Cadmium free and loving it.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Garth,

I use my nine grays to neutralize (reduce the chroma/intensity) any color I mix to modify it without altering the hue or the value. If I were to use a gray mixed from just black or white (which both contain blue) the grays wouldn't be neutral and would therefore cause hue shifts.

I mix my other colors to the proper value and hue before adding the gray, where necessary. Due to the malleability of oils, I can easily achieve intermediate steps by brushing together two tangent values and/or hues.

One of the main focuses of my teaching is that the paint I apply to a flat canvas needs to be altered from perceived reality in order to achieve the quality of spacial illusion that the old masters were so deft at creating.

Therefore, I view any photo reference with a grain of salt because of the inequity between the way my eye and the camera perceive values and colors. Photos to me appear to flatten what my eye sees even further. I tend to approach all photos as being questionable at best, but I guess to each his own.

My question to you is how exactly do you translate this info into color?

[Garth Herrick]

Marvin,

I totally agree with you. I question the validity of photos the very same as you. Your method is very practical and purposeful. My grays are indeed too cold for mixing purposes and I don't use them like you use yours. What I did was an interesting experiment, but I confess I have not really fully found a practical application for it yet. This exercise has played no role in any recent paintings of mine, except to make me perhaps more aware of subtle tonal relationships. It does nothing for color development except to steer the color toward a sensible value. But like you, the final arbiter is my eye. What ever doesn't jive in the translation will be altered to create the desired spacial illusion.

Regards,

Garth

[Richard Budig]

Can anyone direct me to Mr. Paxton's palette?

I've done the requisite search of this site, and have found a lot of references to this palette, but I'd like to see it for myself.

If it exists on this site, can someone tell me where, please.

[Marvin Mattelson]

I know I've posted it before but here it is again according to James Childs who studied with Ives Gammel, a student of Paxton's:

Light Red
Indian Red
Ultramarine Blue
Raw Umber
Flake White
Ivory Black
Viridian
Alizirin Crimson
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna

Additional Colors when needed:
Naples Yellow
Vermilion
Cerulean Blue

[Richard Budig]

Marvin:

Indeed, you have posted it before. The moment I saw it, I recognized it. Thanks for your enduring patience.

I should have asked for the formula for "nuetral" grays. This kind of baffles me. Grays, it seems to me, will, or can be either warm or cool, depending on how you make them and whether you've purposely, or inadvertently gotten the mix a little too blue or orange, as in the case of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue, which can lean brownish (red), or coolish (blue).

Grays made from complements can slip subtley into warm or cool.

You noted that gray from b&w is bluish, and thus, cool

How do you hit that neutral mark, and with which paints?

[Marvin Mattelson]

Flake white, ivory black and raw umber are my ingredients for neutral gray.

I generally eschew the use of compliments, especially those based on the standard color wheel (scientifically inaccurate) for reasons too numerous to mention here. Obviously my grays employ complementary colors but I base them on the five primary Munsel color wheel which is universally accepted as the standard of color measurement in industry. Black is a blue purple and raw umber is a yellow, true optical complements.

In terms of how to balance them I provide in-depth instruction and demonstrations on mixing grays as well as all colors, in my classes and workshops. Anyone who wants to save themselves years of scrambling around might consider this option. One demo is worth a million words!

[Allan Rahbek]

Marvin Mattelson]Flake white, ivory black and raw umber are my ingredients for neutral gray.

Marvin.

From my days as a House decorator painter I remember using always the same two colors for graying down a white. It made a pleasant Pearly Gray.

Allan