Wednesday, January 28, 2009

When to Use Which (Palette)




A new friend in Holland (email is great and so is art; it allows us to be touched by each other in great ways!) asked me how to decide which palette to use and if one or the other is better for still lifes, portraits or animals.
Answer: you can use any of the palettes for any subject matter. It depends on the color that's NOT there. Let me explain. If there's a blue color in your subject you wouldn't want to use the red/green or yellow/purple palette because there's no blue in either of those palettes. If you have a bright yellow in your subject you wouldn't use the red/green palette because there's no yellow in the palette.
Now the answer can get a little complicated because you can mix a yellow from the red/green palette but it won't be a bright yellow. It will read as yellow because it'll be the closest thing to yellow in the picture.
These three watercolors were done with each of the palettes. Top one is o/b, middle one is y/p and bottom one is r/g.

2 comments:

gary.hiscott@gmail.com said...

Thanks Joyce - that was my next question.
Gary from Wales.

Dale Sherman Blodget said...

Thanks Joyce. Interesting approach.
Is this for watercolor?