Fun with Color Mixing for Portraits

A few weeks ago I bought the book Portraits from Life in 29 Steps by John Howard Sanden. I found the opening chapters very informative. Mr. Sanden echoes many of the principles expressed by Richard Schmid in his book Alla Prima. However, there is a complication. Mr. Sanden uses several special color mixtures as a basis for his technique.

Nevertheless, I am after results, and I like the results that Mr. Sanden gets. In the past week I was able to watch a couple of video demonstrations in which Mr. Sanden explained his technique and applied it to painting actual portraits. I can definitely see the logic in his method. Furthermore, the book is filled with fine examples of his portraiture.

With respect to color mixing and portraiture, I have also recently watched a portrait demonstration video by the late Helen Van Wyk and another one by the well known portrait artist Daniel Greene. While I admire her skill with painting, Helen's portrait color mixing method was a bit chaotic in my opinion. "Start with a big puddle of white and just add your colors into it." Also, "I can't tell you the exact proportions of the colors I am using in this portrait." Well, at least the video was fun to watch even if it wasn't quite as informative as her books and other videos.

Daniel Greene on the other hand was quite methodical in his approach. He fully explained his color mixing system and the organization of his palette. I also appreciate his explanation for seeing colors and categorizing them as warm or cool and yellowish or bluish. While I am not going to use the Greene palette at this time, I can certainly borrow many of the principles he discusses in the application of the Sanden palette.

And that brings me back to Mr. Sanden's book. In my initial enthusiasm to learn to paint a portrait in (only!) 29 steps, I set out to follow the two practice portraits found in the second half of the book. I had not watched any videos by Mr. Sanden yet, nor did I have any of his "Pro Mix" colors. The "Pro Mix" colors are special premixed oil paint tubes containing three warm neutral grays, two dark mixtures, two halftone mixtures, and three light mixtures. When used with white, black, and a standard color palette, a wide range of skin tones can be painted with relative ease. Sounds great! How much does it cost? Seventy dollars at DickBlick.com? Right.

Fortunately, Mr. Sanden lists the colors that go into each mixture, and they are fairly common palette colors like Cadmium Red Light, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Viridian, and Chromium Oxide Green. As you can see in the image to the left, the book shows what the colors should look like along with many of the modifications possible. However, on another page the "Pro Mix" colors are laid out as if on a palette, and they look different there. What do I do? Which picture matches the actual tube color? What if neither does? Well, I just did the best I could with the information given. My initial results were not very pleasing.

I went back to the proverbial drawing board. I reread the book. I tried to make sense of the colors and painting sequence. I made up "Pro Mix" colors using different proportions of the basic ingredients. I tried to relate each base color to the nine tone value scale. Whatever I did, my darks were too dull, and my midtones were too dark. One thing I noticed when examining the color modifications chart was that most modifications of lights and midtones resulted in lower values in addition to changes in hue and intensity. For example, cooling Light 3 with Cerulean Blue not only changes the color temperature, it also lowers the value. I figured this might have something to do with the reason my practice portraits seemed too dark. I needed to take value shifts into account even though this effect is not explicitly explained in the book.

Finally, I was able to watch Mr. Sanden demonstrate his "Pro Mix" colors in a video. Suddenly, it all made sense. However, there was still that uncertainty with regards to color accuracy. I just couldn't trust the book. I had to buy the paints. But why should I pay $70 for ten tubes of mostly white paint? Let me explain. Neutrals 3, 5, and 7 are mostly white, some black, and a bit of Yellow Ochre. Dark 2 is a pure color mixture, but Dark 1 is the same as Dark 2 with the addition of some white. Halftones 1 and 2 both contain some white, but they are unique mixtures. Light 3 is Cadmium Red Light, Yellow Ochre, Cerulean Blue, and some white. Light 2 is the same as Light 3 but with more white. Light 1 is mostly white with a bit of Cadmium Red Light and Yellow Ochre.

My budget solution was to buy just four individual tubes of "Pro Mix" colors: Dark 2, Halftone 2, Halftone 1, and Light 3. At the same time I bought several empty tubes for the colors that I would mix myself. Since I already have a big tube of white, I mixed up my own Neutrals 3, 5, and 7, and I put them in the empty paint tubes. Dark 1 can be easily mixed on the palette from Dark 2 with the addition of a little white. The same thing goes for Light 2. Just add a little white to Light 3. Finally, Light 1 can be easily mixed on the palette by adding a touch of Cadmium Red Light and Yellow Ochre to white, colors I already have on hand anyway. Needless to say, but I spent way less than $70.

Sorry, but I have not had a chance to actually paint with them just yet. My initial impression of the "Pro Mix" tube colors is that they are too runny. Hopefully they're not like that all the way through the tubes. Also, a quick comparison between the colors out of the tube and the images in the book shows that the colors do not match. Well, at least Light 3 does match. The darks and halftones are different enough to cause problems though. Halftone 2, which is a warm midtone, differs the most from what the book represents it to be.

As much as I enjoy Mr. Sanden's book, considering its intended audience I think the publisher should have included accurate color swatches for the basic "Pro Mix" palette. If you are reading my blog and considering purchasing the book, I do recommend it. Just keep in mind that most likely you will have to buy "Pro Mix" colors, too. That's not a bad thing unless you're on a tight budget, in which case you can do what I did to save some money.

The images above are from Mr. Sanden's book and are used for educational/review purpose only. I buy my art supplies at DickBlick.com.

It's a small world after all.

It has been a while since my last post. First of all, here is one of my recent paintings. It measures 18 in. by 24 in. I started it in December and finally finished it last month. I wasn't working on it the whole time. I just had several long breaks when it wasn't possible to comfortably paint. I love how it looks on my wall, but I would be willing to sell it for the right price.

Since I completed this painting, I've been busy with several others. I did another space themed painting and then some small still life works while attempting to learn Helen Van Wyk's color recipes using two of her books. I love watching her videos, and I'm expecting one in the mail where she demonstrates a portrait.

I just finished reading Alla Prima by Richard Schmid. It has to be one of the best art instruction books I have ever read. I highly recommend it. Right now I'm working on Portraits from Life in 29 Steps by John Howard Sanden. So far, so good. Once I finish reading it and doing the sample portraits, I hope to do an in depth post on it.

Now a word on materials. I bought a tube of Blick Artists' Oil Color, Chromium Oxide Green to be exact. This is one of their professional grade oil paints. I was surprised at how thick this paint is. At first when I squeezed the tube, nothing came out. I thought it was blocked, but it wasn't. It just required a firm hand. This is quite a contrast to most of my other oil colors, especially the student grade paints and water soluble colors. I believe that at some point I'm going to zero in on one or two brands of professional grade colors for the sake of consistency.

Some Thoughts About Artists' Oil Colors

The picture on the right is of some of my oil colors. The ones depicted are my Grumbacher Pre-Tested artists' oil colors. I really like these professional quality oil paints. I bought mine from DickBlick.com. I chose Grumbacher for my most intense and saturated colors because of their high quality and economical price. (Note: All photographs posted to my blog have been taken by me, unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. Please do not use without permission.)

Some artists' oil colors are very expensive. However, these same colors tend to last a long time, so in a way they are economical too. Take, for instance, the Cadmium colors like yellow, orange, and red. Their intensity and covering power are so strong, a small amount goes a long way. More often than not I find that I have too much of a given color left over on my palette, and in the end it goes to waste. I learned very quickly to add these intense colors sparingly to my palatte. I know I can add more as needed.

I also don't like mixing these colors to dilute their strength very much. I may mix Cadmium Yellow Light with Cadmium Orange or Titanium White, but it makes little sense to mix it with Phthalo Blue, Light Red, or Raw Umber. It kind of defeats the purpose of buying a more intense (and expensive) color in the first place, doesn't it? For mixing, I think it is preferable, when possible, to use less expensive hues, like Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue for instance, that allow a greater latitude of experimentation. There are a million ways to make gray, but I would rather not start out using combinations of my most expensive and intense colors.

In this picture you can see some of my more economical oil paints. The Art Store oil colors are student grade paints made by Dick Blick. My experience with them so far has been very positive. Student grade paints? There is a method to my madness! These are my more muted colors, the ones I would be much more likely to use in mixing and for covering large areas of my canvas during the initial stages of a painting. Initial layers are thinner and more often likely to be glazed over or covered by subsequent applications of paint anyway. There's no need to buy the finest, most intense, and most expensive brands of these colors.

I also use Royal Talens Van Gogh and Windsor & Newton Artisan oil colors which I have bought individually and in sets from art supply stores. A friend of mine even gave me some Battat oil colors which surprised me with their quality. What this has taught me is not to obsess about brands too much. Will buying a $26 tube of Phthalo Green by Blockx make me a better artist than a $4 tube of the same size made by Blick? Probably not. Of course, I wouldn't mind owning a complete set of Blockx professional oil colors!

Home Schooling

My nephew said that he needed help doing his home schooling. He was in the sixth grade. He was supposed to read the book Rules by Cynthia Lord and then complete the assignments given to him by his school about the book. One problem was that he simply didn't want to read the book. Yes, he could read it just fine, but he would rather immerse himself in any number of distractions that are available to kids his age these days. When he first asked for help, he had only read the first chapter or two. I got the impression he expected me to read the rest of the book out loud for him. No dice.

His other problem was that he needed to write paragraphs in order to answer some of the questions in his school work. He had a major motivational block to actually doing this. The mental effort required to organize information in his mind and then write it down caused him a great deal of distress. If I could not give him a word for word, sentence by sentence paragraph to write down, he became visibly upset and hit the computer screen in anger. I was not used to this. I tried to explain that he simply needed to read the book and carefully follow the directions in his school work. Since I was only visiting with my sister for a short amount of time, I wound up giving into his demands at one point.

Rules is a good book. I had no problem whatsoever reading and comprehending it, and I'm pretty sure my nephew understood it just fine too, at least as far as he read it. The problem was that the book was no match for video games on his X-Box 360. He could go on and on about the details of some tricked out virtual ride in Need for Speed. Ask him to write a simple paragraph or two about a book, and all hell broke loose.

I tried to explain to him that when it comes to writing, you must simply put down the first thing that comes to mind and proceed from there. One sentence follows another. Then reread the question and reread what you have written. Rearrange words and sentences if necessary to convey your thoughts more clearly. Honestly, kids these days with their word processors and spell checkers have it so much easier than I did as a child.

He wrote a paragraph to answer one question. I thought it sounded like a well worded paragraph, yet it didn't really answer the question. I told him that and suggested an alternate subject for his answer. Yes, he would then have to discard his carefully worded paragraph and write a new one. So, he got upset and complained that it was taking too much of his time. I asked what else did he want to do with his time? He wanted to watch TV and play video games!

How does one explain to a child the importance of this kind of work? In my mind writing is closely akin to painting as a creative process. Both writing and painting require practice and exercising one's decision making abilities. At first there may be no tangible reward for all the effort that gets put into a work of art or a writing assignment, other than perhaps commendation, encouragement, or a good grade. At what point, though, does the exercise itself become its own reward? When does a personal sense of satisfaction make the effort more than worthwhile, even desirable?

Oil Painting

I started painting in acrylics back in the 1990s. Only last year did I begin to seriously work with oil paints. There is something almost magical about this centuries-old medium, and yet I feared it as well. I thought it was too complex with its variety of thinners and mediums and its slow drying characteristics.

Nevertheless, I decided to give them a try. Last summer I was staying in Puerto Rico, and I went by a local art supply store near the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez. They had some Van Gogh H2Oils on sale, so I picked up a basic set of colors from their bargain bin. These are water mixable oil paints. I figured I could start out using water to thin the paints and, of course, clean them up as well.

It wasn't too long before I went ahead and got some thinner and linseed oil. I quickly discovered that I simply preferred working with these paints just as if they were regular oils, and I started to acquire colors that were not water mixable. I found out that I really love working with oils. Their slow drying time was actually a blessing in many ways. I think I would have a hard time going back to acrylics now.

In the beginning

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