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.