Less is More
I am a stickler for a limited palette. I love color, and I’m hard pressed to decide on a particular favorite. So, when buying tubes of paint, I try to have one of everything. Nonetheless, I don’t attempt to use every color each time I paint. That sounds obvious right? But time and time again, I have seen someone struggling as his or her painting progresses, and they frantically begin adding more and more colors. Colors mix, overlap, and create mud when conscious decisions aren’t made as to which ones will best serve that particular painting.
Here’s an analogy. I like pie. A lot. I like lemon, apple, chocolate, pecan, strawberry, coconut cream, and especially raspberry. But I am not about to bake a pie using all of these wonderful ingredients. It would be a complete disaster, and most likely not be very appealing, even to my daughter, who eats ketchup on pancakes. Limiting your ingredients allows the maximum enhancement of flavors within a dish.
Just the same when painting. Here’s what I do. I look at my subject matter or reference photo, and plan a color chart prior to painting, which takes experimentation. I always have three primaries, and then sometimes a few others. I try to limit myself to six colors, but sometimes I will go as far as eight if I am attempting something with a great deal of color in it. I also try to vary it up, making sure I am not getting stuck using my tried-and-true “favorites” in every composition.
I paint a little swatch on my canvas or paper, and then write down what I used to create that hue. I love to use my charts later on to help me with future paintings! I try to go for about a 50/50 ratio, and I notate if I do otherwise. I also make sure that I can create my values (shadow colors) from the selected colors.
I don’t add black or payne’s grey to my palettes, because similar darks and neutrals can be created out of rich, luminous color, resulting in a more vibrant painting. It also makes your work more cohesive. If your shadow values or black backgrounds have been created out of the colors you used to create the painting, then those sections of the work will better correspond to the rest of the painting.
There is no need for cookie cutter approaches to painting. I don’t mix up large pots of colors in advance that are meant to complete the entire piece. Instead, I mix up enough to do whatever I’m tackling at the moment, and remix sporadically throughout the painting. Sometimes people fear they won’t get the same color when doing this. It won’t be exactly the same, but that’s okay, it creates depth. Honestly it’s truer to life, as nothing in this life is the same from one moment to the next, and your subject matter is no different.
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:48 am
i find making up a color chart ahead of time helps avoid the “mud” effect and helps keep the colors cohesive.