Flesh and Earth Tone Colors

One of the things that used to be very annoying was returning to my palette to find that the colors had begun to skin over making it necessary to do a small slit in the covering to get at fresh color. Then I began a practice of just adding fresh paint to each color pile. I didn't clean off the palette each time except for the mixing area. That method kept all the colors in a given spot and made it easier to go directly to the color I needed. Over time, however, my palette began to look like a sculpture as shown above. It dawned on me finally how much paint I was wasting. Paint is very expensive and getting more so.

My solution was rather simple. I do a lot of portrait work and believe that most skin tones are grays tinted with the primaries for color and white for value. Since the primaries constitue the basis for all colors, it seemed reasonable to me that by mixing all the leftover colors on my daily palette in to one big pile the result would be neutral colors ranging from cool to warm to an unidentifiable non-color. The non-color being one that could not be categorized as being in the yellow, blue or red family and could not be considered to be warm or cool with any certainty. I began to place this left-over paint in tubes which are available in various sizes in most good art supply stores. The result was that I was no longer wasting left-over paint. Soon I had a wide variety of grays that were very useful as earth tones in landscapes and other subjects. These neutrals also were also very effective in reducing the intensity of a color without changing a color. As green (the compliment of red) is useful in reducing the intensity of red and vice-versa, the same effect could be achieved by with a touch of a neutral to the red.

I experimented more with these neutrals as the base color for skin tones. I would take a warm or cool neutral and add a dominent color such as cadmium red and white using the red and the neutral to establish the darkest value of the color and white to raise the value to the desired level. The resulting color would be be put in a tube. I did this using a wide range of dominent colors from warm to cool and before long all that left-over paint that once was wasted was transformed in to a spectacular range of skin tones. A small example is shown above.

So began a practice of collecting all the left over paint from the palettes of my students at the end of each painting session to be put in a common mixing jar (baby food jars are ideal). When the jar is full it is mixed to its natural color and tinted to a desired dominent color before being placed in the tube. These tubes of color are for the use of the painting group so they can pick and choose for the session. At the end of the day, the process is repeated.

Many years ago I studied with a very well known painter and muralist named Jay Datus. One of the many things I learned from him was the importance of white when doing portraits. He would never use pure white but would rather mix his own white. I have premixed my whites ever since. Squeeze out a generous amount of Titanium White. Add small amounts of raw umber and viridean and mix thoroughly until a cool ivory color is attained. This is an excellent color to use for tinting turning planes or planes in the shadow. Conversely, using the same process mix until a warm ivory color results. Works very well for those planes of warm light.

Black, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Sepia. These are colors I rarely use. They are not part of my regular palette. My reason is that they are too convenient when placed on the palette. I especially do not recommend that they be used by beginners. In my classes, I have seen my students turn their paintings into muddy messes through inappropriate use of these nasty colors. Sepia, in my opinion, is the ugliest color ever devised and a total waste of money. Stunning blacks can be created with mixtures of primary and secondary colors (ex. Alizarin Crimson and Thalo Green; Transparent Oxide Red and Indigo; Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue). Earth colors like Raw Umber and Burnt Umber are easily mixed using combinations of blues and Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, and Transparent Oxide Red.

The Sunday Arizona Republic had quite a lengthly article on color which I found quite interesting in a mostly academic way. Two pages were needed to explore all the scientific and artistic aspects of color. Although I use a lot of it in my paintings, color is overrated in my view. If it reasonably resembles the color you're looking for it's ok as long as the VALUE is correct. Of course, making a color reasonably convincing can be a chore. A good knowledge of the working relationship between the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) and the complementary (secondary) colors is critical in getting a reasonable color. Such knowledge comes from experience. One can read color theory and even get an A in color theory class and still not be able to mix colors worth a hoot. Only by doing seemingly endless paintings does the artist begin to mix colors effortlessly and with confidence.

In my case, I have found that my working palette has dwindled in the number of colors that I really use. To be sure, some colors are difficult to mix (ex. Cobalt Violet) and I keep a tubes of such colors in the drawer ready for use if need be. However, I keep experimenting with charts consisting of the three primaries in many different combinations. When I say different I mean that one chart may be Cadmium Yellow, Indigo and Transparent Oxide Red and another may be Thalo Red Rose, Yellow Ochre and Ultramarine Blue. White is used for tinting and Black is used for shading in making value scales of each color mixture. The results of such charts when viewed independently suggest subject matter like portraits, landscapes, seascapes, floral, etc. I have found that powerful paintings can be achieved when using only three colors.