Cadmium free and loving it.

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Marvin Mattelson

Joan,

I have created a specific arrangement of colors on my palette based on Paxton's colors. This includes a string of neutral grays which I premix and tube.

Ken,

My neutral grays are based on 9 equal steps between the extremes of black and white paint. Other brands that manufacture neutral grays use theoretical black and white points. The values are threrfore skewed.

Marvin,

I went to the extreme last year and premixed and tubed 50, yes I said 50 equal steps of neutral gray! This set me back several hundred dollars in materials expenses. I used Old Holland Ivory Black and Titanium White, because Old Holland happens to make a very pure Titanium White that isn't cut with Zinc or anything else. These particular black and whites are of roughly equal tinting strength, which made the formulations simpler. I gave these grays graded appellations of 5, 10, 15, 20, etc., to 250. 0 is pure black and 255 is pure white, which makes a total of 52 equal steps. You may notice that these numbers relate to the standard RGB Grayscale in Photoshop. That was my idea, to directly be able to translate any given grayscale value in Photoshop into paint values on the canvas. This works very reliably, but in practice it is just about as good to eyeball in the approximate values.

Regards,

Garth

[Allan Rahbek]

That was my idea, to directly be able to translate any given grayscale value in Photoshop

Garth

Garth, how do you measure on the photo reference? Do you use the Photoshop?

This should be a separate topic about " How to measure values"

Allan

[Richard Budig]

I'm a newbie to Photoshop, myself. But Photoshop allows you to scan your photo, almost pixel by pixel, and tells you the values of R, G, and B whereever your cursor is on the photo. If it is in b&w, it will give you a pixel by pixel grayscale rating -- degree of black or white.

I'm just getting into the program, but it looks as though it will be very useful.

Another thing it will do (I'm told) is let you take photos apart and do something like cut and paste different parts. For instance, I'm finishing a portrait of a woman who had her photo taken 10 years ago in Australia. She is holding a koala bear. But since then, she has had her hair completely re-styled, and she's lost weight. So, we took new photos, and I put the old koala bear in the arms of the "new woman." If I had known how to use Photoshop, I could have done it all onscreen, and then printed it out. As it was, I had to do my own cutting and pasting.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Garth,

I use my nine grays to neutralize (reduce the chroma/intensity) any color I mix to modify it without altering the hue or the value. If I were to use a gray mixed from just black or white (which both contain blue) the grays wouldn't be neutral and would therefore cause hue shifts.

I mix my other colors to the proper value and hue before adding the gray, where necessary. Due to the malleability of oils, I can easily achieve intermediate steps by brushing together two tangent values and/or hues.

One of the main focuses of my teaching is that the paint I apply to a flat canvas needs to be altered from perceived reality in order to achieve the quality of spacial illusion that the old masters were so deft at creating.

Therefore, I view any photo reference with a grain of salt because of the inequity between the way my eye and the camera perceive values and colors. Photos to me appear to flatten what my eye sees even further. I tend to approach all photos as being questionable at best, but I guess to each his own.

My question to you is how exactly do you translate this info into color?

[Garth Herrick]

Marvin,

I totally agree with you. I question the validity of photos the very same as you. Your method is very practical and purposeful. My grays are indeed too cold for mixing purposes and I don't use them like you use yours. What I did was an interesting experiment, but I confess I have not really fully found a practical application for it yet. This exercise has played no role in any recent paintings of mine, except to make me perhaps more aware of subtle tonal relationships. It does nothing for color development except to steer the color toward a sensible value. But like you, the final arbiter is my eye. What ever doesn't jive in the translation will be altered to create the desired spacial illusion.

Regards,

Garth

[Richard Budig]

Can anyone direct me to Mr. Paxton's palette?

I've done the requisite search of this site, and have found a lot of references to this palette, but I'd like to see it for myself.

If it exists on this site, can someone tell me where, please.

[Marvin Mattelson]

I know I've posted it before but here it is again according to James Childs who studied with Ives Gammel, a student of Paxton's:

Light Red
Indian Red
Ultramarine Blue
Raw Umber
Flake White
Ivory Black
Viridian
Alizirin Crimson
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna

Additional Colors when needed:
Naples Yellow
Vermilion
Cerulean Blue