Monday, January 14, 2013

Palette Du Jour

My palette is currently a small wooden rectangle from my half french easel.  The palette measures about 7" x 18".  A new wooden palette out of the box needs to be well oiled.  The palette is placed with the thumb hole at the top right. To the left of the thumb hole a double palette cup is placed.

This is my palette du jour. All of my oil paints are Gamblin or Old Holland*.


across the top:
 Brilliant Yellow Light*, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Siena, Raw Umber

left side:
 Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson

right side:
 Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Blue, Cobolt Blue, Kings Blue Light & Titanium White


For me it is important to put out a limited palette including all of the colors that I am going to use in the painting.  The colors du jour are arranged in a pattern that I usually adhere to. The above palette has the earth tones across the top, warms on the left and cools on the right.

The left palette cup holds turpenoid and the right holds linseed oil.

A little palette savvy goes a long way.

more soon...