The Limited Palette: A Good Place to Start
In this 5-week course we explore two different ways of beginning an oil painting using two
different limited palettes:
1. The Primary Prismatic Palette: We mix a full range of colors using red, yellow, blue, and white. Avoiding the use of lines, we apply the paint as dots (or any gestural brushstroke that is not a line) to experience how paint itself creates the illusion of three-dimensions, light, and space.
Day 1 Primary Prismatic Palette: blue and white underpainting
Day 2 Primary Prismatic Palette: full color painting
2. The Earth Palette: Using classical techniques, we make a painting in three layers.
Day 1 Earth Palette: transparent monochromatic underpainting in earth red for establishing values from light to dark
Day 2 Earth Palette: earth colors plus white make the foundation for hues and warm/cool relationships
Day 3 Earth Palette: the full palette (combining earth and prismatic colors) using transparent glazing, translucent Velatura, opaque, and impasto paint applications
Required Supplies
- BRUSHES - A variety of brushes, including the following:
- bristle round size 2 A must for the first day of class.
- bristle filberts and/or bristle flats sizes 4, 6
- A must for day 3 of this class: Economy White Bristle Brush size 2-inch
- bristle round size 2 A must for the first day of class.
- SOLVENT - Solvent in a small jar for cleaning brushes and also for mixing painting mediums: odorless mineral spirits (Gamblin Gamsol).
- SOAP - plain white bar soap such as Ivory
- LINSEED OIL (refined)
- PALETTE (a rectangular shape works best) We will be mixing many gradations of colors so a bigger palette is better than a small one.
- disposable paper or wood or plexiglass or any other surface intended for oil paints
- recommended paper palette
- PALETTE/PAINTING KNIFE - For this class the best shape is: “Painting Knife - Small Long Spade 50”
- PAPER TOWELS
- NITRILE GLOVES
- PAPER AND PEN OR PENCIL FOR SMALL VALUE SKETCHES
- OIL PAINTS
- quinacridone red
- cadmium yellow medium
- ultramarine blue (note: not a phthalocyanine blue)
- earth red such as Old Holland red ochre or Williamsburg “Italian Rosso Veneto” (note not Venetian red unless it is Williamsburg
- Italian Rosso Veneto)
- yellow ochre (PY 43): Old Holland yellow ochre light is best
- ivory black
- titanium white or titanium zinc white
- quinacridone red
- PAINTING MEDIUMS - In a small glass jar or eyedropper bottle, mix odorless mineral spirits and refined linseed oil for each day as follows:
- Day one—2 parts odorless mineral spirits plus 1 part refined linseed oil
- Day two—refined linseed oil
- Day three—2 parts odorless mineral spirits plus 1 part refined linseed oil
- Day four—1 part odorless mineral spirits plus 1 part refined linseed oil
- Day five—refined linseed oil
- Day one—2 parts odorless mineral spirits plus 1 part refined linseed oil
You will also need a shallow dish or jar lid for small amounts of medium to use while painting
- A WHITE SURFACE, PRIMED FOR OIL PAINTS (Do not tone the surface with an Imprimatura) Not smaller than 9 x 12 inches. Here are a few options:
- stretched and primed canvas
- gessoed panel
- Fredrix canvas pad (these are not sold at Blick in Seattle, but they can be ordered online (This brand is superior to Blick canvas pads)
- gessoed mat board, museum board, or heavyweight hot pressed watercolor paper—Use a minimum of 3 coats of Golden white acrylic gesso. Change the direction of the brushstrokes for each layer.
Note: Painting in oils on an acrylic gesso priming is perfectly sound, as long as the gesso has had time to cure and is completely dry. Overnight is a sufficient amount of drying time.
