In my last post I talked about my new color palette. It makes me all fuzzy to know that someone is reading my ramblings and asked me to talk about the changes I have made.

Here are the important details.
1) I eliminated brown. No burnt sienna, no burnt umber, no browns at all.
2) I am using two tones of the three primary colors: one warm, one cool
  a) 2 blues are Ultramarine Blue(warm) and Cerulean Blue(cool)
  b) 2 reds are Cadmium Red Light(warm) and Alizarin Crimson(cool)
  c) 2 yellows are Yellow Ochre(warm) and Cadmium Yellow Light(cool)
3) I am only adding white as a last resort so the colors remain true pigment.
For example if I want a warm green in the olive tones I will mix Ultramarine with Yellow Ochre and a touch of Cad Red. The yellow and red will lighten the green for a very nice rich color.
4) Cool mid tone blues(you can use Cobalt Blue) are impossible to make light without adding some white so don't make yourself crazy but use as little as possible to lighten the blues.
5) And the last color I use is Viridian Green. Again it is very difficult to mix a blue green mid tone without white so Viridian keeps you from going crazy.

      The last thing I did before I started painting with this palette was to experiment so I squeezed out a big blob of each color and started mixing(see top). No white, just color. I achieve a level of comfort with the colors by doing this simple exercise. Try mixing every combination you can and have fun. I will also talk about vibrating complimentary colors in a future blog.