My experience in oil painting is still developing, and while I mostly claim to be a photographer, it is true that I've painted longer than I have held a camera. Oil painting, I would argue, is one of the most challenging of fine art mediums; it is a factor of time, layering paint, selecting color, determining a value range as well as sculpting so much as drawing the forms.
Drawing from real life is challenging and rewarding, but painting a still-life can be downright frustrating. In my many attempts to paint in oil (many of which I have been reluctant to share publicly out of personal dissatisfaction) the outcomes are homely and plain. This does not discourage me because I simply like the repeatative actions of mixing and applying paint, and still have the urge to paint. I am not dissuaded, but I have realized a new method is needed.
Geneva Essential Pallet
My undergraduate painting professor, Suta Lee, was an observant and encouraging guide when I first learnt the techniques of oil (beyond the videos of Bob Ross I undoubtedly watched in my youth). Without him I would not have understood or achieved the eye for finding and matching colors.
Honestly though, I had some difficulty with the wide range of colors we used. Some were unfamiliar and at times varied too much making it overwhelming. Sap green, Cadmium Red, Cerulean blue, and Yellow ochre are expressive colors, but can distract me from the basic mixed colors I know to use from elementary methods.
I needed to simplify, and finding some informative videos online by Geneva Oil Paint artist Mark Carder, I quickly adapted his methods for finding the proper value, color and mixing method when painting.
When you first learn of color mixing, they introduce primary colors, then mix those in combination with white and darks to get a full range of most natural colors. Carder remarks that all the possible "skin tones" or variations of light on a face can be achieved with these seven colors.
Alizarin Crimson (Red)
Burnt Umber (Brown)
Orange (Red + Yellow)
Cadmium Yellow
Green (Blue + Yellow)
French Ultramarine Blue
Titanium White
Both Suta Lee and Mark Carder emphasized almost no need for a black; it should only be used for the deepest of shadows, and not mixed with other colors. Suta helped me see the range of hues in blacks, and how often times they are deep reds, purples or blues.
Mark Carder has a simplified method for identifying colors, matching their values first (very important), then matching the color. This is a useful method for understanding the actions it takes to paint accurately and true to the subject. The Geneva Essential Pallet has another beneficial organization, where it is easy to find the analogous color needed to mute any wrong intensity, color, or hue.
Color Grid
The color grid was a study on color mixing I did under Suta Lee, and was essential to understanding how to obtain subtle color variations. It also teaches one how to mix colors in a way that is repeatable and precise each time.
This one has a limited pallet from the first one I did in 2013, instead using the colors that Geneva Recommends. There is a wide variance of colors and some really invigorating colors that come from these few colors. With five tubes of paint, there are almost infinite combinations, and it is so easy to be mesmerized by the way these colors seem to manifest out of two unsuspecting colors.
Color Grid II, 2018. Oil on canvas board.
Outcome
Over the span of one week I applied 180+ different color mixes. Not meant to be for display so much as a reference for painting on my future projects, it becomes a guide for finding a general match of color, and aids in finding what colors I would use to mix it from.
I will admit this work is not the nicest looking, but the colors are interesting and informative nonetheless.
With this exercise under my belt, I intend to do several smaller color grids as a series, with each of several square 10" canvasses with have several layers of differing color grids. They will also be lighter in value overall, with more emphasis of the lighter value range and using several ratios of mixed light and dark values.