The next step

I have worked from the live nude periodically since the early 1970's. This blog started August 9th, 2012 in my second year of working almost exclusively from the figure.

In the fall of 2015 I reintroduced still lifes and an occasional cityscape into my painting repertoire. Rather than abandon this figure blog or start a new one I decided to add them to the conservation.

All drawings and paintings posted on this blog were done entirely from live models or on location.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Primary Colors

Someone asked about my color pallet and I told them that when I get into trouble I retreat to the primary colors and I am almost always in trouble. Ever since my early watercolor days a main challenge has been finding a satisfactory pallet. Which colors work in harmony and provide the widest tonal and value ranges? I have always experimented and counted 33 partially used oil tubes around the studio.

Here is a representative pallet readied for a recent figure session. It contains two different sets of primary pigments.

Two blues, two reds, two yellows and white

Nude Study, oil on canvas, 10" X 8", 2015

I know artists who routinely use over thirty colors on any given painting. The problem for me is that with so many potential combinations it is impossible to understand with any clarity how one color reacts with another. I therefore find myself trying to limit the number of variables. Red, blue and yellow is about as simple as you can get.

Given that my painting tastes and knowledge are always in flux I don't expect my pallet to ever be "settled".

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