Wednesday, December 2, 2009

What color did I mix to make that, anyway?

This post probably comes under the catagory of "studio tips". I have high-chroma, "modern" colors on my palette as well as some earth tones, thought I don't usually use all my colors on a particular painting. To make things more complicated, I like to try out new colors, especially tubes I have hanging around the studio. (This is a byproduct of having had several excellent teachers, none of whom, by the way, even remotely paint the same way. ) Lots of times I find myself wondering, how did I get that color when I did that painting?

I've started to lay out little blobs from my palette for every painting I do onto cheap glossy paper. I'm also keeping a record of the mixtures I use. This one, for example, is the palette for the painting of the girl in the tondo below. I was seeing what I could do with one yellow, one red, one blue, black and white. I wrote on the corner of the sheet the brands and names of paint and pinned it to the wall. After the painting was finished I hung the paper palette onto a coat hanger so I can put it in my closet.