix some gradations from darker to lighter with each of the three tonal mixes you made above. Presto! You have just mastered the extremely difficult color theory task of the dreaded chromatic greys. The less said the better; now that you understand chromatic greys (it's just the two Umbers) you can stop twisting your brain over it and move on. If you ever have to deal with it again, repeat the task above before you start thinking about it. You can paint monochromatic or duotone contrast studies with chromatic greys, or you can use them for painting as a limited palette; they make beautiful felt-like and delicate color compositions. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Common Mixes |
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| Back to mixing colors; remember, just mix two or three together. Notice that you always seem to need less quantity when using
the dark staining pigments because they are stronger. Always start with your lightest color; because it takes a LOT of a light
color to lighten a mix, but a little of a dark color to darken a mix. Some common mixes: Cool black: Ultramarine Blue + Raw Umber Warm black: Ultramarine Blue + Burnt Umber Purple: Ultramarine Blue + Alizarin crimson Wine colored red: two parts Alizarin crimson + part Ultramarine Blue + one to two parts Yellow Ochre Flesh tone: Burnt Sienna + Yellow Ochre + White. Add a little Cadmium red for flush, or a little sap green for pallor. |
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Skip using Black |
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| More about black and contrast. Think of black as a non-color. Think of it as a hole in your canvas or dirt on the objects in your painting. Start experimenting by using other colors in place of black. The easiest colors are the ones in the end of the spectrum (reds) so anything in the family of burnt Sienna, Purple, etc. works easily. Raw Umber is another easy choice that looks good with almost anything, and works beautifully for landscapes and watery things. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Detailed Tonal Study |
Quick Sketch Tonal Study |
Photo Reference Tonal Study |
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| It's more important to solve how to deal with the contrast before you start a painting by first doing a tonal study, instead of adding contrast with dark or black paint later. I do a tonal study almost every time. You can do black and white pencil or charcoal renderings. You can do monochromatic oil or watercolor sketches, you can do chromatic grey paintings or pastel studies. I have a lazy friend who uses a black and white Polaroid camera. What you want to establish is where your lightest places are, where your darkest places are, and where the mid-tones are. With the open canvas method, we'll be mostly leaving the lightest areas uncovered. The mid tones will have the strongest colors, and the darkest places you can either paint with a dark color (but thinly, transparent) or with cool colors in lighter tones. But you want to try and avoid adding contrast by shading with black or blackening your pigments. Instead, use the paints and the colors. But don't guess or you'll be adjusting forever. Do a study first. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Other Pigment Notes |
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| The color of pigments will vary from brand to
brand, and that's ok. I keep a spare sketchbook for paint swabs. Whenever I
visit other artists or attend a class I take dabs down into the book. There are a few colors that seem particularly nice with
some brands. Also the whites yellow quickly in the closed book and I can see how this affects different brands and white
compounds. More about whites: White materials always lie to you. Over time almost all white materials become transparent. And I don't mean a little. Cotton-ball white will look like dirty saran wrap in a few years. Second is that it dulls colors by coating the molecules, and those pure pigments can no longer get half their light rays out. And third, almost all whites turn yellow as they age. Lead White; which is obviously very toxic and hard to find, and is reactive with some other pigments, is one of the only stable whites that have some covering power. When you do find it, it will be invariably old and requires a lot of stirring. Lead white is safe to use if: You never sand it after it dries. Keep it off your skin. Don't let solvent mixed with it get around to other surfaces. You will find that you still will need very thick coats to achieve opacity. It has a lovely satiny surface when dry -it doesn't reflect nearly as much as Gesso). It is not truly a bright white; more like eggshell. To dispose of turpentine with lead white in it, let the can stay open until it evaporates, then take the dried can to a disposal facility (most tire garages will take it since they dispose of lead wheel weights); DON'T clean out the can, and DON'T throw it in the trash. Whites yellow because of the oil mixed in them. Whites are brittle and crack. All paint layers near the top of the canvas crack more than those on the bottom, so try to plan most of your white layers at the Bottom of your paint layers. White is very bad for painting top layers because of both the transparency and the cracking problems. Stand oil and/or polymerized linseed oil is the least prone to cracking, and so is the best for mixing with white, But, stand oil has a yellow hue, so most paint manufacturers mix there whites with walnut or safflower oil so that the paint will be brighter out of the tube. Don't be fooled! The white will yellow anyway, so paint with the yellow stuff to begin with so at least you can control how it looks.
www.jessbates.com |
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