Complementary Pigments Part 2

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.