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primary colour choices
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Message
Posted
Some artists think that they can paint any picture using just three colours chosen as primaries. One choice is the following three , namely permanent alizaron crimson . lemon yellow and cobalt blue . another choice for me would be permanent rose instead of perm.alizaron, which is a colour I am not a fan of. What do others think and why?.....Syd
Posted
As an inveterate haunter of YouTube, I found an acrylic painter the other day who counsels the use of primaries in acrylic painting (Samuel Durkin, if you want to take a look). His primaries would seem to be Process Magenta, Process Cyan, and Process Yellow, he paints with what looks like Galeria or a similar brand semi-abstract but broadly wooded scenes, if that makes any sense (and actually, I'm not at all sure it DOES make any sense: an abstract to me is abstract, not a sort of semi-figurative painting). I was unconvinced that using just the primaries is going to be able to produce a satisfactory painting: and that's partly because there's strictly speaking no such thing as primary colours - there can't be any close definition when you look at the huge variety of reds, yellows, and blues, because all of them contain something else. We don't have 'pure' primary colours in painting available to us, and while the Process colours are basically what's used in the printing industry to obtain the widest possible variety of tones and hues (with added black and white of course) I don't believe it works particularly well in painting: it's allowing a printing process to determine your painting practice, when there isn't really any very logical reason why it should. But try it and see what you think of the results - in Durkin's case, I'm afraid his paintings leave me colder than yesterday morning's leftover porridge (not, Syd, that I ever leave my porridge.. I'm very fond of porridge).
If I were going to use the primaries, or whatever version of same that I could find, I wouldn't use the process colours (Process Magenta just looks horrid to me and I'd probably spoil my painting by being in a tearing hurry to mix it into something else): what I would use ..... well, you'd want to be able to mix a black, or near black, because I just hate tube black in paintings normally) so Ultramarine would be the blue; Permanent Rose would probably be the red, (sometimes cunningly disguised as Quinacridone Violet or Quin. Red), and Lemon Yellow would have to be the yellow, because it's not opaque and mixes better than the Cadmiums. As a special concession to Syd, I've not suggested Pthalo Blue - although you could make quite a powerful (even overpowering) painting with Pthalo Blue: the snag would be working out what colours you'd put with it - possibly Cadmium Lemon for the Yellow, but I'd struggle to find a red that really worked with PB: it'd probably have to be a Cadmium.
Posted
This dude—
http://scottnaismith.com/the-colour-wheel/
has a lot to say about CMY (subtractive) colour. He also has a very good business manager judging by the website. The addition of the K (black) in CMYK process printing is to make up for the many inadequacies of theory v. practice. True, the process ink pigments—which are transparent because CMYK relies on optical colour mixing—are different from the paint pigments but…
My primaries, for landscape work are—
warms; cadmium red, cadmium yellow, ultramarine blue,
cools; alizarin crimson, lemon yellow, cobalt blue.
With both titanium white and zinc white, a sienna and umber or two (for more saturated earthy browns), and paynes grey (instead of black and it makes lovely dark greens), this does the job for me. Too many ready mixed colours and things tend to look like painting by numbers.
Posted
A sound palette. There's a tendency among some Scottish artists, particularly including Naismith, to use a highly coloured palette which presumably sells his paintings, but wouldn't sell them to me, ever. There's another called Julie Dumbarton - Naismith accused her a while ago of plagiarizing his work; I don't think she did, and she forcefully denied it: a quarrel I hoped they've patched up, because it did neither of them any favours. Julie, bless her, tends to end her various blogposts etc with the phrase "colour hugs", which I confess has me reaching for a handy bucket, but there we are, I'm told it takes all sorts. The thing is that Naismith at least - I don't know what Julie Dumbarton can do when she's not working in very powerful primary colours - is a competent artist who presumably found his more desaturated paintings (which I think the good ones) weren't selling, whereas the semi-psychedelic ones (which I loathe) were. And you can't blame him for going where the money leads. So he may have something useful to say on colour-mixing, but .... I'm just not sure I want to hear it from him.
Posted
Syd, you have a better imagination than me, maybe I read too many books about colour combination and seasons. My choice for UM blue is for a summer sky and Cobalt for a winter sky, but with a mix of other colours I see within the sky I'm viewing.
Sky's are a fascinating subject, I have taken many pictures of various times of day, and they set the scene for a painting. But I think you are right does it really matter what combination of colours we use, as long as we have been inspired by a scene... paint it.
I hear some judges say, when they look at a painting by artists and then at the scene or object, 'Paint what you see, not what you think you see' how boring is that. We are all different and see things as such, especially colours.
You have once again opened my eyes a little wider, Syd
Posted
Until the next book or dvd, you're right there that's for sure. And I do agree it does make us grow, and understand colour more fully. I still have sessions of colour mixing
after sixteen years or so of watercolour painting, a wonderful journey of discovery, even if colour pallets of various products artists chose, to help us on our way, are to boost sales of that manufacturer, I for one am not bothered about that, it's just a lovely learning curve.
Posted
I've tried all sorts - don't really get on too well with Ultramarine skies, in watercolour anyway, but it does granulate .... which is always attractive. So will Cobalt, with a bit of Light Red mixed into it; and on the whole I prefer Cobalt, but of course the real thing is expensive. Still - you choose what works for you.
I also rather like (whisper it, in case Syd's listening) pthalo/Winsor Blue for skies - whereas others, e.g. Syd, just hate it: and it can take over everything, I do realize that. Others mix their blues - eg, Ultra and Cobalt, Cobalt and Cerulean (the genuine colours in both cases, 'hue' colours can vary so much between brands you never know what you'll end up with); others still hate blue in the sky and find it's boring, and use just about anything else - even Sepia (well diluted). I agree with those who say there's no right answer that will suit everyone: but I do think there's a lot to be said for the Michael Willcox method, which is basically to have a warm and cool version of each primary - eg, Cad Red/Quinacridone violet, aka Permanent Rose, Cad Yellow/Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine/Pthalo Blue - which in the full set of colours will be supplemented by Burnt Sienna, an orange earth red, Raw Sienna, a very useful transparent earth yellow, Pthalo green (not fond of that one, but it's a good mixer), Cerulean Blue, and Yellow Ochre: which I very rarely use in watercolour because it's so opaque. But I remember the late Wilfred Ball, a wonderful English watercolourist, always dropped a little of it into his washes for summer paintings.
The one thing I think all painters would agree on is, whatever palette of colours you choose, get to really know it - learn what it'll do and what it won't, and don't get too carried away with huge ranges of colour, especially in watercolour I would say, because you can end up with discordancy, not to mention huge expense when just a handful of colours, well-mixed, could do a better job.
And our mate Phil Kendall will disagree with that, because he hates mixing his acrylics and buys as many different colours as he can - always dangerous to generalize around here.
(PS - As you'll see, I do change my mind on colours every now and then - I'd still recommend Ultramarine, though admit to getting a bit tired of it: it can be a slightly uninteresting colour in watercolour, but in oil - especially the Michael Harding brand, which is sumptuous - it comes into its own.)
Edited
by RobertJones
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