Choosing a Palette of Water Soluble Oil Paints

Posted on Feb 4, 2011

I’m ever fascinated by other artists’ palettes. But there does come a time when one has to choose the colors that work for you, and your style of painting.

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In keeping with my preference for a solvent-free, earth friendly studio, I choose Water Soluble Oils.

And this is how I figure out what I want on my “ideal” palette which at this time is a split primary with secondary colors and an earth pigment or two.

Time To Get To Work

A time-consuming, somewhat tedious, but ENLIGHTENING exercise is to first pull out all your paints. It’s color swatch time, but before you cringe, read on.

Cut up some watercolor paper into strips, mine are 1.5″ x 6″. Then coat with a light brushing of acrylic gel to seal the paper a bit. You’ll get truer colors that way. I wrote the Mfg name, i.e., Cerulean, the Mgf name beneath, and the pigment number, I promise it gets interesting. Get out your palette, a brush (that you will clean thoroughly after EVERY swatch), titanium white, and maybe a bit of medium. I used M Graham alkyd medium since it’s a quick drier.

My goal is to use only SAFE pigments, for my health, my cats, and for the Earth. That’s just my choice. There are so many conflicting arguments about whether cadmiums, cobalts, ceruleans, and a few other pigments are safe or not, or just how toxic they are. I won’t get into that here, that’s for you to investigate yourself, I just know FOR ME, that this is important. I also don’t like wearing gloves when i paint…’cuz my fingers sometimes do the painting. : )

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YELLOWS – here’s what i have currently, click on the image for an enlarged view.

Yellow-Green (YG)

So I have Cadmium Yellow Lemon (YG) and Cad Yellow Medium(YO). As I want to eliminate/replace the cadmiums, I am trying out Permanent Yellow Light by Royal Talens Cobra line. I LIKE IT! It seems a true yellow, a good semi-opaque, really rich yellow, not leaning green, nor orange. I’ll still add another yellow but the little I’ve worked with it so far I really like it and just may have found my replacement. And I can work with one Yellow for awhile, as I’m not very fond of Yellow Green, and this yellow mixes well so I can make that color as needs be.

Yellow-Orange (YO)

In keeping with my preference for a split complementary somewhat extended palette….I am considering an Indian Yellow for my yellow-orange (YO). It’s also transparent, a single pigment, and would be gorgeous for glazing. If you glaze, you need to have some transparent pigments on your palette.

UPDATE: Ok, as much as the Perm. Yellow Light is a lovely color, it’s only semi-transparent…..and thus, does not compete with opaque Cadmium Yellow…..I’m still looking for a viable replacement, but my search continues…

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ORANGE
As for the Orange, I like to have one each of the secondary colors, orange, green and purple, so I had my eye on Cobra’s Permanent Orange (discovered it’s 2 pigments—PY154-Benzimidazolone Yellow, PO43—Perinone Orange) and then thru this exercise find out that the Cadmium Orange Hue I have here by Artisan is a single pigment (always my preference), PO43 – Perinone Orange. So based on that, I’m sticking with my Cad Orange Hue by Artisan.

Now I’m guessing you are beginning to see why those Pigment codes are important. Read on, the Reds get even more interesting.

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REDS – click the reds below for a large view.

Well, you can tell I like buying Reds, but sheesh, this is ridiculous. When i got out my reds, and started mixing them with Titanium White to get lighter values, it became so clear to me that I have redundant reds. And here’s my conclusion:

RED-ORANGE (RO)

I want to replace my cadmium red….so you see that I’m trying out Grumbacher’s Napthol Red, really like it, has enough of an orange tone to still be a true RO and with a tad of yellow in the lighter colors, bingo, no more cad red. The Quinacridone Red is a truer red, not really leaning RO or RV, so that I’ll keep just for fun. Another RO I may try out is Cobra’s Pyrrole Red Light…pyrrole’s are nice warm reds. But again, the pigment codes, Cobra’s Pyrolle Red Light is two pigments, PO43—Perinone Orange and PR254—Pyrrole Red, and when faced with a choice, I usually prefer the single pigments because they produce cleaner mixes.

UPDDATE: The Grumbacher RED by Max is a champ……beautiful and just about a perfect alternative to Cad Red.

RED-VIOLET (RV)

And for my Red-Violet (RV) I won’t be repurchasing my Alizarin Crimson, since it’s fugitive, meaning it just won’t last thru the years, and is known for fading. There are fabulous newer pigments that are synthetic and have the highest lightfastness ratings, including a Permanent Alizarin Crimson. The Permanent Rose and Thalo Red Rose (and the Quin Red) are all from the same pigment PV19. I definitely don’t need Perm Rose AND Thalo Red Rose and they are BOTH utterly gorgeous, (color is such a personal thing), and they are almost identical from my experiment. So I just saved money there…..

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VIOLET

I have Holbein Duo’s mineral violet, don’t really like it, a bit drab, yeah, kind of pretty, but does not pack the punch that a Dioxazine Purple does. Save your money for D. Purple. Grumbacher Max has one (PV23) that looks rich.

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BLUES – click the blues below to enlarge

BLUE -GREEN (BG)

This again was interesting. I guess I like Cerulean blue, as I had three tubes of it. If I hadn’t done this exercise of making color swatches, who knows how many cerulean blues I would have continued to buy! Three cerulean blues, two with warnings, and one, by Artisan with NO warning, in fact labelled as AP safe. And I prefer it, has that little bit of green in it, which I love. I also had two tubes of Phthalo Blue, sheesh, there I go again, spending money on what I don’t need. Both Phthalo Blues performed the same. Buy the less expensive one. Conclusion, my BG is Phthalo Blue, tis a very potent color, but I just love it. And just because I’m smitten, I’ll always have a tube of Cerulean around. I choose Artisan.

The Cobalt by Artisan is also, somewhat surprisingly, without a toxicity warning. Nice to know. But I can live without Cobalt, I paint faces and figures, not landscapes.

BLUE-VIOLET (BV)

Ultramarine Deep by Holbein Duo is a true rich violet-y blue. It works. Since Holbein is so expensive, I’ll probably replace it with another brand of Violet-y Blue. I hear that French Ultramarine tends more toward violet than non-french. That was a great tip from my local art store manager.

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GREENS – click Greens below to enlarge.

It’s just dang convenient to have a ready green, and though it is a mix of a few pigments, it’s just the decision I make, can’t live without SAP Green. It knocks down a bright red really fast and creates some mauves to die for. Phthalo Green is just too brazen for my taste. Lots of folks mix their blacks with Ph Green and Aliz Crimson. I can make nice rich darks with Raw or Burnt Umber and Sap Green and my RV of choice.

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EARTH PIGMENTS

More redundancies here too. I love Naples Yellow (though it is a mix of pigments), but seriously, look at the bottom row of my yellow ochre, and two raw siennas samples. Use a bit more white and you’ve got your base flesh color. Now landscape painters can’t live without their Yellow Ochre, I personally could do with just Raw Sienna, mixed with white, or other colors, I can get a nice opaque, and alone it’s a beautiful transparent for glazing. I didn’t realize I had TWO tubes of Raw Sienna, now i know. ($)

Burnt Sienna makes quick desaturation of a bright color, but complementary colors work too, which is why I like to have one of each of my secondary colors on the chart. I can live without Burnt Sienna for now. I probably don’t even need Raw Sienna, because I can mix flesh tones with my split primary palette. Raw Sienna, and even Burnt Umber are wonderful for mixing darker yellows.

But you know what I can’t live without? Raw Umber. Or even Burnt Umber, i like the coolness of the raw umber, and it’s easy to warm it up. Burnt Umber is usually a bit warmer to begin with. Either one, gotta have it.

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So. there you have it, how I choose my palette. And of course it changes as my style evolves and my interests are turned this way or that. But I certainly don’t regret the couple of hours it took me to pull out my paints, and make my swatches, because I learned what i had, and what I want, and will make better decisions next time I’m in an art store, which is probably within 24-48 hours. LOL. Thanks for stopping by.

Oh yeah, the holes, check out what this fellow water soluble oil painter, Janet, did with her color swatches. Brilliant!
http://watersolubleoils.forumotion.com/t240-paint-swatch-fan-deck?highlight=color+swatch

I will too as soon as my paints dry.

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My All Time Favorite Art Store

Water Miscible Oils manufacturers
Open up each page with the full listing of the oil paints available, and look at far right column for the WARNINGS, (CL and 65). Those are the ones I try to avoid. Healthier for me, my family, and the Earth. Fascinating, for instance, that Max Titanium White has warnings, but others do not. So learn to look carefully at these warnings.

If you are interested in pursuing non-toxic oil paints, watch for these warning labels, and try to avoid them.

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TWO SITES ABOUT PIGMENTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT:

The Color of Art, Pigment Database – everything you could want to know about pigments, and more.

Handprint – Bruce McEvoy has some fascinating information here, especially if you are a geek like me! Mostly watercolor, but the pigment codes are the same whatever medium it is mixed in.

Stay tuned…tomorrow I have a posting entitled: How to Make Color Swatches Without Wasting Paint

And Color Mixing samples of this palette are coming up, too.

Check out my other ART TIPS, too.

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Thanks for stopping by!