Oil Paint Palette: 2013 JTW

i stopped painting for a while, then i started again, then i moved to SK and then stopped again.  since being back in my family's home city, and being settled back in, i've started again.  but i noticed that the palette that i had, the paints that were in my kit, weren't really going where i needed them to go.  and by a kit, i mean 'my' kit, not a pre-packaged one that i bought somewhere, but this is one that i've developed over the years.  some things have made it through, a couple just came and went.  didn't really need those things.  i'll do another blog on my kit in one of my upcoming posts.  but in my kit, like i was saying, my paints weren't thorough enough.  

i didn't have enough earthiness, and i also didn't have enough contrasts and darks.  lights were easy to achieve, because of white, but it's not quite the same in the other direction by just using black.  i noticed that my paintings had a very common hue throughout all of the colors.  and one other problem with the lights, is that white doesn't necessarily mean 'bright'.  and 'brighteners' like yellow, or something else that you may have that is bright, doesn't always work because it stands a chance of it altering your color.

most likely, a very talented or experienced painter, can overcome color challenges.  and at the very least, someone who's very skilled in color theory.  or, maybe it's impossible without the right colors to begin with.  i'm still working on color theory, but i decided to go for a very good, solid and basic palette to (re)begin with.

i started doing some research, and it wasn't easy to find illustrated and described palettes.  but i did find one that was very helpful, and about two others that were pretty good too.  i don't remember where it was or who it was, but if you've been looking, most likely you've run into his (i think it's a guy) page, meaning the one that was really helpful.  if i run into it again, i'm definitely going to pay homage, because between his site and about 2-3 others, i was able to really narrow down which paints i was looking for (in my mind) and which ones i may have been looking for but needed to avoid or at least find an alternative for because they were toxic.  i had a teacher, a painting teacher in college, who got cancer because of all of her years using paints that were (naturally, or maybe a better word is traditionally?) made with toxic ingredients.  

all of the colors i've listed have at most a moderate toxicity.  only a few.  read the tubes when you get them, the cancer warnings will be there, and research will tell you where on the scale they fall.  and if they're too far up there, you may want to decide against working with them at all.  and a warning, sometimes it's heartbreaking ;o)  at least mildly.  because a couple of the colors that i was looking forward to the most were too toxic for my taste and ultimately i had to decide against them and/or return them.  

and so now, here's the list :o)

I've abbreviated the manufactures names down to: 
DRG, W&N, & G...a paint by Maimeri Puro is also on the list

REDS:
DRG: Naphthol Crimson #512
W&N (AOC): Alizarin Crimson #004
DRG: Cadmium Red Deep (Hue) #504

ORANGES:
DRG: Cadmium Orange (Hue) #619
W&N (WOC): Cadmium Yellow Deep (Hue) #46

YELLOWS:
DRG: Chrome Lemon (Hue) #627
W&N (WOC): Cadmium Yellow Pale (Hue) #8

GREENS:
DRG: Sap Green #375
DRG: Terre Verte (Hue) #379
W&N (WOC): Veridian (Hue) #43

BLUES:
DRG: Prussian Blue #135
G (AOC): Cobalt Blue #P049G
W&N (WOC): French Ultramarine #21, Series 5
W&N (WOC): Cerulean Blue (Hue) #10

EARTHS:
G (AOC): Raw Umber #P172G, Series 1
W&N (AOC): Mars Violet Deep #395, Permanence AA, Series 2
DRG: Burnt Umber #223
W&N (AOC): Burnt Sienna #074
Maimeri Puro: Mars Red #248
G (AOC): Raw Sienna #P171G, Series 1
W&N (AOC): Yellow Ocher #744

PURPLE:
DRG: Cobalt Violet (Hue) #406

WHITE:
DRG: Titanium White #009

BLACK:
DRG: Ivory Black #034

Value is the relative lightness or darkness of a color.  And Hue is the color itself.  Red is a hue, Green, etc....the common theory is that all hues can be generated or mixed from different combinations of the 3 main primaries, Red, Yellow, & Blue.  So, earlier I mentioned that a lot of my paintings had the same hue, but they also had the same value.  I wasn't getting the contrasts that I was looking for in addition to having a lot of the same color scales happening over and over.  A lot of that are my shortcomings as a painter, because masters and really skilled painters can do some pretty awesome things.  But also like I said before, I wanted to make sure that I was at least starting from a point that was a good basic foundation of colors.  

If you notice, in my 'new' palette, I have the warm and cool of every color, and in a few colors, I have a couple more in addition to those.  Not many though.  Since I'd consider myself not so good nowadays, I wanted to hold back on having so many colors that it would be a crutch.  I'm still working on color theory, and being familiar with colors in general has always been very important to me.  

So I hope this helps you!

Please leave a comment if you'd like to talk about some things,

I'm still working with this palette,

so there may be some additions to this post 

in other posts.

And please be on the lookout for 

that post about my kit.

I think it'll be especially helpful for beginners,

but also helpful for anyone with a brush :o)

Take care

:o)