Working with color strategies and color grouping reinforces our understanding that color choices are never arbitrary. Every choice is driven by our color goals for that painting. So, it stands to reason that the particular colors we choose for our palette will not be arbitrary either. Like ingredients in a recipe, the particular pigments we use in a painting will direct the kind of harmonies or “flavors” that can be achieved. Our palette and color strategy have a reciprocal relationship: the strategy determines which colors we will include on our palette and the palette supports the strategy.
We will review two essential practices in the palette strategy: the limited palette, which simplifies color mixing and helps build more cohesive harmonies, and targeting, in which we choose the colors that best conform to the color strategy. We will also review the split primary palette, a popular all-purpose palette for oil, acrylic, or watercolor painters.
THE LIMITED PALETTE
There are so many pigment options—dozens in oil, acrylic, and watercolor and hundreds in pastel—that we couldn’t possibly use them all. Nor would we want to. Every palette must have limits.
In a genre that relies on color richness and diversity, restricting the number of pigments might seem contradictory to our mission. As with so many aspects of the painter’s practice, however, limiting options doesn’t actually limit us. It leads to better, more focused results. There are several advantages to working with a limited palette:
A limited palette is practical and efficient. It simplifies color mixing because it doesn’t load up with every conceivable color, only those appropriate to the task at hand. What are the fewest colors you can use to achieve your intended harmony?
Fewer colors produce mixtures that are more cohesive, which leads to more unified harmonies.
ULTRA-LIMITED VS. LIMITED PALETTES
Some palettes are ultra-limited, with just red, yellow, and blue, plus white. Using so few colors forces painters to do more mixing, which in turn, helps them discover how colors can be mixed from the three primaries. For this reason, the ultra-limited palette is often prescribed to fledgling painters (although seasoned painters find benefit in working with it as well).
Most painters prefer to work with a slightly expanded, but still limited, palette, which might include eight, ten, or twelve colors. The additional pigments allow them to mix any color they want, but are still few enough to make the palette manageable.
THE TARGETED PALETTE
For convenience, a painter might keep their most frequently used colors on their palette at the ready—but they won’t use all of them in every painting. When a painter considers a pigment’s properties—its value, its temperature, and its saturation level—and chooses it according to how it best fits the color strategy, they are targeting their palette.
For example, if the yellows in the painting need to be bright and saturated, then you would naturally select a yellow that is also bright and saturated, such as those from the CADMIUM or HANSA families. If the painting has more neutral harmonies, you might pick a more neutral yellow such as NAPLES YELLOW or yellow ochre.
Targeting is an essential part of the palette strategy. It directly supports the practice of color strategies and color grouping.
WHY WE TARGET: DIFFERENT PROPERTIES, DIFFERENT RESULTS
Why does choosing a particular blue or particular red matter so much? Because all colors are not created equal. Within any given color family there are many different pigment varieties, all of which have different properties. For instance, there are many varieties of blue, each with a different value, temperature, and saturation level. By understanding these properties, we can choose the pigments that best target the strategy. Below is a small sampling of the different properties of pigments within the same hue family. The top row shows colors in oil, the middle row displays an equivalent pigment in pastel, and the bottom row is watercolor.
DIFFERENT VALUES AND TEMPERATURE
Two reds that differ in value and temperature: CADMIUM RED LIGHT (left) is lighter and warmer than CADMIUM RED DARK (right).
DIFFERENT VALUES AND SATURATION
Two yellows that differ in value and saturation levels: A lighter, more saturated HANSA YELLOW MEDIUM (left) and a darker neutral YELLOW OCHRE (right).
SAME VALUES, DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES
Two blues: ULTRAMARINE (left) and MANGANESE (right) are similar in value, but differ in temperature.
DEMONSTRATION: TARGETED PALETTE IN PASTEL
DEMONSTRATION: TARGETED PALETTE IN OIL
THE SPLIT PRIMARY PALETTE
A popular all-purpose palette used by many painters is the split primary palette. It is a compact palette with few enough pigments to keep color mixing manageable, but enough to allow one to mix nearly any color they want. It’s also lightweight (fewer tubes for oil and acrylic painters to carry), making it a good option for travel and working outdoors.
The strength of the split primary palette is that it includes two of each primary: a cool and a warm. That temperature difference covers a wider portion of the spectrum, increasing the range of possible color mixtures.
SPLIT PRIMARY PALETTES AND PAINTINGS
As we see in the color wheel on the previous page, there are many different pigments that can fill the warm and cool slots on the split primary palette. The two split primary palettes shown here, from oil painter Scott Gellatly and watercolorist Bill Vrscak, each use a different set of primaries.
Note that the pigments in both split primary palettes are pure and saturated, yet the paintings have many colors that are neutralized to some degree. As with any palette, neutrals or grays will have to be mixed. (See “Two Roads to Neutrals”.)
TWO ROADS TO NEUTRALS
Every color that ends up in our painting has to be mixed, and neutral colors are no exception. Even painters who favor high saturation strategies rarely use fully saturated colors. This means that most colors need to be at least partially desaturated.
NEUTRALIZING WITH COMPLEMENTS
If you asked most painters how to desaturate or neutralize a color, they would tell you to add its complement. This is a tried-and-true method for creating neutrals. However, neutralizing complements rarely produce a “perfect” neutral without any color bias at all. They nearly always retain some of the hue identity of one of the complements. This color bias can be desirable, as it allows for more nuanced, color-based neutrals. But it also makes mixing complementary-based neutrals difficult to control. Often, we have to add a third color to achieve the neutral we want.
NEUTRALIZING WITH NEUTRAL COLORS
Alternatively, one can also create neutral mixes by using colors that are neutral to begin with. This approach is easier and more direct than mixing complements. Of course, you can also create neutrals with complements and neutral pigments.
NEUTRALIZING WITH COMPLEMENTS
NEUTRALIZING WITH NEUTRAL COLORS
CADMIUM RED + PERMANENT GREEN
CADMIUM RED + BURNT UMBER
CADMIUM YELLOW + DIOXAZINE PURPLE
CADMIUM YELLOW + YELLOW OCHRE
ULTRAMARINE BLUE + CADMIUM ORANGE
ULTRAMARINE BLUE + PAYNE’S GRAY
In each string, the color on the left is fully saturated. As its complement is added, the mix becomes progressively more neutral. Note the color bias of the neutral mix on the right.
You can also desaturate pure colors by adding pigments that are neutral themselves, such as BURNT UMBER, YELLOW OCHRE, RAW SIENNA, BURNT SIENNA, VAN DYKE BROWN, or PAYNE’S GRAY, to name a few.
KEEP A COOL AND WARM NEUTRAL ON YOUR PALETTE
When including neutral pigments on your palette, consider having both a cool and a warm neutral. In combination, ULTRAMARINE BLUE and BURNT SIENNA can produce a wide range of both warm and cool neutrals.
Equal portions of ULTRAMARINE BLUE and BURNT SIENNA (plus white) produce a nearly perfect gray, with no color bias at all. When slightly more blue is added to the mix, the resulting neutral will have a cool blue bias. If there is more BURNT SIENNA in the mix, then it will have a warm bias.