Daniel E Greene palette

From the excellent Underpaintings

 
 

MAIN COLORS (outer edge)

1. Flake White*

2. Ivory Black

3. Prussian Blue

4. Raw Sienna

5. Yellow Ochre

6. Naples Yellow

7. Cadmium Yellow Medium

8. Cadmium Red Light

9. Alizarin Crimson

10. Burnt Sienna

11. Raw Umber

12. Burnt Umber

13. Sap Green

14. Pthalo Green

* Greene advises choosing a white that best suits the needs of the artist and the painting.  According to him, whites should be considered either slow-drying (like Zinc White) or fast-drying (Flake White).  Greene uses Flake White (Lead Carbonate) because it dries rapidly and leaves crisp brushstrokes, but to many artists, Flake White is too stiff for comfortable use.  To these artists, Greene recommends adding another white, such as Zinc, Titanium, or Permalba®, to the Flake White (¾ Flake White + ¼ other white).  This mixture will be easier to manipulate.

SKIN-TONE TINTS (color strings - center of palette)

A. Raw Sienna + Cadmium Red Light + White

Add just enough Raw Sienna to the Cadmium Red Light to dull the latter, then add White in steps to create a value string.  These middle tones and lights are useful in cheeks, mouth, chin, ears, etc..

B. Yellow Ochre + White

Add White to Yellow Ochre to create a value string.  The lightest two tints are often used as highlights on the forehead and nose.

C. Yellow Ochre + Burnt Sienna + White

Mix Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna together with this understanding:  too much Burnt Sienna will produce a color which too closely resembles the mixture of Burnt Sienna and White;  too little Burnt Sienna will too closely resemble Yellow Ochre and White.  Find the perfect balance.

D. Burnt Sienna + White

Add White to Burnt Sienna in steps to create a value string.  This mixture is not often used.

E. Raw Umber + White

Add White to Raw Umber in steps to create a value string.  Though the darker tints might be used as shadows, the middle tones and lights are intended for use as "cool" skin tones.

F. Raw Sienna + Black + White

Mix ⅔ Black with ⅓ Raw Sienna, then add White in steps to create a value string.

SHADOW TONES (lower right)

S1. Alizarin Crimson + Sap Green

Mix Alizarin Crimson with very little Sap Green to make a dark reddish brown.  Add Cadmium Yellow Medium in steps to create a value string.

S2. Sap Green + Alizarin Crimson

To Sap Green add a little Alizarin Crimson to create a dark greenish brown (Sepia).  Add Cadmium Yellow Medium in steps to create a value string.

HISTORIC SHADOW TONES (bottom middle)

(These four colors are based on those used by 17th c. Dutch Artists)

a. Raw Umber + Yellow Ochre

Mix very little Yellow Ochre with Raw Umber so that the latter is slightly lightened.

b. Raw Umber + Yellow Ochre + Yellow Ochre

Add more Yellow Ochre to the previous mixture to lighten it another value step.

c. Raw Umber + Yellow Ochre + Burnt Sienna

Create a mixture where all three colors are distributed equally (i.e. ⅓ Raw Umber, ⅓ Yellow Ochre, and ⅓ Burnt Sienna).

d. Raw Umber + Yellow Ochre + Burnt Sienna + Yellow Ochre

To the previous mixture, add more Yellow Ochre so that the amount of Yellow Ochre has been doubled  (i.e. ¼ Raw Umber, ¼ Burnt Sienna, and ½ Yellow Ochre)

Tony Ryder workshop palette list

From Underpaintings

Recommended, especially for beginners, in boldface.

• Titanium White*
• Flake White
• Zinc White
• Brilliant Yellow Light
• Naples Yellow (Winsor & Newton)
• Naples Yellow Green (Rembrandt)
• Naples Yellow Red (Rembrandt)
• Naples Yellow Light*
• Jaune Brilliant* (Winsor & Newton)
• Cadmium Lemon Yellow*
• Cadmium Yellow Medium*
• Cadmium Orange*
• Cadmium Red Medium*
• Brilliant Pink* (Old Holland)
• Alizarin Crimson Permanent* (Winsor & Newton)
• Cobalt Violet or Cobalt Violet Light*
• Cobalt Violet Deep
• Ultramarine Violet*
• Cobalt Blue*
• Ultramarine Blue
• King's Blue
• Cerulean Blue*
• Phthalocyanine Blue
• Phthalocyanine Green
• Cobalt Turquoise
• Viridian*
• Chrome Oxide Green*
• Cadmium Green Light
• Bohemian Green Earth (Schminke-Mussini)
• Sap Green*
• Cinnabar Green
• Yellow Ochre
• Raw Sienna*
• Mars Brown
• Burnt Sienna
• Flesh Ochre (Old Holland)
• Mars Violet
• Deep Ochre* (Old Holland)
• Raw Umber*
• Burnt Umber*
• Payne's Gray
• Ivory Black*

(Currently, Ryder is recommending Old Holland Ochre and Transparent Brown Oxide in addition to the colors listed.  Lead White [Flake or Cremnitz], Naples Yellow, King's Blue, and Phthalocyanine Green have also joined the status of recommended colors.  This makes for 27 suggested colors).

Dan Thompson Damn The Torpedoes Palette

Class notes, Spring 2010.
It starts with cold violets & goes through the color wheel to end up with warm violets.

1) Quinacridone Magenta
2) Permanent Magenta
3) Dioxazine Purple
4) Old Holland Ultramarine Blue Deep
5) Gamblin Cerulean Hue
6) Phthalo Turquoise
7) WN Winsor Emerald
8) Permanent Green Light
9) WN Cadmium Green Pale
10) Old Holland Cadmium Yellow Light
11) WN Indian Yellow
12) Old Holland Cadmium Yellow Deep
13) WN Gold Ochre or Yellow Ochre Pale
14) Raw Sienna--not Gamblin. Blockx "Italian Earth" is ideal.
15) Old Holland Cadmium Yellow Extra Deep
16) Mars Orange (Maimeri Puro, Blockx)
17) Burnt Sienna/Burnt Sienna Deep/Quinacridone Maroon/Quinacridone Brown
18) Old Holland Cadmium Orange
19) Venetian Red/Pompeii Red
20) Napthol Red (instead of Cad Red)
21) Perylene Red
22) Anthraquinone Red (PR177)/Old Holland Burgundy Wine Red (instead of Aliz Crimson)
23) WN Permanent Rose
24) WN Mars Violet Deep
25) The Great Off Note--yesterday's paint scraped off and mixed together
26) Raw Umber (Gamblin fine)

try also: Gamblin Manganese violets, any other violets

Margaret Carter Baumgaertner palette

Tube Paints 
Top Row On Palette: 
Cadmium Yellow
Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Scarlet
Cadmium Red
Quinacridone Rose
Alizarin Crimson
Dioxizine Purple (M Graham)

Cadmium Green Pale (W/N)
Permanent Green Light (W/N)
Sap Green
Viridian
Kings Blue - Rembrandt
Cerulean Blue
Cobalt Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Ivory Black
 
Second Row On Palette:
Stil De Grain Yellow - Rembrandt
Yellow Ochre - Mussini Attish light ochre
Gold Ochre
English Red - (W/N)
Caput Mortum Violet - Rembrandt
Titanium White


Margaret's approach for this portrait in her video is to establish the light side and shadow side with a single color and value and then work on top of that rather than mixing on her palette.

Light Side - foundation: Cad Yellow and a touch of white (Or yellow ochre)

Shadow Side - foundation: Dioxazine Purple w/ white

Then, she adds/layers in cadmium scarlet wet into wet on each side to establish her basic flesh color.

Dani Dawson (an amazing colorist and outstanding painter) was just reviewing the same concept with me: Working the shadows using the colorist approach of establishing the Dioxazine Purple first followed by the other shadow colors (For example - Cad green pale, cad red light, cerulean blue). Following this colorist approach, paintings take on a wonderful pearly feeling in the skin.

Margaret also shows a perfect colorist exercise which is a great lesson for beginning portraiture. Lay out all of the following colors in 3x3 inch blocks next to each other (with a touch of white in each). When you're done - step back and see that they work together as one "color" like a pointillist painting because they are all the same value. Take a moment to really see the overall look of the many colors in a flesh tone.

Alizarin crimson & cadmium yellow light
Yellow Ochre
Quinocridone rose w/ permanent green light
Cadmium scarlet
Dioxazine purple
Cadmium Orange
Ivory black

Charles Reid Flesh

Red  + Yellow + White + Complement

Cadmium Red

+
Cadmium Yellow (Cadmium Yellow Light / Yellow Ochre / Raw Sienna)
+
Titanium White
=
warm areas

To cool, add cerulean blue (light areas) or viridian green (darks)

Variations:
Vary mix: Yellow Ochre in the light, Raw Sienna in the shadow


Light flesh: Titanium White + Cad Red Light + Cad Yellow Pale + Cerulean Blue / Permanent Green Light


More subtle flesh tone: Titanium White + Yellow Ochre + Cad Red + Any Cad Yellow + Cerulean Blue / Permanent Green Light

Darker:  Titanium White + Raw Sienna / Yellow Ochre + Cad Yellow + Viridian / Cobalt Blue / Ultramarine Blue

William Whitaker on flesh painting

from ConceptArt

I’ve been asked how I get my flesh tones – more specifically, Northern European flesh tone. It is mostly a factor of getting some early vital training, working for decades in natural light and from life, and of course endless practice. However, over the past month I’ve been amusing myself by trying to work out a simple basic formula that might help some of you. Today I did a little experimental oil painting and took photos.

My demonstration panel is a piece of 6x8 inch ABS plastic material. I carefully sanded the shiny surface off, then toned it with a little Mars Black thinned with odorless mineral spirit and alkyd resin. I let these panels dry as long as possible.

ABS is far superior to hardboard with acrylic gesso, and if the painting doesn’t work out, I can simply sand it off and paint a new one.

For practice work, I recommend ABS (I get it at a plastic wholesaler), or frosted Mylar, or high quality tracing paper. I did most of my early practice work on tracing paper. It doesn’t need to be prepared and the paint doesn’t soak through.

My medium is simply linseed oil. Nothing else. I keep it in an eyedropper bottle. Walnut oil is another very good oil. I’m not using resins or any fancy mediums currently.

I rubbed the linseed oil over the panel with my fingers. It won’t poison me.


I wanted only the lightest film of oil on the panel, so I followed up the rub-in with a quick wipe with a paper towel.

I added a little linseed oil to some of the stiffer colors. If I do my preparations right, I won’t need to add any additional oil or medium as I paint. My colors are the best I can buy, but I wouldn’t worry too much about paint brands and until you’ve mastered your craft, in fact, I wouldn’t use the most expensive ones.

I mixed the oil into the colors [on glass] using my painting knife, and then transferred the result to my palette.

The colors are:
Titanium White, Ivory Black, Transparent Earth Red (sometimes called Transparent Red Oxide) Raw Umber.

The grey is my special flesh tone I invented to save time. I call it Mary Sauer Flesh Color, after one of my students whose delicate pale flesh inspired it. It consists of Titanium white darkened with Raw Umber, to which I’ve added Terre Verte.

Next is Yellow Ochre, and then a darker flesh color made of Gamblin’s Caucasian Flesh Tone to which I added more Yellow Ochre and a little more Cadmium Red Light. Then follows Gamblin’s Caucasian Flesh Tone. For those of you who cannot get Gamblin Oils, the color is merely Titanium White to which Yellow Ochre has been added until you get a light yellow. Then add tiny bits of Cadmium Red Light and be careful. The red has a lot of tinting power and it’s easy to add too much and make this color too pink.

Next is Cadmium Red Light. I’ve learned to squeeze out very little color when I know I won’t need much of it. Then Permanent Alizarin Crimson, then a little Permanent Sap Green, and finally a little Ultramarine Blue. I don’t think I’ll be using the blue in this demo, so this is just an in case color.

I use old telephone books to wipe my brushes. I got this idea from Ken Davies in his still life painting book from the 1970’s. It’s saved me billions of dollars.

Rather than use my own reference material for this demo, I took advantage of the Internet and cropped and converted a shot to black and white from the mjranum stock photo site on Deviant Art here. http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/gallery/

The figure shots are excellent and large for download and printing. I got it in the Classical Nudes section, and it’s labeled dancers 1. Usually I do head demos, but I thought a torso might be more useful. I don’t need the color, so I made a black and white print. I think there is a whole section on Concept Art featuring useful figure reference sites.

I always try and use the biggest brush I can. I employ a Trekell long filbert #6 here. I think of my drawing as an armature. I try and get the big angles and shapes first. The oiled surface of the panel helps the brush glide. This is easier than drawing with a pencil! I like to work with a very light touch.

 About 45 minutes later, I had the drawing down well enough. My paint consisted of Raw Umber and Transparent Earth Red. Raw Umber is a fast drier and I add it to as many paint mixtures as possible to speed drying.

 

 I mixed Titanium White with a tiny bit of Yellow Ochre for my lightest highlights and put them on. Then I mixed a little of my darker flesh tone into my Mary Sauer Flesh tone and did some quick modeling with it. Then I mixed a background color of white, Raw Umber and Sap Green to give me a nice cool neutral around the figures.

Then I mixed a lighter flesh made of Mary Sauer and Caucasian Flesh Tone. I laid it on and made a few variations by changing the proportions of those two colors. I also mixed a ruddier color from Caucasian Flesh plus a tiny bit of Cadmium Red Light.

I think this is enough to show you where it’s going. Oil paint is much less messy than acrylics and almost as tidy as watercolors. I only rarely clean my brush out in my mineral spirits pot. Usually I just wipe my brush mostly clean with the paint rag I drape over my right thigh as I sit at the easel.

I might take this up in a few days and add a bit more too it. I like translucent/transparent colors and I like brushwork. It’s better if I stop before I think I should so as not to wreck the good parts. If I were to do one more thing to this demo, it would be to lighten most of the darker values a little.

Materials:

ABS
Linseed oil in eyedropper bottle!
Titanium White
Ivory Black (Vasari)

Transparent Earth Red (sometimes called Transparent Red Oxide)  
Raw Umber
Mary Sauer Flesh Color: Titanium white + Raw Umber + Terre Verte
Yellow Ochre (Vasari)
Gamblin’s Caucasian Flesh Tone
Cadmium Red Light 
Permanent Alizarin Crimson 
Permanent Sap Green (Gamblin)
Ultramarine Blue

Dos Santos on Bouguereau

[...] This is Bouguereau's palette as best experts can tell from x-rays, chemical analysis, and notes.
Of course, some colors changed over the course of his career, but this is a good approximation of those he used most frequently.

Bouguereau's Palette:
• Naples Yellow (lead antimoniate)
• Yellow-Ochre
• Chrome Yellow, dark
• Viridian
• Cobalt Blue
• White Lead
• Light Vermilion
• Chinese Vermilion
• Mars Brown (iron oxide); this available from Lefranc & Bourgeois
• Van Dyck Brown
• Burnt Sienna
• Ivory Black
• Bitumen
• Genuine Rose Madder, dark

As for your chalkiness issue...
try thinking of white as a cool color.
Thus, you need to use it sparingly in the highlight.
try to favor more yellow, or at the very least surround the white with warm colors so it takes on their appearance.
The highlights in the face you mentioned are very similar to a color I use called Nickel Titanium Yellow Light by Rembrandt.
Try it.
I use it as a substitute for white in the warm areas so as to keep them warm.
Then if I need it, I bump it up to white.

* [Elwell: That Rembrandt color Dan mentioned is just zinc white with a touch of bismuth yellow (PW4, PY184). It's convenient, but you could mix your own with any white and high chroma yellow, like a cad or hansa lt. When people talk about using higher chroma pigments in the lights, that's exactly what they mean. The thing to remember is that it just takes a smidge to tint the white.]

Flesh II

John De La Vega:

For fair light skin tones, especially in the lighter areas, I DO NOT recommend using any of the Cad Reds, including Vermillion. The reason is that the Cads do not really mix well with white. The cads are great as modifiers in those subtle mixtures for transition areas where the form / light changes very delicately, on the smallish planes, and for glazes and feathery scumbles (ah, transitions and edges, one of the main themes of my next book, which I seem to be writing right here).

Nothing wrong with a base of some yellow and some red for the light skin which we can then modify at will depending upon illumination, skin color, etc. The red I use is Rose, and the yellow I use is Naples Deep. A delightful, smiling woman in one of my last workshops said "I only use Rose when I paint flowers'. Rose and Naples, of course, already have some white in them, and they mix beautifully together and with white and other yellows and reds, as long as they are together to begin with. As anybody who paints knows, mixing goes on constantly. The trick is to keep color clean by smart and controlled mixing strategies. Best Rose: Old Holland Schveningen Rose Deep (expensive). Best Naples Yellow Deep (you guessed it): Old Holland (not expensive). A beautiful, not expensive Rose is Rowney Rose, made by Daler-Rowney. Unless you happen to be painting in Bangladesh, and ran out of Old Holland Naples Deep, why not use the best?

I also DO NOT recommend the use of Burnt Umber, or any browns for that matter (with the exception of Burnt Sienna, judiciously), on ANY part of the skin, including shadows. Even in those 'dead' shadows and 'dead' middle tones (if there is such a thing, which I suppose depends on the blimey light or, our capacity to see how light creates movement and vibration even in the shadows), using browns such as Burnt Umber is a recipe to end up with Henry's worst mud.

We should also remember that 'painting what we see' in the way of color is NOT always the best artistic strategy, no matter how realistically we wish to paint, especially in the first stages of the painting. One of the most important things I learned from the great Nelson Shanks is "Start Bright! (high chroma, even on the garish side)". As subtle modeling and refining progresses, color will find its way to reality, if 'local' color, vibrant or dull, is what you're intent on seeing and painting

I mix my browns with Rose, Alizarin (or Carmin Lake, a better Old Holland Alizarin) and bright or not so bright yellowish Greens, even an occasional smidget of Ultramarine, Cobalt, Magenta (I highly recommend Maimieri Puro Verzino Violet, a fabulous, rich, inexpensive Magenta ), or Dioxazine Mauve, adding cads and other reds as needed, for maximum VIBRANCY in the shadows. If there is a formula for color, whether on flesh, an apple, or a sunset, the recipe is simple:

MAKE IT VIBRATE

VIBRATION is, after all, in the very nature of light and, come to think of it, in the very nature of form itself(eternal dance of the atoms and molecules). Nobody understood this better than the Impressionists. They changed our vision and how we deal with color as painters and art lovers forever.

Next chapter: Ah, those middle tones! or, as my friend and fellow Sorolla lover the late Adrian Hernandez, a wonderful pastellist, once remarked as he looked at one of my pastels: "How to you make those darn things (the middle tones) look light and dark at the same time?"

Fair Skin Light Areas = Reddish Whites or Yellowish Whites.
Red = Rose (Old Holland Schveningen Rose Deep or Daler-Rowney Rowney Rose)
Yellow = Naples Yellow Deep (Old Holland Naples Yellow Deep)


Mix browns from Reds + Greens/Blues/Magenta--NOT Burnt Umber!
(judicious use of Burnt Sienna okay)

Fair Skin Shadow Areas = Reds + Yellowish Greens + Blue/Purple as needed
Reds:
Old Holland Schveningen Rose Deep
Alizarin Crimson (Old Holland Crimson Lake)
Old Holland Carmine Lake (better Alizarin)
Greens:
yellowish greens
Tints:
Ultramarine
Cobalt
Magenta (Maimieri Puro Verzino Violet; OH Magenta)
Old Holland Dioxazine Mauve (or less-$ dioxazine purple)



Old Holland Schveningen Rose Deep
Old Holland Naples Yellow Deep
Old Holland Carmine Lake
Maimieri Puro Verzino Violet

Flesh

John de la Vega:

flesh tones:

Don't eliminate cad orange, just keep it on the palette for one of its roles: in the flesh, as a "brightening / warming modifier". Ultramarine is the best blue modifier for the flesh (which you appear to use), but of course, as everything else, it has to be observed and mixed carefully in total context with the color of the light on the form.

Your 'orangy skin' on the painting doesn't bother me at all precisely because of the light context, even if, strictly speaking, it's not 100% 'true' to (yes, Karin, I got it) 'Caucasian baby skin' in that PARTICULAR lighting situation. But it's close enough, in my view, to be perfectly acceptable.

You may also try Grumbacher Pre-tested Cobalt Rose (Cobalt Violet Light), that's how the color is designated, a very weak light reddish purple that mixes wonderfully with, say, the Old Holland Naples Yellow Deep (a must for the flesh) to give you exquisite flesh tones with just the right amount of cool.


Ultramarine Blue
Old Holland Naples Yellow Deep
Grumbacher Pre-tested Cobalt Rose