Cadmium free and loving it.

[Richard Budig]

I'm a newbie to Photoshop, myself. But Photoshop allows you to scan your photo, almost pixel by pixel, and tells you the values of R, G, and B whereever your cursor is on the photo. If it is in b&w, it will give you a pixel by pixel grayscale rating -- degree of black or white.

I'm just getting into the program, but it looks as though it will be very useful.

Another thing it will do (I'm told) is let you take photos apart and do something like cut and paste different parts. For instance, I'm finishing a portrait of a woman who had her photo taken 10 years ago in Australia. She is holding a koala bear. But since then, she has had her hair completely re-styled, and she's lost weight. So, we took new photos, and I put the old koala bear in the arms of the "new woman." If I had known how to use Photoshop, I could have done it all onscreen, and then printed it out. As it was, I had to do my own cutting and pasting.

[Marvin Mattelson]

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?

[Garth Herrick]

Marvin,

I totally agree with you. I question the validity of photos the very same as you. Your method is very practical and purposeful. My grays are indeed too cold for mixing purposes and I don't use them like you use yours. What I did was an interesting experiment, but I confess I have not really fully found a practical application for it yet. This exercise has played no role in any recent paintings of mine, except to make me perhaps more aware of subtle tonal relationships. It does nothing for color development except to steer the color toward a sensible value. But like you, the final arbiter is my eye. What ever doesn't jive in the translation will be altered to create the desired spacial illusion.

Regards,

Garth

[Richard Budig]

Can anyone direct me to Mr. Paxton's palette?

I've done the requisite search of this site, and have found a lot of references to this palette, but I'd like to see it for myself.

If it exists on this site, can someone tell me where, please.

[Marvin Mattelson]

I know I've posted it before but here it is again according to James Childs who studied with Ives Gammel, a student of Paxton's:

Light Red
Indian Red
Ultramarine Blue
Raw Umber
Flake White
Ivory Black
Viridian
Alizirin Crimson
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna

Additional Colors when needed:
Naples Yellow
Vermilion
Cerulean Blue

[Richard Budig]

Marvin:

Indeed, you have posted it before. The moment I saw it, I recognized it. Thanks for your enduring patience.

I should have asked for the formula for "nuetral" grays. This kind of baffles me. Grays, it seems to me, will, or can be either warm or cool, depending on how you make them and whether you've purposely, or inadvertently gotten the mix a little too blue or orange, as in the case of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue, which can lean brownish (red), or coolish (blue).

Grays made from complements can slip subtley into warm or cool.

You noted that gray from b&w is bluish, and thus, cool

How do you hit that neutral mark, and with which paints?

[Marvin Mattelson]

Flake white, ivory black and raw umber are my ingredients for neutral gray.

I generally eschew the use of compliments, especially those based on the standard color wheel (scientifically inaccurate) for reasons too numerous to mention here. Obviously my grays employ complementary colors but I base them on the five primary Munsel color wheel which is universally accepted as the standard of color measurement in industry. Black is a blue purple and raw umber is a yellow, true optical complements.

In terms of how to balance them I provide in-depth instruction and demonstrations on mixing grays as well as all colors, in my classes and workshops. Anyone who wants to save themselves years of scrambling around might consider this option. One demo is worth a million words!

[Richard Budig]

Marvin:

Thanks for your insight to the color behind the colors in black and raw umber.

Is there a book, or books, that I can buy that will give me this kind of basic information?

You'd be surprised (well, probably not) at the number of artists to whom I have posed questions of this sort who simply could not answer, except with vague references to mixing complementaries.

I've been at this (mostly on my own) for a number of years, and I've always had a haunting feeling there was more to color than what I saw on my palette.

You're a good man, Charlie Brown! \

I have a nice ($) commission coming up. A couple more like that, and you may wake up one day and find this retired old fire horse looking back at you in one of your workshops. Let me warn you, I ask a lot of questionss.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Thanks Richard. I wish there was such a book. The problem is, as I see it, that most authors, as well as teachers, don't really search for the answers but merely repeat rhetoric. It is my contention that most good artists are successful in spite of and not because of their training.

My goal is to understand how things work and why. True knowledge is what turns me on and it seems to get my students pretty darn excited as well. It would be a pleasure to give answering whatever questions you come up with a shot.

[Rob Sullivan]

I'm a little surprised at the lack of gratitude towards Marvin in his bringing to bear the subject of dispensing with cadmiums. I don't mean in regard to the improvement of your flesh tones - I mean the improvement in your bank account! Cadmium paints are notoriously expensive compared to earth colors - think of the savings!

Why, you'll be able to send yourself to - mmmaybe - a Mattelson workshop!!!

All kidding aside, from every arguable point of view, be it historically-based (as it is) or no, the Paxton palette makes the most sense. The amount of overmixing I've done in order to tweak the chroma out of cadmium colors has been enough to give my right forearm a "Popeye" look.

I know it seems so unlike me, Marvin, to cop so quickly to something you've suggested. Perhaps I'm not as stubborn as I was when I was a student. Could it be that having 2 kids has worn down my stoicism?

Be well, and keep that Flake White off your toast!