Explanation of color study sheet
 

Karen,

I am so glad it posted. The Fuji film has that blue cast; the paper background is actually white!

This is a color study using cadmium red, thalo blue, and yellow ochre. I also used white to lighten, of course. The lettering is very hard to read but you can see my general pattern of overlapping, putting strips in between to see just how the color looks beside another, etc..

I really do this all the time with 2 or 3 colors before I paint. It helps me decide how I will limit my palette. I's also a good idea to do it when you are using a new color or just a strong color combination, such as thalo blue and cadmium red together.

"For now, ignore the books and ignore everything you've read..."
 

Great advice in your post Michele!

Friends and I attend a local open figure painting session with and I do a very similar thing from time to time. Sometimes we each do it alone or as a kind of party. We have a goal to do as many paintings in 12 hours as we can with a minimum due at the end of 10.

You will be a amazed at some of the great work or at least great learning done in those intense 12 hours. Sometimes we have a model sometimes not. It's great to clear your mind of everything else to work like that.

You start to paint everything in the studio it always amazes when you push your self how you improve. And it's a ton of fun. And yes, sometimes we bring a few bottles of wine, but you have to be careful not to get any paint on your glass. ;)

Minimum palette is a great way to learn
 

I see someone has suggested the red/yellow/black/white minimum palette (is that spelled right? I always forget how to spell palette).

Another good way to start is to use the warm/cool combination of burn sienna, raw umber, and white, and sometimes, black. Here, too, the range of color and temperature is surprising.

Also, a Spanish guy by the name of Jose Parramon, in his book, The Big Book of Oil Color, shows you how to make every color there is using cad yellow medium, alizarin crimson, Prussian blue and white. It doesn't take long to get into this system, either, and the doing of it will teach you some valuable information about color mixing.

I find that, for flesh tones, I use very few colors, anymore. Cad red, yellow ocher, burnt sienna, raw umber and white. For blacks, aliz crim, burnt sienna and a ultramarine blue. You can make it warmer or cooler by controling the amount of aliz or blue that you use.

Since flesh cools as it gets lighter (usually) I find I can get a bit of a spike in value/tone by adding a tiny amount of cobalt blue or viridian to change the temperature of those really light tones, which usually contrasts well, and stands out from the general warm tones of surrounding flesh colors.

My red, yellow, sienna and umber palette lets me make oranges and browns, and the umber cools the reds and oranges nicely. It also makes intersting greens when mixed with yellow (ocher) or any other yellow. And of course, green and red make yet another kind of brown . . . so you see, it's all kind of a personal journey, anyway.

Finally, I studied with an old artist (Charles Cross, of Loveland, CO.) who used to say, "Behind every successful artist are many square miles of used up canvas."