Color plunge!
 

I've just picked up some samples of Genesis oil paints, on Karin Wells's recommendation, with a desire to start using color. The only problem is I'm scared to death to take the plunge into the sea of color. I know I need to allow myself to be bad at it in the beginning, but if anyone has a good strategy to lessen the blow, please let me know. Thanks.

I've read that it doesn't matter what color you use as long as the value is correct, one of your strengths from your previous post. I have a value-scale taped to the clamp on my easel.

Although I don't know anything about the properties of the Genesis paints, JUMP ON IN!

Also do a search on this Forum on the book "Art and Fear". Overcoming myriad fears seems to be core to the act of creating anything.

Waters's cold
 

Thanks Mari. I'm psyching myself up.

Color theory - teach yourself
 

Ramon:

May I suggest that you do some color exercises that will really help you understand color theory?

I use a system of color developed by the Alfred Munsell company way back. Here is some additional info on Munsell color theory:

http://library.thinkquest.org/50065/...=1&tqtime=0612

Munsell wrote a book back in the 20s(?) called "A Grammar of Color". It was published by Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. Actually, here are all of the book references to Munsell that I could find:

[Mun05] A. H. Munsell. A Color Notation. Munsell Color Company, Boston, MA, 1905.

[Mun69] A. H. Munsell. A Grammar of Color. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York: NY, l969.

[Mun76] Munsell Color Company. The Munsell Book of Color. Munsell Color Company, 2441 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, 1976. Under continuous update.

You can do a series of exercises to develop your color sense. I did these and they were very helpful. I began by developing my own Munsell Color Wheel:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Pics/Wheel.jpg

You can then create a series of charts using each hue on the color wheel. I did mine with each hue in ten value ranges - the hue from dark to light in the first row, the hue mixed with 25% gray for the second row, and the hue mixed with 50% gray for the third row. The first row gives you the pure hue, the second and third show you the hue in decreased intensity or chroma.

Once you create these charts, you will realize that there is no color in nature that you cannot mix. Further, it gives you (as Munsell says) a grammar of how to perceive color and talk about it.

Hope that helps! :)

Keep in mind that each new medium has a new set of plastic "properties" to learn, and it might be fun/easy to do a few simple value exercises in the new medium--a way of warming up.

My color work...
 

My biggest fear has always been color. I think I have some decent color paintings, but the unity still remains a bit elusive. However, after viewing certain paintings of the old master's (Andre Zorn, Sargent) I saw they used a limited pallette of colors. I am now well into my second year of painting with Black, White, Cad. Red, and Yellow Ochre. The range of colors and simulated colors are amazing. I am just fascinated with the results of the great painters and I'm working hard to get the same results.

What it is teaching me is to use value and light more than color. When I am satisfied that I have a handle on it, I'll gradually expand my pallette.

While I believe that color theories, charts, and wheels, etc. are important to give you a sense of color organization, they fall far short of what you need when you start working with oil paints. If you do not have access to painting classes, I suggest you look into buying a good book or two that will get you started right.

Different oil colors have different properties such as transparency, tinting strength, and drying time. Also, the way you build your painting (i.e., directly or with underpainting and glazes) will make considerable difference in the colors you will be able to achieve.

While this may seem a little daunting at first, with a little help from a good teacher (whether in a class or through a book) you will soon discover the joys of working in this wonderful medium. PERHAPS SOME OF MY FELLOW PAINTERS CAN SUGGEST AN APPROPRIATE BOOK FOR SOMEONE BEGINNING IN OILS.

Color Choices
 

"Creative Color", Faber Birren and "Color Choices", Steven Quiller. You can get these through Amazon.com.

Thank you
 

Micheal, Mari, Morris, Sharlene, and Tom,

Thanks for all your suggestions. They've helped get my head on straight.

Sincerely, Ramon

P.S. Keep the ideas flowing. Every little bit helps. Not just for me, but everyone else(hopefully I'm not the only one) too.

Ramon, here's my advice:

1. For now, ignore the books and ignore everything you've read about color theory. They'll make you think too much and make you more fearful just trying to remember everything.

2. Gesso up a few dozen pieces of heavy duty acid free paper. Blank canvases are expensive and intimidating.

3. Get some reference. Try to find objects you're not too attached to. Put an old shoe or a pile of ratty books on a table and paint that.
The point is to loosen up and let go of your fears.

4. Buy a dozen or so different colors of paint (primaries, secondaries, neutrals, etc). Not too many or the complexity will get in your way.

5. Grab your biggest brushes. Put the little ones away.

6. Set a goal for yourself to paint twenty pieces in a weekend. It doesn't matter what they look like when they're done. This is a learning exercise.

7. Have a glass of wine if you want to, lock yourself in the studio and don't come out until you've done a pile of paintings. Have a fabulous time!

You'll learn so much about your paints, color mixing, etc and you won't be afraid any more.

After that, then you should study the books that everyone has recommended. But it really comes down to jumping in and doing it.

Have a great time!

You're so right
 

Thanks Michelle. What an inspiring idea. I've got a date with myself this weekend.

Let us know how it goes!

Here is a book available at http://www.gotcs.com/

It lists every color of every brand of paint on the market. It gives the formula for each and is cross referenced.

For example, you can take your favorite Winsor Newton Naples Yellow and it will give you the formula for mixing this exact color using Genesis. Ditto for Rembrandt's Greenish Umber, etc.

The point I am trying to make is that although I use Genesis, I do still use my original palette of colors.

Thanks again!
 

Dear Michelle,

I put down color on a gessoed canvas pad this weekend and it really warmed me up to color and the oil medium in general. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. In fact it got me down right excited to get started.

Many thanks,
Ramon Deslauriers

P.S. I owe you one.

Great resource
 

Dear Karin,

I just checked out the resource you suggested and it is worth its weight in gold. I've added the site to my "favorites". Thanks so much!

P.S. Was the oil brand you used, before switching over to Genesis, W&N? (so I can have as a cross reference to Genesis).

Sincerely,
Ramon Deslauriers

That book really is wonderful isn't it! I'm keeping a copy near my easel until I completely get the hang of mixing Genesis colors...it is such a different system. In working with their system, I have actually come to the conclusion that it is not only logical but brilliant.

My palette was mostly WN colors. I have them all listed in detail in a post called "My Old Master Palette".

Color study - my way
 

Hi!

Much can be learned from reading and studying and I am always buying and checking out new books about virtually everything about artists/history/technique. I refer to all my magazines (especially International Artist) and a backlog of American Artist magazines daily as I paint. Many times I can find a color scheme within a famous work of art by a favorite painter, such as Edward Burnes-Jones or Rossetti (wonderful Pre-Raphaelites) or any of the Italian or Dutch Renaissance artists to emulate either vaguely or closely.

One of the best ways to get your colors right is a preliminary color swatch study on a sheet of drawing or pastel paper. Sometimes I use bristol board or illustration board. Of course, I keep all my studies for reference (ha).

I may choose 3 or 4 colors (known as a limited palette) usually 2 complementary and then another neutral one and put 4 or 5 loosely painted squares side by side in a row leaving a space between as well as above and below. I then overlay with the other colors (one over each square halfway (half red/half green for example). Push the combination with white added and try to create as many values of the combination as you can. This should be a progression of little stripes (or as big as you choose to make them!) of color from darkest to lightest.

Do this until you have exhausted all possibilities with the 3 or 4 colors and you will see all your choices that you can make for the painting. In so doing - you have created a congruent scheme which you can either premix to paint with - or mix as you go.

I don't always do this but have found it to be most helpful if I just want to try something new (like cobalt blue, pthalo green, alizarin crimson and raw sienna) or find just the right combination that "pops" with complementary color.

Two favorite books of mine on color are definitely "Making Color Sing", by Jean Dobie and "Color Choices", Steven Quiller. In college, we studied Joseph Albers.

Remember, paint and paint every day -- even if you only have an hour!! Good luck!

Denise, if it is possible, could you post a picture of one of your preliminary color swatch studies?

Color Study pictures
 

Hi Karen,

As for a picture of my study -- I will take some pictures and have a disc made -- then I will post some pictures.

I did color studies most of this afternoon as a result of posting last night (hehehe) I found a wonderful article in the new International Artist magazine by an artist who is color blind and relies on his charts for everything. This is the June 2002 issue (by the way, I am not afilliated with IA -just a satisfied customer).

Even though we keep all these color rules in our head - actually "doing it" redeems our sense of color and also builds confidence.

By the way, I have read so many of your posts, especially the ones with grisaille technique instructions, and I appreciate your taking the time to share with all of us in this forum. Your work is beautiful!

Color study sheet
 

Finally, I have the color study example for you, Karen. It really isn't that unusual and I'm sure lots of us experiment this way before painting.

I also have painted boards with one color as the primary color mixed with all colors on my palette, mixed in different degrees with white as Richard Schmid has done in his book, Alla Prima, Everything I Know About Painting.

I hope this image is OK. It's a little dark and I also have tried before to post this and the pixels were too large. I'll try.

Explanation of color study sheet
 

Karen,

I am so glad it posted. The Fuji film has that blue cast; the paper background is actually white!

This is a color study using cadmium red, thalo blue, and yellow ochre. I also used white to lighten, of course. The lettering is very hard to read but you can see my general pattern of overlapping, putting strips in between to see just how the color looks beside another, etc..

I really do this all the time with 2 or 3 colors before I paint. It helps me decide how I will limit my palette. I's also a good idea to do it when you are using a new color or just a strong color combination, such as thalo blue and cadmium red together.

"For now, ignore the books and ignore everything you've read..."
 

Great advice in your post Michele!

Friends and I attend a local open figure painting session with and I do a very similar thing from time to time. Sometimes we each do it alone or as a kind of party. We have a goal to do as many paintings in 12 hours as we can with a minimum due at the end of 10.

You will be a amazed at some of the great work or at least great learning done in those intense 12 hours. Sometimes we have a model sometimes not. It's great to clear your mind of everything else to work like that.

You start to paint everything in the studio it always amazes when you push your self how you improve. And it's a ton of fun. And yes, sometimes we bring a few bottles of wine, but you have to be careful not to get any paint on your glass. ;)

Minimum palette is a great way to learn
 

I see someone has suggested the red/yellow/black/white minimum palette (is that spelled right? I always forget how to spell palette).

Another good way to start is to use the warm/cool combination of burn sienna, raw umber, and white, and sometimes, black. Here, too, the range of color and temperature is surprising.

Also, a Spanish guy by the name of Jose Parramon, in his book, The Big Book of Oil Color, shows you how to make every color there is using cad yellow medium, alizarin crimson, Prussian blue and white. It doesn't take long to get into this system, either, and the doing of it will teach you some valuable information about color mixing.

I find that, for flesh tones, I use very few colors, anymore. Cad red, yellow ocher, burnt sienna, raw umber and white. For blacks, aliz crim, burnt sienna and a ultramarine blue. You can make it warmer or cooler by controling the amount of aliz or blue that you use.

Since flesh cools as it gets lighter (usually) I find I can get a bit of a spike in value/tone by adding a tiny amount of cobalt blue or viridian to change the temperature of those really light tones, which usually contrasts well, and stands out from the general warm tones of surrounding flesh colors.

My red, yellow, sienna and umber palette lets me make oranges and browns, and the umber cools the reds and oranges nicely. It also makes intersting greens when mixed with yellow (ocher) or any other yellow. And of course, green and red make yet another kind of brown . . . so you see, it's all kind of a personal journey, anyway.

Finally, I studied with an old artist (Charles Cross, of Loveland, CO.) who used to say, "Behind every successful artist are many square miles of used up canvas."