Six Reasons to Make Color Charts

Color Charts based on two limited palettes:
Basic palette: cad red, cad yellow, ultramarine blue
Masters palette: burnt sienna, yellow ochre, paynes grey

Color is one those great battles that artists spend their lifetimes waging...I have a short artistic history so far, but I know this battle is a fierce one.

Yesterday I read a great quote on lines and colors:
"This is the process of painting your own color charts, in which you mix a value scale of each color, and then value scales of each color in combination with each of the other colors in your basic palette. It is a process that gives you more color mixing knowledge than a truckload of color mixing books and preprinted charts could ever begin to provide."

Charley (and Richard Schmid) are completely right on this one. I did the above charts a few weeks ago at the start of my oil painting career, they have been invaluable since then. People never believe that when you say it, I think because the benefits are difficult to describe. But, I'll try for you...

Benefits of Making Color Charts:

1. Simplification - you aren't trying to achieve anything, you are just mixing and staring at colors, this helps brings the color into focus.
2. Color context - when I first tried my "limited masters palette" I was rather aghast at the colors. But, actually, seeing them in the charts, there is great potential there.
3. Color creativity - having done these charts I am now having ideas based on them...e.g. driving home today I suddenly had a flash of an idea for something that I am currently doing in graphite - an idea of how to translate a drawing I love to a painting in oils.
4. Confidence - it takes a lot of mixing to make these charts, so you gain familiarity with mixing, changing the values, what direction you are going in when you mix two particular colors, using a palette knife, etc.
5. Planning - when I am deciding how to get a color onto the canvas, I look at my charts and decide what is closest and then decide if it is going to work or if I am going to have to rethink it.
6. Company - Charley Parker and Richard Schmid recommend them. Both of these men know alot about art: how to make it, what makes it good - why not take a page from their playbooks?