Unit I, Lesson 1--Full Color Palette Color Chart

The first color chart consists of each hue within my usual palette, starting with the fully saturated color straight from the tube at the top, working to a light tint at the bottom by adding Titanium White.  

• Oil Colors
• Alizarin Permanent
• Transparent Oxide Red
• Cadmium Red Deep
• Cadmium Yellow Light
• Cadmium Lemon
• Viridian Green
• Phthalo Blue
• Ultramarine Blue
• Titanium White
• Canvas pad--I used Centurion oil-primed linen, 9"x12"
• Masking tape--I used 3/4" tape

Approximate time to complete:  4 hours (including the mistake I outline below)

Step One:  Divide and mask the canvas

To make pretty little rows and columns of color, I masked off the areas that I wanted left free of paint.  I wanted to make 5 rows of 8 columns, so I divided my canvas appropriately with a T-square, allowing for a border of blank canvas all around.  I plan to mat and frame the canvases after they dry, and I'll mount a label near each frame.  After masking around the edges, I was left with 10.5" x 7.5" of working space.  Accounting for the rows, I calculated that the tape takes up 3 inches, so my squares had to be .9 inches long each.  Accounting for the columns, I calculated that the tape and the painted squares would take up 5.25" each, so each painted square had to equal .65".  Using my T-square, I applied a row of tape and measured from that to the next.  (Update:  I figured out a short-cut to help the process go quicker.  See it in Unit I, Lesson 3 here.)

Masking the rows

Using the same method, I masked off the columns.  

Masking the columns

Fully masked

I made a point to remember the order in which I layered the tape to make it easy to remove in Step Four.  

Step Two:  Arrange the colors

Your colors should range from red through yellow and blue.  Each hue within each range should range in that order.  Think of a color wheel, like this:

Color Wheel by Karen Arnold

At first, I arranged my colors as follows: (1) Alizarin Permanent, a transparent which has more blue in it than yellow; (2) Cadmium Red Deep, an opaque which has no blue in it and has more yellow than Alizarin Permanent; (3) Transparent Oxide Red, a transparent which has more yellow than Cadmium Red Deep and therefore looks a bit orange; (4) Cadmium Yellow Light, an opaque which contains a tiny bit of red; (5) Cadmium Lemon, an opaque which is on the greener side, therefore, contains a bit of blue; (6) Viridian Green, a transparent and my only green because I mix the others from my blues and yellows; (7) Phthalo Blue, a greenish blue; and (8) Ultramarine Blue, which contains a bit of red.

Step Three:  Mix the colors and apply the paint

Keeping your colors in the proper order (thinking of a color wheel), apply color straight from the tube to the top row.  The bottom row should be a slight tint.  The middle should be a tint between the first and last row, and the second and fourth rows should be in-between steps.  I applied the color to the canvas with a small palette knife.  See my value exercise that I figured out later here.

After putting the colors on my palette, I made a mistake.  Instead of placing Transparent Oxide Red after Cadmium Red Deep, I rearranged it to before.  I did this because of the value and saturation of the color.  I couldn't tell how yellow Transparent Oxide Red leaned.  See?

Wrong order

  It looked fine at this stage, but look what happened when I tinted the colors:

Definitely the wrong order

It is clear that the Transparent Oxide Red contains a lot more yellow than the Cadmium Red Deep, which is why the third and fourth rows stick out like sore thumbs.

So, I fixed it.  Using my palette knife, scraped the rows of Transparent Oxide Red and Cadmium Red Deep, wiped the columns with turpentine, and switched them.

Correct order

I knew this would affect the final look (some turpentine soaks under the masking tape and bleeds around the edges), but being a practice exercise, I decided to complete it rather than start over.  I learned a lesson, and that is what counts!

From left to right: Alizarin Permanent, Cadmium Red Deep, Transparent Oxide Red, Cadmium Yellow Light, and Cadmium Lemon 

Complete with all of the colors on your palette.

From left to right: Alizarin Permanent, Cadmium Red Deep, Transparent Oxide Red, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Lemon, Viridian Green, Phthalo Blue, and Ultramarine Blue

Step Four: Remove the tape

Remembering the order in which I applied the layers of tape, I carefully removed it when the paint was still wet.

Step Five:  Let it dry

Finished product

I learned a lot with this exercise, but I wasn't completely happy with the results because of the weeping color around some of the squares.  I had to remind myself of the purpose for the color charts exercise--becoming fluent with my palette and color mixing!  Overall, I call it a success.

What I learned:

• Arrange the colors in their order on the color wheel--color saturation has nothing to do with anything!  If you have questions about the order, add some white to the saturated hue to see which way the color "leans."
• Titanium white definitely cools as it tints.  You can see this in Row 5--All of the colors look cooler (or bluer) than in the middle row.  

You can access all of the lessons in this unit from the Index of Lessons page here.

Upcoming Lesson  

Unit I, Lesson Two--Alizarin Permanent color chart

Materials needed:

• Oil Colors
• Alizarin Permanent (lots of it)
• Cadmium Red Deep
• Transparent Oxide Red
• Cadmium Yellow Light
• Cadmium Lemon
• Viridian Green
• Phthalo Blue
• Ultramarine Blue
• Titanium White
• Canvas pad--I used Centurion oil-primed linen, 9"x12"
• Masking tape--I used 3/4" tape

This second lesson took me approximately 3 hours.

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