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Garth,
I use my nine grays to neutralize (reduce the chroma/intensity) any color I mix to modify it without altering the hue or the value. If I were to use a gray mixed from just black or white (which both contain blue) the grays wouldn't be neutral and would therefore cause hue shifts.
I mix my other colors to the proper value and hue before adding the gray, where necessary. Due to the malleability of oils, I can easily achieve intermediate steps by brushing together two tangent values and/or hues.
One of the main focuses of my teaching is that the paint I apply to a flat canvas needs to be altered from perceived reality in order to achieve the quality of spacial illusion that the old masters were so deft at creating.
Therefore, I view any photo reference with a grain of salt because of the inequity between the way my eye and the camera perceive values and colors. Photos to me appear to flatten what my eye sees even further. I tend to approach all photos as being questionable at best, but I guess to each his own.
My question to you is how exactly do you translate this info into color?
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