Notes on pallet and painting technique

Don Lodge

I have tended to use the best oil paints available over the years, not least because my painting style has never required huge quantities.  For most of my painting I have used Winsor & Newton artists materials.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to meet Neil Helyard, portrait painter based in Beverley who showed me round his studio.  He firmly suggested that I use Michael Harding colours, not easily available in the shops, although ordering on-line from Jacksons is straightforward, (see http://www.jacksonsart.co.uk/wildcardsearch.php?id=notsowild&custorstaff=customer&how_to_shop=medium).

I did a couple of mail shopping expeditions and now use this brand more or less exclusively.  Like probably most amateurs I have bought a distractingly wide range of colours over the years, and the beginning of my acquaintance with Michael Harding colours was no exception.  Heeding advice of various artist friends, and reading books on the subject, I have reduced the number I generally use.

My pallet normally now consists of:

Starting at the top right-hand of my pallet, going clockwise:

1)      Scarlet Lake (series 2) – a bright letter-box red.

2)      Magenta (series 3) -  like Alizarin Crimson – but not so brutal and slightly transparent.

3)      Brilliant Pink (series 2) – it is what is says, too strong to be of much use when painting flesh, but surprisingly useful for making greys, and modifying natural colours.

4)      Yellow Lake (series 1) – a bright transparent yellow, not unlike Cadmium Yellow (series 4).

5)      Yellow Ochre (series 1) – semi-transparent.

6)      Phthalocyanine Blue and Zinc White (series 1) – a strong light blue with high covering power (not unlike Manganese Blue, perhaps lighter).

7)      Ultramarine Blue (series 1) – a good “cooking” blue.

8)      Prussian Blue (series 1) – a dark blue with high covering power.

9)      Phthalocyanine Green Lake (series 2) a strong slightly bluish green (perhaps not unlike Viridian (series 4).

10)   Burnt Umber (series 1) a strong dark brown.

11)   Venetian Red (series 1) a strong reddish brown.

12)   Manganese Violet (series 3) a strong semi-transparent violet

13)   Titanium White (Winsor & Newton).

Notes on mixing.

1)      I never use black.  I either mix Scarlet Lake with Phthalocyanine Green Lake, or Prussian Blue and Burnt Umber, or another combination of these four.  To make them into greys I add either white, or Phthalocyanine Blue, or Bright Pink.

2)      When I want a green, I mix my own from the three blues and two yellows, using perhaps the Venetian Red or Manganese Violet to darken.

3)      Flesh colour is always a challenge.  The Bright Pink is not a good starting point.  I normally start with Yellow Ochre, White and Scarlet Lake, adding Yellow Lake, and a touch of Venetian Red for a more tanned skin.  And I add approximately complementary colours for the shadows.

4)      I make a conscious effort to try not to use more than three colours in any mix – otherwise results can look muddy and difficult to harmonise with.

A note on Whites:

For all but the final stages of painting I use Winsor & Newton Alkyd fast drying white, which means that my work is nearly always touch-dry the next day.

First stages of painting:

If I am doing a landscape or seascape I often give the canvas a wash of orange or light red to give me an approximate complimentary hue to work against as I add foliage or sea.  If flecks of this shows through the finished picture it seems to add depth and contrast.

If my picture has some important details in it (such as a portrait) I add to, and cover up, any preliminary pencil sketching with a quick drying Winsor & Newton dark brown Alkyd applied with a sharp pointed sable brush.  This helps give me an early indication of whether a picture is going to work.  It also serves to bind the pencil lines – there is a danger, especially in portraiture that pencil graphite will float off in the subsequent over-painting and horribly muddy the colour.  On occasion I have allowed my monochrome brown underpainting to progress as far as filling in the shapes with light and dark washes of the brown – producing what appears to be a rough sepia print.

Following this stage, when the brown under-drawing is dry, I like to cover the canvas with colour completely as rapidly as possible – filling in all the salient shapes with a wash approximate to their final colours.  This makes applying the correct colours for the details much easier – I can see how they are going to harmonise, and what strength to give them.

Medium

I have tried most of the media available from art shop shelves over the years.  For the initial layer(s) of colour I just use (genuine) turpentine.  Then I use a 50/50 mix of Winsor & Newton Fine Detail Liquin and turpentine, moving to undiluted Fine Detail Liquin for the final stages.  For much of the painting I use the paints much as they come from the tube.

A note on bottle stoppers.  In these gentle times most liquid artist materials are purchased in bottles fastened with a screw child-proof cap.  It is very frustrating and disruptive to have to wrestle with these while painting.  The problem is solved by throwing the nanny-caps away as soon as the medium arrives home and sealing the bottle with a normal cap available from nearly every large size coke or lemonade bottle.  Children who visit my studio find themselves in an environment where Darwinian strictures still pertain.