Sunday, October 23, 2011

Painting with Four Colors

I really enjoyed teaching a workshop on Friday and Saturday about using a limited palette of ivory black, yellow ochre, cadmium red light and white. Everyone created a color chart the first morning, so they could see the full range of color you can get from so few colors. Seen all together, they have a really lovely harmony. In the afternoon, students painted still lifes, using the same colors, and the next morning did a portrait from a live model.

The greatest thing, when you're teaching, is to see people suddenly start understanding what you're talking about. My students had very little or no experience painting from a model, and were thrilled that this palette of colors actually takes a lot of the guesswork out of mixing color. You can mix almost any flesh or hair color, and they all harmonize. So all that's left are little things like drawing. And values. And edges. Stuff like that...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

very cool~! thanks for sharing your experience!

Jerry Stocks said...

Wish I could take this class from you. Sounds like just what I need.

Kathy Weber said...

I'm going to teach a 4 week class in March that will be about this palette. Friday mornings, 9AM-noon.

Page Pearson Railsback said...

Sounds like an unusual palette..will try it on my next class...Is it specifically for portrait?

Nora MacPhail said...

I've always wanted to try that particular palette, however I'm still becoming familiar with the 6 colours that I already chose for my basic palette!
Do you know about the Daily Paintworks Challenges? This limited palette would be an awesome suggestion!!
Happy Painting,
Nora

Denise Rose said...

Such a great lesson! I have not painted many figures yet and will remember this palette when I give flesh colors a shot! Sounds like you are a great teacher as well as artist!