Whitaker Green

Lacey Lewis · 10-04-2005, 02:24 PM

I have seen a nice, soft green used in the background of some of Whitaker's paintings, and have also heard it called "Whitaker Green" by other artists. I thought I saw the formula for it somewhere, but now I can't recall it or where I think it was.

Does anyone here know how to make this Whitaker Green?

Steven Sweeney · 10-04-2005, 08:43 PM

I'm not sure if you're referring to a pigment that you're going to have on your palette, or a color you've seen depicted in others' paintings, but your mention of a formula suggests that you might be thinking of the one that Michael Georges posted in this thread.

Lacey Lewis · 10-06-2005, 08:59 AM

Thanks Steven,

That may be what I was thinking of, and where I got the "Whitaker Green" label. Hmm...

Does anyone have any idea how to mix something like this on my palette? I may have something similar that I mixed with raw umber and winsor blue, but would be interested in other mixtures that make a nice, soft green background color.

Steven Sweeney · 10-06-2005, 10:39 AM

You used to be able to get a futon cover in "Whitaker green," but apparently no more. (I feel the wind of the wings of legal eagles.)

As for nailing the color for your palette, I'd just go about it as with any other, starting with your best guess and then incrementally adjusting for value, hue, and intensity. The problem with the "formula" approach is that even a soft, nondescript background is going to require subtle adjustments to any formula, as would, say, a person's appearance in light require adjustments to any "flesh tint" formula.

Lacey Lewis · 10-06-2005, 11:30 AM

Thanks Steven! I guess that my current mixture will be a good starting point for me. It does look a lot like the soft green that I am going for, but having experience with only a limited number of pigments I was interested to see if there were any popular mixtures out there.

Of course, the plus is that at the moment I am using pigments that I already have in my palette. Good for both the wallet and the unity of the painting.

A "Whitaker Green" futon cover, I hadn't expected that!

Steven Sweeney · 10-06-2005, 12:26 PM

The Whitaker has stated elsewhere on this Forum (if my brain's depleted ROM capacity is still returning accurate data) that he can pretty much use whatever paints are available to mix any pigment he needs. I've recently watched demonstrations by extraordinary artists who had reduced their palettes to black, white, and three primaries.

We've looked into this before on the Forum, long ago, but personalities got in the way of instruction. This is a good reminder that we need to consider the matter anew, to gather some insights into using available, limited pigments to mix an amazing array of color of the desired hues, intensities, and values. Once you start using black and white to create blues, or black and yellow to create greens, you're not only hooked, you're transformed.