RIGHT Anonymous
copy of a 17th-
century painting,
Still Life with Book
and Skull, oil on
panel, 23x30.5cm
“Making a copy of
a painting created
using an earth
palette can help
you get the feel
of the mixtures
and colour
relationships.”
OPPOSITE PAGE
Al Gury, Portrait
of a Man, oil on
panel, 35.5x28cm
“The rich, mid-tone
complexion of
the sitter was a
perfect match to
my limited palette
of earth colours:
Raw Umber, Yellow
Ochre, Ivory Black,
Burnt Sienna and
Titanium White.”
RIGHT Real
“earth” colours
“This iron-rich,
reddish clay from a
farm field becomes
a rudimentary
Burnt Sienna when
it is mixed with
linseed oil.”
T
he earth palette comprises the oldest group of
colours used by humans. Archaeological evidence
of a short list of earth and organic-based colours
goes back as much as 70,000 years. Prehistoric people
around the world used a palette comprised of naturally
occurring yellow clays, brown earths, reddish iron-rich
clays, carbon from burned sticks and bones, and white
made from ground clam shells and natural chalk. This
“limited” palette has been used to create remarkable
images on cave walls and cliff faces, as well as the
colouring on ancient totems, pottery and jewellery.
Reds, yellows, blacks and whites gave a rich variety to
paintings of prehistoric animals and humans as well as
striking patterning and colour on pottery, jewellery and
other objects. Extremely durable, the early earth palette
has miraculously survived in archaeological sites aroundthe world and tell us much about our own history and
development as a human family.
To create art with these earths, clays, carbons and
chalks, they were ground and mixed with water, animal
fats, oils or wax and applied to walls and handmade
objects. This list of additives was expanded over time to
include gums, lime, and glues. This ancient practice of
grinding and mixing remains the principle manner of
making all artists’ colours today, whether oil paints,
pastels, watercolours or acrylics
In the last 10,000 years, with the development of
settled communities, simple technologies and the growth
of crafts and skill-based artisans, the range and variety
of the earth palette began to include heated and burned
clays to make a wider range of reds, and a more diverse
use of iron rich clays and plant and vegetable extracts.
This more extended earth palette became the basis for
almost all colour usage for many centuries to come.
Not until the craft of grinding precious and semi-
precious stones, and the simple technologies of using
heated metals, lime, copper, calcium, silica and other
mined materials was developed, do we see the ancient
earth palette added to and extended by brighter colours.HISTORY OF COLOUR
Regardless of the gradual introduction of brighter colours,
the simple earth palette remained the basis of artists
palettes. It was highly practical and useful for drawing
designs and creating the patterns of plants and animals on
everything from walls to manuscripts. Even where bright
colours might be applied to a fresco of an illuminated
manuscript, the earth colours still provided the underlying
structure and most of the practical descriptive colours for
humans, animals and objects inanyimage.InOldKingdom
Artists & Illustrators 53