Clearing after a Storm 11x11
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Clearing after a Storm' 11x11.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Last week, I gave you a list of the colors I use (with suppliers) on my palette and an accompanying photo. I will put that photo up again this week. I intend to break down why I use each color and information about why I place each one on my palette, whether I absolutely need to have it, whether it's just convenient or, it's a color that is difficult to mix.
Yesterday, we started on that list and today we will continue, picking up where we left off:
Perlene Red (Gamblin)
Perlene Red is one of the less frequently used colors on my palette. It's a bright red and not a very earthy color. I could get by without it, but I have it on my palette for several really good reasons. The first is when I need to do true pinks up in my skies and the second is to push reds in my landscape to a more reddish quality when needed. Also, sometimes I use it to counterbalance a mixed color that might be overly green or to adjust my permanent orange for tones in the sky. Note, Perlene Red is a substitute for Cadmium Red that is 100% non-toxic and lightfast.
Transparent Earth Red aka Burnt Sienna (Gamblin)
Transparent Earth Red aka Burnt Sienna, is a modern synthetic pigment that is very close in tone to the original Burnt Sienna. However, it has much stronger coloring strength and more transparency than the original Burnt Sienna that is based on natural earth pigments. Many brands label this pigment as Burnt Sienna. I have used the Windsor Newton version with no problem in the past. I use the Gamblin now because it's cheaper and works just as well. Burnt Sienna is absolutely critical to the way I paint. I would find it very difficult to work without it, it is very valuable for adjusting green tones, not to mention giving a good range of natural looking reds.
Alizarin Crimson (Gamblin)
Alizarin Crimson has been on my palette since the very beginning. It's a very flexible color that has strong tinting strength. Mixed with yellow, it gives you a tone similar to a Burnt Sienna but perhaps a bit cooler. These days I use it mostly to mix with Pthalo green for Chromatic Blacks. Also, I use it a lot for tinting grays in my skies and adjusting green tones in my painting.
Pthalo Green (Gamblin)
Pthalo Green is a very useful color and I've had it on my palette for quite a while. The primary thing I use it for is making Chromatic Black. I also use it for tinting grays and moving my more earthy Mike's Green into cool tones when I need a cooler green. Pthalo Green is extremely strong in tinting strength and the one thing I almost never use it for is making greens mixed with yellow, as the resultant greens look very psychedelic.
Permanent Green Light (Gamblin)
Permanent Green Light is useful for lots of little odd jobs on my palette. If I needed to, I could get by without it, but it's useful to have. It's really good for pushing more earthy greens into a brighter more greenish zone for certain areas of the painting. I like the Gamblin version best. It is a lot stronger in tinting strength than most other brands I've tried.
Dioxazine Purple (Gamblin)
Dioxazine Purple is super useful. Many purple/violet tones can be mixed using the reds and blues already on my palette but none of these mixed purples will have the intensity, yet transparency of Dioxazine Purple as it is a true purple. I use this color a lot in my skies and I also like to throw it into my mixed greens. Another great use is for adding to grays in rocks and in shadow areas. A lot of my paintings are based on a green/violet color scheme so it just makes sense for me to have a good purple on my palette. Note, the reason I use Dioxazine Purple from Gamblin is because of its light-fastness. Many purples available on the market are not very resistant to fading, this color from Gamblin is 100% lightfast.
Cobalt Blue (Gamblin)
Cobalt Blue is my favorite blue. Back when I started painting I was using Ultramarine Blue. I don't really like Ultramarine Blue very much, it has a cool sort of purplish tint to it that does not lend itself very well to landscape painting. I like Cobalt Blue because it has a warmness to it that counterbalances the other blue on my palette. Note, Cobalt Blue is very expensive but I feel it's worth it. None of the Hue approximations of this tone are worth a fig.
Pthalo Blue (Gamblin)
Where Cobalt Blue is warm, Pthalo Blue is cool. Pthalo Blue is very strong in tinting strength and a little bit goes a long way. I didn't start out painting with Pthalo Blue, but I find it invaluable for changing up my blues in the skies. Between Cobalt Blue, Pthalo Blue and Black, I can get most any blue effect I need. I also use Pthalo Blue to modify green tones and grays.
Ivory Black (Daler Rowney Georgian)
Ivory Black has gotten a bad reputation. Many Impressionist type painters avoid it like the plague. I was told never to use it to mix shadow tones, and for that reason have mostly done my darkest areas using a Chromatic Black for years. The primary use I have had for Ivory Black, is to make colors darker and duller. It is a guaranteed color killer and in many ways is the opposite of Raw Umber on my palette. Where I use Raw Umber to kill colors in a warm way, I use Ivory Black to kill colors in a cool way. Recently I've started using Ivory Black in my shadow areas as well. I think it gives me more of a old Master'y sort of feeling than the usual Chromatic black.
Mike's Gray (mixture of Titanium White and Ivory Black)
Mike's Gray is basically a 50/60% gray that I keep a pile of on my palette at all times. I got started doing this after using a color from Gamblin called Torrit Grey. After using the Torrit Gray for a while, I found it very useful to have a pile of Medium Gray on my palette that I could quickly tint with colors for painting clouds and other uses. Besides clouds I will use this 50/60% gray to modify Green, Tan and Ocher tones. I find it super useful and these days I always have a pile of it mixed up and ready to go.
So, this post and the proceeding two, give you a good rundown of the colors on my palette as of April, 2017. This may change in the future, but using this color palette, I can accomplish almost any task necessary for landscape painting (at least the way I approach it).
I get a lot of requests for this information from other artists and I would like to stress here that the best way to work, is to build up your own personal color palette through experience. Starting with a few basic primaries and then adding other colors as necessary, till you get a system that is useful for your personality and approach to painting . The selection of colors on an artist palette is necessarily a very subjective process, it is best to start with basics and gradually work up from there.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Clearing after a Storm' 11x11; I am very happy with this painting. I painted it about three weeks ago and since painting it I have done quite a few more with the Burnt Umber colored ground.
Check out the video and watch it all happen before your very eyes!
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| 'Clearing after a Storm'' by M Francis McCarthy, 11x11 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Last week, I gave you a list of the colors I use (with suppliers) on my palette and an accompanying photo. I will put that photo up again this week. I intend to break down why I use each color and information about why I place each one on my palette, whether I absolutely need to have it, whether it's just convenient or, it's a color that is difficult to mix.
Yesterday, we started on that list and today we will continue, picking up where we left off:
Perlene Red (Gamblin)
Perlene Red is one of the less frequently used colors on my palette. It's a bright red and not a very earthy color. I could get by without it, but I have it on my palette for several really good reasons. The first is when I need to do true pinks up in my skies and the second is to push reds in my landscape to a more reddish quality when needed. Also, sometimes I use it to counterbalance a mixed color that might be overly green or to adjust my permanent orange for tones in the sky. Note, Perlene Red is a substitute for Cadmium Red that is 100% non-toxic and lightfast.
Transparent Earth Red aka Burnt Sienna (Gamblin)
Transparent Earth Red aka Burnt Sienna, is a modern synthetic pigment that is very close in tone to the original Burnt Sienna. However, it has much stronger coloring strength and more transparency than the original Burnt Sienna that is based on natural earth pigments. Many brands label this pigment as Burnt Sienna. I have used the Windsor Newton version with no problem in the past. I use the Gamblin now because it's cheaper and works just as well. Burnt Sienna is absolutely critical to the way I paint. I would find it very difficult to work without it, it is very valuable for adjusting green tones, not to mention giving a good range of natural looking reds.
Alizarin Crimson (Gamblin)
Alizarin Crimson has been on my palette since the very beginning. It's a very flexible color that has strong tinting strength. Mixed with yellow, it gives you a tone similar to a Burnt Sienna but perhaps a bit cooler. These days I use it mostly to mix with Pthalo green for Chromatic Blacks. Also, I use it a lot for tinting grays in my skies and adjusting green tones in my painting.
Pthalo Green (Gamblin)
Pthalo Green is a very useful color and I've had it on my palette for quite a while. The primary thing I use it for is making Chromatic Black. I also use it for tinting grays and moving my more earthy Mike's Green into cool tones when I need a cooler green. Pthalo Green is extremely strong in tinting strength and the one thing I almost never use it for is making greens mixed with yellow, as the resultant greens look very psychedelic.
Permanent Green Light (Gamblin)
Permanent Green Light is useful for lots of little odd jobs on my palette. If I needed to, I could get by without it, but it's useful to have. It's really good for pushing more earthy greens into a brighter more greenish zone for certain areas of the painting. I like the Gamblin version best. It is a lot stronger in tinting strength than most other brands I've tried.
Dioxazine Purple (Gamblin)
Dioxazine Purple is super useful. Many purple/violet tones can be mixed using the reds and blues already on my palette but none of these mixed purples will have the intensity, yet transparency of Dioxazine Purple as it is a true purple. I use this color a lot in my skies and I also like to throw it into my mixed greens. Another great use is for adding to grays in rocks and in shadow areas. A lot of my paintings are based on a green/violet color scheme so it just makes sense for me to have a good purple on my palette. Note, the reason I use Dioxazine Purple from Gamblin is because of its light-fastness. Many purples available on the market are not very resistant to fading, this color from Gamblin is 100% lightfast.
Cobalt Blue (Gamblin)
Cobalt Blue is my favorite blue. Back when I started painting I was using Ultramarine Blue. I don't really like Ultramarine Blue very much, it has a cool sort of purplish tint to it that does not lend itself very well to landscape painting. I like Cobalt Blue because it has a warmness to it that counterbalances the other blue on my palette. Note, Cobalt Blue is very expensive but I feel it's worth it. None of the Hue approximations of this tone are worth a fig.
Pthalo Blue (Gamblin)
Where Cobalt Blue is warm, Pthalo Blue is cool. Pthalo Blue is very strong in tinting strength and a little bit goes a long way. I didn't start out painting with Pthalo Blue, but I find it invaluable for changing up my blues in the skies. Between Cobalt Blue, Pthalo Blue and Black, I can get most any blue effect I need. I also use Pthalo Blue to modify green tones and grays.
Ivory Black (Daler Rowney Georgian)
Ivory Black has gotten a bad reputation. Many Impressionist type painters avoid it like the plague. I was told never to use it to mix shadow tones, and for that reason have mostly done my darkest areas using a Chromatic Black for years. The primary use I have had for Ivory Black, is to make colors darker and duller. It is a guaranteed color killer and in many ways is the opposite of Raw Umber on my palette. Where I use Raw Umber to kill colors in a warm way, I use Ivory Black to kill colors in a cool way. Recently I've started using Ivory Black in my shadow areas as well. I think it gives me more of a old Master'y sort of feeling than the usual Chromatic black.
Mike's Gray (mixture of Titanium White and Ivory Black)
Mike's Gray is basically a 50/60% gray that I keep a pile of on my palette at all times. I got started doing this after using a color from Gamblin called Torrit Grey. After using the Torrit Gray for a while, I found it very useful to have a pile of Medium Gray on my palette that I could quickly tint with colors for painting clouds and other uses. Besides clouds I will use this 50/60% gray to modify Green, Tan and Ocher tones. I find it super useful and these days I always have a pile of it mixed up and ready to go.
So, this post and the proceeding two, give you a good rundown of the colors on my palette as of April, 2017. This may change in the future, but using this color palette, I can accomplish almost any task necessary for landscape painting (at least the way I approach it).
I get a lot of requests for this information from other artists and I would like to stress here that the best way to work, is to build up your own personal color palette through experience. Starting with a few basic primaries and then adding other colors as necessary, till you get a system that is useful for your personality and approach to painting . The selection of colors on an artist palette is necessarily a very subjective process, it is best to start with basics and gradually work up from there.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Clearing after a Storm' 11x11; I am very happy with this painting. I painted it about three weeks ago and since painting it I have done quite a few more with the Burnt Umber colored ground.
Check out the video and watch it all happen before your very eyes!
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| 'Clearing after a Storm'' by M Francis McCarthy (Detail) |
 |
| 'Clearing after a Storm'' by M Francis McCarthy (Detail 2) |