What Colors Are You Mixing? The Familiar Question Always Asked.
In this blog post, master artist Linda Fisler discusses the beauty of a limited palette. What's your go-to palette?
This is a familiar question, especially when you are in a workshop, conducting a workshop or demonstration, or even just painting, when someone observes you. You may find the question somewhat hard to answer if you have 20 colors on your palette. How did you get to that color? Which ones did you mix together? Did you take it right out of the tube? Opps–ran out of a color I mixed and now I have to mix it again–how did I do that!? A beginner starting out with so many colors on their palette may become frustrated very easily because they have more success mixing mud than mixing harmonious and clean colors.
Working from a limited palette isn’t limiting if you understand and practice mixing. My mentor and wonderful instructor, Kevin Macpherson, encourages his students to try a limited palette. Just think of the room in your suitcase you will have by packing just five tubes of paint! Think how much lighter your plein air gear will be to lug around with only five paint tubes! Think how much money you’ll save if you order five colors!
Sunset in the Balsams by Linda Fisler
But wait, there are only three primaries–what are the other two colors? My limited palette is French Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Ivory Black, and Titanium White. Depending on the day, temperature, and location, you may want to switch out some colors. For example, if you know you will be painting in a location that is very warm at a time when the sun will be producing some wonderful warm orange/red lights, you may prefer to switch out the Alizarin Crimson for Cadmium Red Light. You may want to pack both. You don’t need to have or buy all those pre-mixed colors when working with the (un)limited blue, red, and yellow palette. A limited palette does not limited in the number of colors you can mix or the colors of blue, yellow and red with which you mix.
Another advantage of using a limited palette is the endless number of greys you can mix quickly without making mud. Control over warm and cool greys is rapidly achieved with practice and field painting. As you learn to mix colors, you become more aware of color temperature. A color’s temperature is relative to other colors. For example, one yellow may be cooler than another, just as some blues are warmer than others.
The primaries of a limited palette can be quickly mixed to obtain secondary colors. So if you are uncomfortable or just starting out with a limited palette, mix up orange, green, and violet on your palette before you start. Always arrange your palette in the same order so that you instinctively know where the color is and you don’t have to search for it. If you feel you still don’t have enough pre-mixed colors on your palette, mix up the tertiary colors you think you may need by looking at the scene you will paint. We think you’ll find that you’ll actually stop pre-mixing colors as your experience grows with the (un)limited palette.
As you become comfortable and experienced with the limited palette, you’ll find out that there are hundreds of ways to combine these colors, each producing a unique color all its own. The color harmony of your paintings will become easier to achieve because you control the mixing of all the colors from your palette. You no longer have to worry about what pigment levels are in the pre-mixed tubes.
If you don’t paint with a limited palette, we encourage you to try and play with it for a while. After all, all the colors in nature started out from some mixture of the three primary colors. In some way, it all makes sense that we should be able to mix the colors we see from that palette. If you try to practice it with an open mind, you may discover that you will enjoy using a limited palette. Think what you can buy with all that extra money!!!
Want to learn how to paint? Start out with Linda's Art Chat TV Channel on Youtube-