Zorn Palette

Continuing with the last post regarding limited palettes, here is a painting I just finished which used a "Zorn Palette".

Titanium white/zinc white mix (Gamblin)
Yellow ochre (Gamblin)
Cadmium scarlet (W&N)
Ivory black

Painting with a limited palette

This 6x8 painting of a bottle of clove oil was a study using a favorite limited palette of mine. The colors are:

-Titanium/Zinc white mix
-Cadmium Lemon
-Quinacridone Rose
-Prussian Blue

I enjoy working with this palette a lot. You can mix a really amazing range of color with it. I've always preferred to work with a limited palette for a few reasons, though the main benefit has to be gaining a better eye for color. Not only does it teach you to mix color better than anything else, but it helps you learn to see color better. Not to mention it makes the painting look much more harmonious. It's also cheaper to buy just a few tubes of paint compared to a couple dozen... I could go on.

Another great limited palette (which is used by Scott Christensen) is:
-Titanium white
-Cadmium Lemon
-Permanent Red (Winsor & Newton "Bright Red" is good, or any sort of pyrrole pigmented red)
-Ultramarine Blue

I find this second palette better for landscapes. Colors are a little more subdued compared to the first.

I also realized the perspective is a little off in this one. I need to check my ellipses more. That's what I get for painting so many landscapes and forgetting how to paint cylinders.

Two New Sedona Paintings

I tried a new palette with these two. I really like it a lot. The colors seem to be less muddy looking. The shadowed sides of the rocks, especially. Less brown, more violets.

-Zinc/Titanium White mix
-Cadmium Lemon (I have been using this color very sparingly in my mixes. I use it in some of the foreground green mixtures, as well as a very small amount in some of the areas of the rocks that are in sunlight).
-Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna (sometimes I will have both on my palette, sometimes just one or the other).
-Quinacridone Rose (This has affected my mixing the most, I think).
-Venetian Red (I use this color for convenience more than anything else, i suppose. I could easily mix it from the others. Perhaps I will go without it on the next painting, and see what kind of a difference that makes).
-French Ultramarine

"Silver Lining" 11x12

I've noticed that a lot of my landscapes have a lack of clouds and back-lit subjects. These two landscapes combine both of those. I enjoyed working on them. I think the clouds add a lot more interest to the piece. I think it helps accentuate the brightness of the sun.

"Standing Sentinel" 12x12

I used my palette knife to create most of the grassy texture in the foreground of Standing Sentinel. I'm pretty happy with the result. Grass is something that I find difficult at times. It can be hard to create interest in such a flat, bland area. I found that by using a brush to block in some darker shades first, I could go in with the palette knife to place the highlights and scratch through to the underpainting (The underpainting was a wash of Raw Sienna and Venetian Red over a white gesso. Warm and yellow-orange near the bottom, and more red near the top).

Sedona Plein Air Trip

I took a quick 3 day trip to Sedona last week. I was able to finally test out my Guerrilla painting box. It worked very well, and I'm happy with my purchase. It held the panels snugly when closed, so they didn't shift around or smear.

I believe this was one of the Thunder Mountain hiking trails. I also did some painting on one of the Schnebly Hill trails the next day. It was a good time. Though I did find out the hard way that I need to invest in an umbrella, a hat, and sunscreen.

Three new paintings

It's been a while since I've updated this. I've still been painting, though. Here's what I've been working on...

I posted some WIP shots of this painting a while back. I'm pretty happy with how the rocks came out in this one. I like the atmospheric perspective on the mountains in the background. The smaller pieces of rock (which are actually quite massive up close) near the base of the mountain can be tricky to paint with minimal brush strokes. For me, it's a matter of finding the fewest brushstrokes needed to give the impression of detail. It's something I am always learning.

This next one is the other side of the Superstitions. The foreground was good practice. I think that's one thing I need to work on the most right now.

Palette:
Cremnitz
Naples Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Red
Burnt Sienna
Green Earth
Ultramarine

And finally we have a view of Canyon Lake in the afternoon, finished this morning.

In this painting I expanded my palette a little bit. Still mostly Old Holland. Though, I like to try something new in each painting. This time I added some Quinacridone Rose and Permanent Green. The permanent green is very artificial looking, especially in a desert landscape. I found it was helpful in very subtly tinting some of the greens as they came forward, making the closer greens slightly more vibrant. The Q Rose mixed with Naples Yellow made some nice oranges and pinks for the rocks.

What I'm listening to:



Johnny Cash's cover of U2's One. I like this a lot more than the original.

Superstition, take 2

Well I think it's just about finished. It took a bit longer, since this one is 24x24.I took photos of the in-progress painting each day. Perhaps you are curious to see how a painting evolves over the course of my painting process...

I made all the images the same size. So, if you click the "next" arrow, it should be like a flip book of sorts and you can see the painting go from start to completion.

I think I am going to put on some more glazes. I would like to dull down the blue rocks in the shadows. They are a little too light right now. The camera made them appear a little bit lighter than they actually are, but it's still something I need to address.

I also need to work more on foregrounds. Painting the desert can be tough. It's hard to get all the muted greens, along with the peach and pink colors of the dirt with minimal brushstrokes. I think my foreground looks a little too lush. I think it's effective in the middle to background hills, but there's still a lot I need to work on with the nearest hills.

I tried out a couple new colors as well. Mars Violet from Williamsburg was one of them. When mixed with ultramarine and white it makes some nice muted purples. I used it a lot in the shadowed sides of the mountain.

I picked up a tube of W&N Cremnitz white (Lead white) and used that instead of Old Holland, since this canvas is pretty big and I can't afford to use up half a tube of that on one painting. I also used a little bit of Prussian Blue to get some of the greens.

My full palette
-Cremnitz (W&N)
-Naples Yellow (O.H.)
-Yellow Ochre (Rembrandt)
-Cad Red Medium (O.H.)
-Red Ochre (O.H.)
-Mars Violet (Williamsburg)
-Ultramarine (W&N)
-Prussian Blue (Gamblin)
-Sap Green (Rembrandt)
-Green Earth (O.H.)

Guerrilla Box and some painting progress

After reading some reviews online I decided to buy a Guerrilla Box. I bought the 9x12 Pochade  box at Utrecht today. I think it was around $169. A little pricey, but I have been really impressed with the quality. It has a piece on the bottom to be connected to a tripod. I'm using the ancient family camcorder tripod.

 It's nice and spacious inside. Plenty of room for tubes of paint and mediums. The enclosed leaflet says it can store multiple wet 9x12 panels inside. That's great for backpacking, which is something I plan on doing really soon. Can't wait to get outside and try it out.

I also have some work in progress shots of new paintings. First up is the Superstition one from last time. The color is now blocked in, so the next step is some dark glazes and highlight layers...

I decided to revisit the last Superstition mountains painting I did. This time it's on a 2 foot square canvas. I don't normally work much larger than one foot. I also decided to extend the foreground, and put it in shadow. I think it will help focus on the shapes in the rocks created by the sunlight.

The color has been lightly sketched in, over a reddish-brown toned canvas. Since there's no sky I think it makes the mountains seem much larger, and now that it's on a bigger canvas it should seem more towering than before.

"I won't be a rock star. I will be a legend." -Freddie Mercury