To set up the figure-painting palette, you must first create the string of neutral control values described in the previous post. By the 1970's the Grumbacher Reilly Neutrals were no longer available. In the Faragasso class we sometimes skipped adding Raw Umber, perhaps for the sake of expediency, finding that the cooler grays worked well in neutralizing flesh. Gamblin makes three useful grays, calling them Portland Grey Light (v.8), Portland Grey Medium (v.6) and Portland Grey Dark (v.4). Their Munsell value designations are on the tube label. You can intermix to get the rest, and you can mix those with the Raw Umber string to create absolute neutrals. You might consider contacting Gamblin and encourage them to expand the line of Portland Grays to include all nine values.
Local Colors
Place store-bought colors adjacent to the Neutrals at their appropriate value. Paints that will help make local colors, e.g. blonde hair, blue scarf, green drapery. Many of the dark paints accumulate around the first or second value, and for convenience I move them to the far edge of the palette.
Convenience Colors
The next mixtures on the flesh palette are part of what Reilly called a "Palette of Convenience". First create a string of yellow-red (orange) values, and a string of red values. These additional strings of paint will correspond in value to the Neutrals.
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A schematic for the palette, most likely done by a student. It shows Cadmium Orange at value 6, and employs manufactured paints for the red values of 5,4,3,2 and 1. |
Yellow-Reds
To create the yellow-red string begin by mixing Cadmium Orange which, depending on the brand, comes from the tube at about value 6 or 7. Add white for lighter values and mix with Burnt Umber for darker values.
Reds
The red string begins with Cadmium Red Light, which, again depending on the brand, comes from the tube around value 5. Add Titanium White to get the lighter values. Create an admixture of Alizarin Crimson (a cool red) and a little Burnt Umber to achieve a true red at first value, and mix this with Cadmium Red Light to make the red values 2 through 4.
Complexion
Finally, to create the string of complexion values, cross mix each neutral value with it's corresponding value of red and yellow-red to arrive at the average complexion at that value. That mixture will depend on the models complexion average, i.e. pale and cool, warm and ruddy. Try to keep the hue and chroma consistent. Remember this is the complexion average, as you might see it from across the room. The local changes (red nose, gray chin) will be addressed as you paint.
In general the human complexion ranges from red to yellow-red, from pale to colorful, from dark to light. Reilly's palette facilitates mixing the subject's complexion while allowing for these local changes that occur in the flesh. Mixing this palette is time consuming, but it becomes a time saver when it really matters, during a live sitting. A palette of convenience.
In class we mixed a drop of oil of cloves into each pile of paint to extend the drying time. The palette would remain wet all week this way and so would the paint on the canvas. Be forewarned that this may also extend the drying time of the painting. There are other ways to keep your palette wet; by submerging the palette under water, or freezing it. I prefer to mix and tube the colors, so that they are always at the ready. Empty tubes are available at some art suppliers.
© John Ennis 2010
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