Painting Your Own Color Charts
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Richard Schmid style Color Chart by Beth Cole
Wanna geek out with me?
This post might be a little geeky but hang with me just a sec. I wanted to share the color charts I have been painting after reading Richard Schmid’s excellent book Alla Prima II. I thought you and others might be interested in the process and materials so you can make your own. This first post is all about the first chart of all your colors. I’ll write about the yellow family, red family and blue family in subsequent posts.
Why Do This?
Why would we want to paint color charts? I think the strongest reason is color harmony. Some painters (I listened to Mark Boedges talk about them here) use the charts to set their color intentions when plein air painting. I can see how using one or two charts and sticking to those colors can really lead to a beautiful painting.
Also, they are visually so yummy. I have a young art student who just stared at them when she came for her lesson. When it came time to do her painting project, she walked over (unprompted) to the charts and used them to pick out the colors she wanted to mix for her painting. Cool, huh.
Materials
I chose these eleven colors for my charts. I don’t often use Indian Yellow or Terra Rosa or Viridian, but I thought I would include them just to see the possibilities. My palette includes (see photo above, left to right):
Cadmium Yellow Light
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Indian Yellow
Yellow Ochre Pale
Cadmium Red Light
Terra Rosa
Alizarin Crimson Permanent
Transparent Red Oxide
Viridian
Cobalt Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Titanium White for mixing
You will also need:
12- 8”x16” canvases like these
1” white painters tape
1/4” masking tape
T-Square
pencil
How To Do The Charts
To set up your nifty looking grid of colors, you need to mask off one inch squares on the canvas. To do this, make a border with the wide tape - 1” from the top and bottom, and 1.25” from the sides. Draw a line and place the tape.
Then, using your handy T-square, make tick marks to divide the space into 1” boxes with 1/4” between each one. This is where the 1/4” tape goes. I usually mark the canvas with pencil lines so I can place the tape in a straight line. This is what it looks like with all the lines in place.
Grid Lines for Color Chart
Your first chart will show every color on your palette. The top row of colors will be pure pigment. To make the columns of color, mix a little bit of titanium white to create a five value scale from pure pigment to just barely tinted in the bottom box. I used a small pointed palette knife instead of a brush and it worked great.
Color Chart One by Beth Cole
When you purchase your book (you’re gonna get it aren’t you?) you will be able to see all of his charts in order to compare yours. It’s kinda fun and rewarding in a way.
Next post I’ll show you the yellow family. Until then, keep your paint brush wet and thanks for following along.
—Beth
Soli Deo Gloria
