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.

Complementary Pigments

Tuesday, 24 November 2015, 6pm.

I prepared this post for those artists who exploit complementary colours, whether mixing or glazing them to make darks, layering them to generate energy, or side-by-side to create colour contrasts.

I’m using the Maunsell colour wheel as my base. From ‘The Art of Colour and Design’ by Maitland Graves, recommended to me long ago by Rod Milgate, and a bible of mine ever since. Unlike conventional colour wheels, this one is based on the actual wavelength of the hue. The distance between red and yellow is half that of the other primaries. In effect, the wheel is divided into five sections, (blue to purple/purple to red/red to yellow/yellow to green/green to blue) rather than the conventional six (blue to purple/purple to red/red to orange/orange to yellow/yellow to green/green to blue). Blue/orange (which is listed as YR) is the only complementary alignment that this wheel shares with conventional colour wheels.

In the following image, I’ve put a complementary arrangement of colours inside the Maunsell colour wheel. All I’ve done is rotate the original wheel 180 degrees to align the outer colours with their inner complements. I apologise for the inaccurate colour representation, it comes from a very old colour photocopy. But you get the general idea.

That’s all very well for colour, but what about actual pigments, bits of ground-up rock and chemicals? This list of commonly used pigments is as close as I can come to an actual colour wheel and the associated complemantary pigments. Backslashes indicate approximate hue equivalence. Of course, most secondaries can be mixed, rather than using alla prima pigments. Tone is ignored in this list.

PIGMENT                                        COMPLEMENTARY

Cadmium Yellow (medium)                               Ultramarine

Cadmium Yellow Light                                      Ultramarine/Alizarin Crimson mix/

Lemon Yellow                                                  Cobalt Violet Dark

Australian Green Gold                                      Flinders Blue Violet/Indigo

Terre Verte

Australian Leaf Green Light                              Alizarin Crimson

Sap Green

Permanent Green Light                                     Spectrum Crimson/Cadmium Red Deep

Prussian Green

Oxide of Chromium

Cadmium Green                                               Cadmium Red

Manganese Blue

Cerulean Blue/Pthalo Blue                                Chrome Orange

Tasman Blue                                                    

Cobalt Blue                                                     Cadmium Orange

Antwerp Blue/Prussian Blue                             Camium Red and Cadmium Yellow mix

Ultramarine                                                      Cadmium Yellow (medium)

And so we come full circle.

One thing to note is the preponderance of greens in my palette. I’m a landscape painter at heart.

Glazed Siding Springs

Sunday 22 November, 10am

This is what the Siding Springs ink/watercolour looks like after getting a coat of #3 Oil Medium.

The decrease in light scatter has deepened the contrast and crisped up the image.

Siding Springs

Tuesday 17 November, 11am.

I’m organising an artist residency at Siding Springs next year, to do some work based on the equipment and people who work there.

One of the problems with this is that many areas are sensitive to dust, so using charcoal is often a no-no. I needed to find a way of working that doesn’t generate any dust. I decided to try working on my usual gesso panels with black ink and watercolour, using a large oil painting brush for the ink, a soft 2” brush for the watercolour and a rag for smoothing the wet media. I used some photos (against my better judgement) I took when last there to make this painting –

“The 3.9 Metre Light Bucket at Siding Springs”

17/11/2015      900x600

It looked a bit flat when I finished painting, so I used sandpaper and sgraffito to reintroduce some whites (can’t do that with paper). I’ll have to avoid those during the residency. It’s a bit tight, but what else can you do with a highly technical subject? The finish is also flat and the darks don’t have much depth. I’m thinking of glazing it with oil media to remedy that.

Not too sure about the public service ochre on the horseshoe bearing – I would have gone for Monza red.

Just Plain Loco

5 November 2015, 10am

Instead of my usual day at SDSR yesterday (welding and grinding), I thought I’d have a go at a portrait of our beloved, but tired, loco. She needs new pistons, rings and liners. Anyone out there got a 17” rebuild kit?

“A Portrait of C17 No.971”

4/11/2015        910x610

It was built by Walkers of Maryborough in 1951, which makes us contemporaries.

A Weekend in Warialda

Saturday 31 October 2015, 3pm

I spent last weekend on an arty expedition to Warialda with fellow artist Chris Fletcher. We arrived in Warialda at 9am after I took a wrong turn near Texas, which cost us an hour.

After a burger for breakfast (yuck), we set off to look for Gragin Peak, crossing Murdering Creek along the way. Might have a fraught history. I’d bought some acrylics (also yuck!) and wanted to try some plein-air painting without using charcoal, which I hadn’t attempted in many years. The crudeness of the acrylic layer turned out to be an asset. It produced a much clumsier image than I would have produced with oils. I finished it from memory with oils over the top a couple of days ago. It has a rather tenuous connection with reality.

“Gragin Peak”

24/10/2015      600x450

Fletcher perversely ignored the obvious peak and did a stunner of the fields –

We moved on to get a distant view of the peak from the highway, stopping at a farm and getting permission to draw from their hill. This time Chris went for the obvious.

I ignored the attractions of the silos and drew the view –

“Twin Peaks”

24/10/2015      910x610

So late in the afternoon we found ourselves at Cranky Rock Recreation Reserve and realised we didn’t need to go anywhere else for the rest of the weekend. I started by tackling the massive rocks on the other side of the creek from the high viewing platform –

“Cranky Rocks”

24/10/2015      610x910

Chris tackled the same view later that night –

while I stayed put and drew the campground –

“Cranky Bins”

24/10/2015      910x610

“Cranky Trees”

24/10/2015      910x610

Next morning I was feeling a bit seedy, but managed to get started with a track near the viewing platform, followed by Warialda Creek –

“Cranky Track”

25/10/2015      910x610

“Cranky Creek”

25/10/2015      610x910

That night I drove back up the track to draw a field that had taken my fancy. Balls of sheet lightning were busy in the distance –

“Cranky Lightning”

25/10/2015      910x610

The lighter marks in the closest field were made by my clothes dragging across the charcoal. Chaos is my friend again. Later on, back in the camp I attacked Chris as he worked –

“Cranky Chris”

25/10/2015      600x450

“Cranky Camp”

25/10/2015      600x450

Tony the Tasmaniac's hand-crafted camper -

 

That naughty toxic waste mine near Texas -

I’m not feeling too well.

Flatlands 1

Thursday 8 October, 2015, 5pm

Flatlands

A two-week residency at the RiverSmart Wetlands Centre in Warren, NSW.

I arrived in Warren a couple of weeks ago after the long dreary drive down the New England from home with a wad of panels and a mess of different charcoals to try out.

I went out to the legendary and historic merino sheep stud Haddon Rig the next day and got straight to work. I was feeling a bit listless at first and knew the best thing to do was just to work through it.

The first obvious thing that hit my eye was the old shearing shed. It was cool inside and had the usual atmosphere and aromas that I’ve grown to savour in woolsheds over the years.

“Haddon Rig Merino Stud, EST. 1882”

19/9/2015        600x900

The title was taken from the sign on the shed wall. Just over the road was a Zen-like arrangement of sheep feed bins.

“Three Bins”

19/9/2015        600x450

After a pleasant night relaxing in the Jackaroo Lodge and having a beer or two in the old summer house on the Marthaguy Creek, I bounced out of bed at 5am and went straight to the creek where I drew the sun-blasted reflections in the water and one of the patrolling pelicans, who seemed to be scraping something off the submerged trunks of the drowned redgums for breakfast.

“Marthaguy”

20/9/2015        900x600

There’d been a long release from Burrendong Dam and the creek was looking quite healthy, but a bit brown. I got into the habit of spending the late afternoon in the old summer house and watching the birds on the creek. A mob of spoonbills and pelicans were permanently installed nearby.

As an aside, a working dog was ensconced in the dog boxes next to the lodge. I had a chat with him and drew his portrait to keep him company. He was chewing the rim of his bucket out of boredom.

“Bad Dog, No Biscuit”

20/9/2015        600x450          Sold

I drew the inevitable again, this time from the outside.

“Haddon - Not Rigged”

20/9/2015        90x600            Sold

This was four and a half hour’s work in the hot sun and thought I might leave it at that, but they were bringing the rams in to shear and one last drawing in the shade inside would finish the day off nicely -

“Crunch Time for the Rams”

20/9/2015        600x450

They wouldn’t stand still for long, being a bit restive with a human in the shed, so this portrait was a composite of a few different rams.

The next day the shearing was on, a big mob of rams (already sold) and just one shearer. Josh Pilley was a third generation shearer and wasn’t like those I’d met previously. He didn’t eat crap, in fact he didn’t even stop and have smoko. It was heartening to see once again that the fine art of shearing was continuing to be taken up by the younger generation -

“Josh Shearing the Rams”

21/9/2015        900x600

This was a tricky portrait, as Josh only adopted the pose I’d chosen for a few seconds of every ram, so it ended up taking a few hours.

Afterwards I thought I’d do something with the now abandoned shearers’ quarters, but only drove a hundred yards and spotted this bucolic scene –

“Shady Characters”

21/9/2015        600x450

They didn’t stay still for long, as their curiosity got the better of them. Everyone's a critic.

After a relaxing beer that evening with my gracious hosts, Sally and George Faulkiner, I set out for a quick nocturne on the creek at 9pm.

“Marthaguy at Night”

21/9/2015        900x600

A couple of images from Haddon Rig before I leave it, from the disused shearer’s quarters and a couple of racy pics from the men’s and lady’s loo –