Color Charts

April 2nd, 2019

And the learning continues.

My drawing class has ended, although I plan to keep drawing regularly.

Now, I’m working my way through Alla Prima II by Richard Schmid.  This is an amazing book.  I’ve made it to color charts, and that is where I stalled for a bit.  He used only 11 colors for his color chart combinations, and I had some difficulty choosing mine.  Many of the colors he uses are colors that just aren’t in my usual repertoire, and after having read the first half of the book, I’m changing my color palette to more closely mirror his.

I’m such a perfectionist that even starting this process was agonizing.  Then I laugh at myself for my foolishness and forge ahead anyway.  I know how important it is to know what my paints can do.  I did these charts once with my acrylic paints using a completely different set of colors, and it is now time to do it with oils.  I will have to do a set of secondary charts because there are additional colors that I use regularly and I will need to know how they mix with this lot.  For now, though, I am starting with the basics, warm and cool colors in each category of yellow, red, blue, and green.

The purpose of this is to learn how these specific colors interact with each other.  After doing the first mixing chart, I remembered a photo that I took years ago in Waipio Valley.  I never had the courage to paint it because I didn’t think I had the skill I needed to do it justice.

This one color chart just showed me most of the colors I need to use to recreate this scene. The color harmony from using Cadmium Lemon Yellow as the base color for most of it would maintain the light, ethereal feeling of the landscape.

The exciting news is that I have 10 more paint charts to go!

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