30 November 2015, 6pm
This is another post for the artist-nerd, not one for the
average punter.
I’ve spent a few days reorganising my palette reference
boards in an obsessive fashion to refine and simplify my use of complementary
pigments. My old palette reference boards were no help in this respect, and
getting rather obscure and grotty after many years of constant use and abuse.
So I started from scratch and listed in spectral order, as
closely as I could, the 102 colour pigments at my disposal. I used as my basis
the Maunsell colour wheel (see previous post). Here it is super-imposed on a
modern colour spectrum.
And here’s the list of pigments, excluding the earths, which
are all neutralised. It’s as close as I could arrange it, I’m sure there’s a
few mistakes, but near enough is good enough in this case.
The ‘AS’ and so on refer to the manufacturer. The colour of
pigments can vary considerably from one brand to another and it can be quite
useful for some colours to have them in more than one make. Also, some pigments
can be totally different if used thinly or thickly. For instance, Art
Spectrum’s Australian Red Gold is red-orange if thick, but yellow if thin.
The colours, such as “BLUE” are in inverted commas to
indicate that they are conceptual words, and not accurately descriptive of real
pigments, which always contain impurities. Some pigments come close to being
pure colours, but not many. After all, they’re just ground-up bits of rocks and
chemicals.
ALLA PRIMA COLOUR WHEEL
----------------------------------------“BLUE”-----------------------------------------
Antwerp Blue WN
Tasman Blue AS
Cobalt Blue WN
Primary Blue LF+B
-----------------------------------------“B-BP”-------------------------------------
Windsor Blue – Green Shade WN
Cobalt Blue AS
-----------------------------------------“PB”-------------------------------------
Antwerp Blue AS
Prussian Blue AS
Ultramarine Blue AS
French Ultramarine WN
French Ultramarine R
French Ultramarine AS
-----------------------------------------“PB-P”-------------------------------------
Mauve Blue Shade WN
-----------------------------------------“PURPLE”-------------------------------------
Cobalt Violet Dark WN
Permanent Mauve AS
Mauve, Red Shade WN
Lilac AS
Flinders Blue Violet AS
Permanent Mauve WN
Flinders Red Violet AS
------------------------------------------“P-BP”-----------------------------------------
Magenta WN
Cadmium Deep Red AS
Permanent Crimson AS
Spectrum Crimson, Alizarin Hue AS
Cadmium Red Deep WN
Rose Dore AS
Bright Red 144 WN
--------------------------------------------“RP”-----------------------------------------
Bright Red 141 WN
Spectrum Red AS
-------------------------------------------“R-PR”----------------------------------------
Cadmium Red WN
-------------------------------------------“RED”-----------------------------------------
Cadmium Red AS
------------------------------------------“YR-Y”---------------------------------------
Flesh Tint WN
-------------------------------------------“YR”----------------------------------------
Flesh Tint R
Naples Yellow Reddish AS
Australian Red Gold AS
Chrome Orange WN
-----------------------------------------“YR-Y”-------------------------------------
Cadmium Orange WN
Italian Pink AS
Cadmium Yellow WN
Cadmium Yellow AS
Spectrum Yellow AS
Indian Yellow AS
Chrome Yellow WN
Chrome Yellow Hue WN
----------------------------------------“YELLOW”---------------------------------------
Aureolin AS
----------------------------------------“Y-GY”---------------------------------------
Zinc Yellow WN
Chrome Lemon WN
Yellow Light Arch
Lemon Yellow WN
Lemon Yellow AS
Chrome Green Light WN
Spectrum Green Light AS
Australian Green Gold AS
----------------------------------------“GY”---------------------------------------
Australian Leaf Green Light AS
Australian Leaf Green Dark AS
Olive Green AS ?
Terre Verte Traditional AS
Terre Verte R
----------------------------------------“GY-G”---------------------------------------
Sap Green AS
Cadmium Green WN
Oxide of Chromium AS
Oxide of Chromium WN
Permanent Green Light WN
Prussian Green WN
Terre Verte AS
----------------------------------------“GREEN”---------------------------------------
Windsor Emerald WN
----------------------------------------“G-BG”---------------------------------------
Spectrum Viridian AS
Pthalo Green AS
Windsor Green WN
----------------------------------------“BG”---------------------------------------
Australian Leaf Green – Bluish AS
Cobalt Green AS
----------------------------------------“BG-B”---------------------------------------
Cerulean AS
Cerulean WN
Sapphire AS
Manganese Blue WN
Indigo AS
Indigo Blue (Perm. Hue) AS
----------------------------------------“BLUE”-----------------------------------------
And here’s the list of earths –
EARTHS
----------------------------------------------"BLUE"----------------------------------
Madder Brown Aliz WN
Madder Brown R
Pilbara Red AS
Venetian Red R
Mars Violet WN
(Mars Red)
Light Red WN
Mars Orange WN
----------------------------------------------RED------------------------------------
Transparent Red Oxide AS
Burnt Sienna WN
Burnt Sienna AS
Brown Pink AS
Australian Grey AS
Burnt Umber AS
Transparent Brown Earth AS
Burnt Umber WN
Raw Umber R
Raw Umber AS
Vandyke Brown AS
Raw Sienna R
Transparent Gold Oxide AS
Raw Sienna WN
Raw Sienna AS
Mars Yellow WN
Yellow Ochre AS
Naples Yellow WN
Naples Yellow AS
Australian Red Gold AS ?
Italian Pink AS
------------------------------------------YELLOW----------------------------------
And my new pigment reference board looks like this (updated 5 Dec) –
The strip on the left is the earths (I’m afraid my pic
doesn’t do them justice), while the wheel has my ‘clean’ colours. Now I can
easily look from one side of the wheel to the diametrically placed side to find
the best candidates to choose for the complimentary. As well as the contrast of
the complimentary, it helps me find harmonies easily. The earths can be used in
combination with the wheel in a similar fashion. The earths range from those
with a blue impurity, through red, to yellow. Should take a bit of the
guesswork out of pigment selection, and it’ll be interesting to see how it
affects the quality of my paintings. I might yet go back to the (arbitrary)
conventional colour wheel.
