Doing Colour
This is the bit I dread and agree wholeheartedly with Peter Howson, when he says, “If you make it a big palette straightaway you end up like a fruit salad”. Although I don’t think he struggles with it as much as I do! After having so much fun doing my underpainting and being so pleased with how great the results often look, I get so nervous about adding colour - there are too many choices and things that can go wrong.
Detail of NHS, 1632 - Oil on Canvas 2021
Using a coloured ground and two underpainting layers, quickly helps establish tonal values but you get some lovely hues as well. Liquin speeds up the drying.
Firstly, mixing paint is not easy - especially when you need to mix up the same colour a few weeks later. With too much mixing, oil paints can quickly turn to pale mush or mud that are good for nothing (in my opinion) and you lose the intensity and contrast in a painting. Also because of other work, I may be away from the easel for some time and by then the colours I have mixed have dried and can no longer be used, which is a waste as well as meaning I have to mix again, trying to get as close to the original colour as possible.
Detail of Marc & Rachel: 8 Today - Oil on Canvas 2020
Built up this red top and balloon bosom using Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Red. I scrub in colour to get a rough tonal plan, add highlights of Titanium White, then glaze with Alizarin Crimson and repeat to build up the intensity and contrast. I already have the underpainting down as well. Paints from Winsor and Newton, Michael Harding and Jackson’s Art Supples.
So as ever, I try and keep to a few simple rules. I keep my palette for a painting simple and consistent. I try not to mix too much, just like Michelangelo. I use a lot of paint straight from the tube! I try and work with a transparent pigment and opaque pigment of the same colour e.g. Burnt Sienna and Venetian Red or Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson. Often the transparent colour is used to glaze shadows and make the colour darker but also looks great over Titanium White, that’s when it glows! I normally use Titanium White for highlights of the colour, sometimes Naples Yellow Light for flesh tones. And I knock back areas with glazes of Prussian Blue, Indigo, Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber, whichever I did the underpainting in - sometimes a green works too, Terre Verte for example.
Detail of A teenager working on her anger management problem or a very happy young girl with a bright and wonderful future - Oil on Canvas 2020
After the underpainting, I dusted in some Emerald Green and Egyptian Blue for the background. Then added Flesh Tone and Titanium White before knocking it all back with Burnt Umber and then doing it again.
I often glaze over the opaque layers of colour at least once and then repeat the process. That way you get subtle variations on the opaque pigments you put down but also nice gradients and some highlights that stand out against shadow ares.
Profile of the Profile of the Duke of Urbino - Oil on Canvas 2021
Including the underpainting, only seven pigments in this and two of them are Naples Yellow!
I try to keep my palette limited, sticking with similar colours or complementaries. Using Deep, Pale and Light shades of pigments also helps. Some of my favourites are the various Naples Yellows and Yellow Ochres. But despite all these things, adding colour is tricky and you don’t always know if it works until too late! I get quite upset at times because previous paintings or the underpainting have gone well and I think I am a master, then it goes wrong and I crash back to reality. You can always scrub it away and start again, which is another benefit of oil paint.
Detail of NHS, 1632 - Oil on Canvas 2021
Letting the underpainting show through is important to me - I avoid blocking in with colour so you can see the subtle colour combinations underneath. Love my Nuclear Flesh Tone though! Recipe remains secret - if you want to know, you’ll have to ask.
On the rare occasion that I do mix colours, I keep it simple and make notes - storing the palette in the fridge slows the drying time as well, which helps keep my stress levels down. Often just two pigments and Titanium White. My Nuclear Flesh Tone is a personal favourite!
Marc & Rachel: 8 Today - Oil on Canvas 2020
A finished painting (very rare), with more colours than normal but the client had purple hair!
With a handful of pigments you can create a lot of intensity and range of colours. Using glazes gives even more possibilities and mystery.
Detail of Marc & Rachel: 8 Today - Oil on Canvas 2020
Glazing adds another dimension to colour and brings out some exciting variations and surprises.