CLASS FOUR

Limited Palettes And Triads

Do you go to the paint store and stand mesmerized in front of the seemingly infinite colors of paint on the shelves?  Do you have a stash of pretty paint colors with names like Caucasian Skin, Brilliant Yellow, Radiant Blue, Turquoise Lake? Do you have little piles of these “colors with pretty names” scattered all over your palette? AND, Do the colors in your paintings sometimes “get out of hand” – like too many cooks in the soup? 

If any of these ring true (and even if they don't), you may want to practice Limiting Your Palette.

Many people think that more colors will give them more options and help in their color mixing ability, however, typically the opposite is true. More colors tend to confuse the artist and especially an inexperienced one.

That being said, it’s important to have the right colors for the job. We talked about Modern vs Mineral pigments both in my first e-Course as well as the first class above in this course. It is true that you absolutely need certain colors to give you certain effects, but you don't need every color from your favorite Art Store on your palette at the same time.

Let’s look at four very different limited palettes that you might explore in your work. Each of these is based on a Triad (three colors evenly spaced around the color wheel) of Primaries: Red, Blue and Yellow, but we change up what we use for each Primary color.

Cadmium Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarine Crimson (Traditional Triad)

This may be the most common and basic limited palette Triad. Instead of Cadmium Yellow Light, you could also use Cadmium Yellow Medium, or even Yellow Ochre. These three colors plus black and white will give you a HUGE range of color options as you can see in the examples to the right. All of these paintings were done with only these three colors plus black and white. Click on any image to view larger.

Quinacridone Red, Phthalo Blue, Hansa Yellow Light (Modern Triad)

Modern colors have more Chroma and Intensity than their traditional counterparts. Using this modern palette will give you beautiful vibrant colors. They can also be gorgeous in High Key paintings (paintings on the lighter side of the value scale) as the tinting strength of Modern pigments is very high. This means that when you add white, the color still stays relatively strong.  This will be a fun one to try if you like vibrant colors, although you can also get beautiful neutrals as you can see from Rock’s painting on the right. You can add Black and White.

Burnt Sienna, Payne’s Grey, Yellow Ochre (Earth Triad)

In this Triad, the Payne’s Grey acts as your blue. You can also substitute black for Payne’s Grey, and use it like a blue. You will be surprised at the beautiful color combinations that you can achieve with just these three colors plus White.  This palette is particularly applicable to landscape painters. 

Cadmium Red Light, Payne’s Grey, Yellow Ochre  (Zorn Palette)

This Triad plus White, was made popular by the artist Anders Zorn who used it to great effect. This palette is particularly good for figurative work with skin tones as you can see by the examples to the right. Again, the Payne’s Grey will act as your ”Blue.”

Let’s Talk A Bit About Black…

The use of black paint on our palettes was pretty much dismissed by the Impressionists who preferred to paint without it. In their quest to paint “light” they felt that black dulled their colors which is accurate. 

As a student it is important to learn to Neutralize your colors and create your greys with complements before you rely too heavily on black. In general greys created with complements are much richer than greys created with a color plus black.

If you want to create a black from your palette colors, choose the darkest colors on your palette and mix them together. A classic black is made from Viridian mixed with Alizarin Crimson. When you add white to this mixture you will get a rich grey, much richer than white plus Ivory Black, for example.

However, as you can see from the section above, black can be very useful! It is often used as a substitute for blue as most blacks lean towards the cool side.

Not all blacks are created equal so here is a rundown of “what is what” in black:

Ivory Black or Bone Black: Originally made from the charring of bones or Ivory, it is slightly blue-black and is a great all around mixing black.

Mars Black:  Is the strongest most opaque black. It is made from iron oxide pigment. You can see that it’s  stronger than Ivory here on the left.

Payne’s Grey: Is the coolest black with a strong blue influence. It is made from colored pigments (originally Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre and Crimson Lake) unlike the first two blacks above that are made from black pigments. It is often even more blue than the brand I have here on the left.

Van Dyke Brown: Actually considered a very warm black, Van Dyke Brown is transparent and can lend a rich warmth to your paintings in dark value areas. Made from “earth compounds.”

Chromatic Black: A newer black made by Gamblin that is made up of Phthalo Emerald and Quinacridone Red, the modern versions of Viridian and Alizarin that I mentioned earlier. Chromatic Black is a modern version of this “Classic Black” in a tube. It actually leans slightly towards purple.

PROJECT “LIMITED PALETTE”

Use A Primary Triad For Your Painting

In this video I demonstrate a self-portrait using the Zorn Palette with ONLY Payne’s Grey, Cadmium Red Light, Gold Ochre and Titanium White. You will see that I get many beautiful colors from this combination. Using these colors is a great exercise in exploring “skin tones” for any race.

For your Project, feel free to select any of the above Primary Triads or create some new ones of your own. As always, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PICK ANY SUBJECT MATTER for this project.

Please Note: Each video in this course has its own unique password.

• VIDEO PASSWORD: Limit

• VIDEO LENGTH: 33 minutes