The Painter in oil

Here is a list of colors which will work well together, and with which you can do as

much as is possible with colors as far as our present materials go.

Most of these colors, I am aware, are among the expensive ones. This I’m sorry for,

but cannot help. The good colors are at times the expensive ones, but as there are no

cheaper ones which are permanent to take their places, it would be the falsest of

economy to use others.

Palette Principles. - In making up your palette, you must so arrange it that you can

get pure color when you want it. There is never any trouble to get the color negative; to

get richness and balance is another matter. If you will refer to the color plates, you will

see that in each of the three primary colors there are pigments which lean towards one

or the other of the other two. The scarlet red is a yellow red. The Chinese vermilion and

the rose madder are blue reds. The same holds with yellows and blues, as orange

cadmium is a red yellow, and strontian yellow is a greenish yellow. This is, in practice, of

the utmost importance, in the absence of the ideal color, for when we deal with the

practical side of pigment, we deal with very imperfect materials which will not follow in

the lines of the scientific theory of color. If we would have the purest and richest

secondary color, we must take two primaries, each of which partakes of the quality of

the other. To make a pure orange, for instance, we must use a yellow red and a red

yellow. If we used a bluish red and a bluish (greenish) yellow, the blue in both would

give us a sort of tertiary in the form of a negative secondary instead of the pure rich

orange we wanted. This latter fact is quite as useful in keeping colors gray without too

much mixing when we want them so, but nevertheless we must know how to get pure

color also.

These characteristics have a bearing on the setting of our palette, for we must have at

least two of each of the three primary colors - red, yellow, and blue - and white. There

may be as many more as you want, but there must be at least that number.

But the character of the work you are doing will also have an influence on the colors

you use. You may not need the same palette for one sort of picture that is essential to

another. You can have a palette which will do all sorts of work, but a change in the

combinations may often be called for in accordance with a different color characteristics

of your picture.

I will suggest several palettes of different combinations which will give you an idea of

how you may compose a palette to suit an occasion. I do not say that you should

confine yourself to any or all these palettes, nor that they are the best possible. But they

are safe and practical, and you may use them until you can find or compose one better

suited to your purposes. They will all be made up from the colors we have in our list,

and will all have the arrangement I called to your attention to as to the use of two of

each primary.

It would be well if you were to compare each of the colors with the corresponding

one in the plates at the end of the book, and get acquainted with its characteristic look.

Expense. - I have several times referred to the relative expense of colors, and stated

that when the good color was of greater cost than others, there was nothing for it but to

get the best. I cannot modify that statement, but it is well to say that as a rule the

expensive colors are not those that use the most of, although some are used constantly.