Portrait Studio Wall Color

William Whitaker · 11-13-2005, 07:22 PM

A few people have asked me to make a color sample for them. If I make a few, I might as well make a few more. Therefore, if any of you would like a sample of the color, send a dollar and a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Whitaker Studio Color
4325 Ivy Lane
Provo, UT 84604

You can take it to your local paint store and easily find a color like it, or a color you think is even better. Go ahead, modify away! Sherrie and David have recently built two new studios and are using a modified color for them that is even darker and a bit richer. (I thought it was pretty hard to tell the difference.) Below is a photo of Sherrie and me in her new studio.
Be warned: the color looks horrible in the can! You will think it looks like the color the Bulgarians use to paint their military vehicles. In your studio it is magic though.

If you can't paint your studio walls, you can make a portable backdrop out of foamcore board and use the color there.

You don't need to paint your ceiling. My studio ceiling is white and Sherrie's ceiling is wood, traditional for Taos. Both work just fine.

Michele Rushworth · 11-13-2005, 07:47 PM

Thanks for reminding us about this, Bill. And thanks for posting the gorgeous photo of your model with that wall color. If I ever build my dream studio in the backyard it will have all the features you described.

Garth Herrick · 11-14-2005, 02:49 AM

Dear Bill,

The following is as accurate a method I can come up with to reproduce your famous wall color for this Forum. I scanned it tonight (again) with my Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One Photo color spectrometer (image inset) and got the following readings on the L.a.b. scale: L: 48.0, a: 0.1, b: 11.7.

The nearest values in Photoshop are: L: 48, a: 0, b: 12. I painted a color patch and saved it in the color space used on this Forum.

My can of Benjamin Moore paint was tinted to the exact formula you have posted above. Thanks for the brief sketch of the color's evolution and historic provenance.

Edit: Your photograph portrait above is wonderful! The color does appear richer and greener to my eye in the daylight, than in this photoshop swatch, so the color effect on your photograph is right on target!

Enjoy,

Garth

William Whitaker · 11-14-2005, 03:04 PM

Garth,

Your technological savvy is wondeful.
I envy you.

Art AND science!

Bill

Joan Breckwoldt · 11-14-2005, 04:42 PM

Dear Mr. Whitaker,

I am one of your (many, I'm sure) silent admirers. I have been reading your posts, studying and admiring your portraits, and most recently printing them on my new printer to put up in my 'studio'. I am happy to finally take the opportunity to tell you how incredible your work is and to thank you for your many posts that have been so helpful to me.

I went to the paint store this morning to get a quart of paint to paint a background for my 'studio'. I will share with you and the forum what I found:

I went to the local Benjamin Moore store and had them mix up a quart according to the formula above. Well, it was close, but had too much yellow in it, making it too green. After some conversation with the salesperson, I found out that Benjamin Moore has recently (in the last 18 months) brought back the 'old' colors. The store I was at is computerized and has the info on a CD now. So, he was able to look up the number GN-25 and mix the original paint color. This second mixture was what, I believe, I was looking for, a dark greenish grey.

I asked the salesperson to write down the formula for anyone who doesn't have a Benjamin Store nearby, or if that particular store isn't computerized (as the salesman said some of the stores aren't).

Benjamin Moore & Co. GN-25
319-3B (that's just the base color, and it also means 'eggshell' finish)

UTC Gallon Formula
OY 1x 24.50
RX 0x 2.25
BK 2x 6.00
GY 0x 12.00

I bought two large pieces of foamcore, 60" x 40", from our art store and have painted one side of each of them. It's not really practical to paint my 'studio' walls since it's half studio and half computer room, and the walls are covered with bookcases and windows anyway. The color is, as you say, sometimes grey and sometimes more green. It's pretty dark though! I am anxious to put a model in front of it and see what happens!

Joan

Garth Herrick · 11-14-2005, 05:10 PM

Dear Joan,

If you can mail me some swatches of your color(s) on some 3 x 5 card, or whatever works, I can scan them too for comparative purposes to what I have posted above. I can email you my address. It will be interesting and informative to compare your GN-25 color with my sample. If you send me a sample, apply two coats of paint to hide the support completely.

Actually anyone is welcome to send me original samples to analyze and compare of any color. It doesn't have to be green-gray.

To explain your mixture having too much yellow, I wonder if the formula margin of error varies slightly between a quart and a gallon? The salesman told me he could not accurately match a quart to a gallon formula, so I opted for the gallon, which fortunately looks about right.

Good luck!

Garth

Joan Breckwoldt · 11-14-2005, 06:36 PM

Dear Garth,

Hi, I would be happy to send you samples of the colors. I actually had to buy both

since I asked the paint guy to mix up the color according to the formula first. It looked too green/yellow. Next he pulled out an old color sample fan and found GN-25. There are a lot of older homes around here and that paint store has been there a while, I think people come in and want paint colors from years ago, so luckily they saved the old fan. Anyway . . . . we compared the GN-25 color on the fan to what he just mixed me. The color on the fan was more like Bill Whitaker described, a dark greenish grey. He had the formula on a CD that Benjamin Moore has just released. So he mixed that up for me and I wrote down the formula for that. That's the formula I put in my last post.

The paint guy and I decided that the formula that I came in with (from Bill's post) was probably color matched to something, some sample of GN-25, in 2001, before the 'old' color formulas were rereleased. It was close, but different from the GN-25 the Benjamin Store had on file. If you notice the first formula in this post, it's not a Benjamin Moore store so maybe they didn't have the true formulas. And we thought it was more green/yellow because there is a lot of orange in the formula.

I hope I've explained this well enough! I can certainly send you samples of both. I think my e-mail address is listed on the forum, if not, I can post it.

Did you get a gallon of the formula since Bill posted it yesterday? You're quick too. And, yes, it would be interesting to compare the colors.

thanks,

Joan

Garth Herrick · 12-02-2005, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joan Breckwoldt

Dear Mr. Whitaker,

I am one of your (many, I'm sure) silent admirers. I have been reading your posts, studying and admiring your portraits, and most recently printing them on my new printer to put up in my 'studio'. I am happy to finally take the opportunity to tell you how incredible your work is and to thank you for your many posts that have been so helpful to me.

I went to the paint store this morning to get a quart of paint to paint a background for my 'studio'. I will share with you and the forum what I found:

I went to the local Benjamin Moore store and had them mix up a quart according to the formula above. Well, it was close, but had too much yellow in it, making it too green. After some conversation with the salesperson, I found out that Benjamin Moore has recently (in the last 18 months) brought back the 'old' colors. The store I was at is computerized and has the info on a CD now. So, he was able to look up the number GN-25 and mix the original paint color. This second mixture was what, I believe, I was looking for, a dark greenish grey.

I asked the salesperson to write down the formula for anyone who doesn't have a Benjamin Store nearby, or if that particular store isn't computerized (as the salesman said some of the stores aren't).

Benjamin Moore & Co. GN-25
319-3B (that's just the base color, and it also means 'eggshell' finish)

UTC Gallon Formula
OY 1x 24.50
RX 0x 2.25
BK 2x 6.00
GY 0x 12.00

I bought two large pieces of foamcore, 60" x 40", from our art store and have painted one side of each of them. It's not really practical to paint my 'studio' walls since it's half studio and half computer room, and the walls are covered with bookcases and windows anyway. The color is, as you say, sometimes grey and sometimes more green. It's pretty dark though! I am anxious to put a model in front of it and see what happens!

Joan

Dear Joan,

I finally received your excellent note and included color wall paint samples. I think the mail carrier dropped them into my next door neighbor's mail. She's the Dean of Moore College of Art here in Philly (Dona Lantz). After a couple of weeks she found it and sent it into my mail slot. I bet you thought it dropped off the edge of the world somewhere!

Anyway, you sent two very nice wall colors. The Benjamin Moore GN-25 is more of a gray-green and the other card marked "Formula Bill posted" happens to match my wall color pretty exactly. It's the same formulation.

I scanned them both as promised with my Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One-Photo color spectrometer and have posted the results and nearest Photoshop color equivalents below. Note I do not have a dual color picker in Photoshop (as the montage suggests), but that would be so cool (are you listening, Adobe?)!

Thanks, and enjoy,

Garth

Lacey Lewis · 12-02-2005, 01:48 PM

Garth-

Can you tell me about that spectrometer doo-hickey you have there? Being an artist AND a geek (and married to a total nerd) I'm suprised I don't know about it already myself!

Chris Saper · 12-04-2005, 01:01 AM

Gosh, Garth, you are amazing!

My studio walls (you've seen them) are a slightly cooler and less saturated version of the Scottsdale Artists' School and what I think Bill's walls are.

Mesa Gray, a Home Depot Behr color - from the staining palette. In the matte enamel (not shiny, easy to clean).

Linda Brandon has painted her studio in what seems to be a true gray.

I am building a studio in our in-process spot in Prescott AZ, and I think that I need both colors. So the family room walls will go Mesa gray, (unbeknownst to all, just another studio backdrop) and my studio walls a true gray ( whatever that is). I like the option of either a warm or cool neutral, both in mid values.