Oil Painting Tips - Organizing Your Palette
by Ralph
Serpe
Having a clean organized palette is an essential part of good
painting. If you are just starting out with oil painting, these tips
will help you get a good start.
You should have the right kind of palette to start off with. Your
palette should be non-porous to prevent absorption of oil from the
paint. Palettes come in a variety of different materials from glass
to wood. My personal preference is the BOB ROSS Clear Palette. I
have found this palette the easiest to clean and best for mixing
colors.
When you are first starting out, it may be a good idea to start
with a fairly limited palette of colors. If you purchase every color
under the sun, you may find yourself mixing too many different
colors, which will result in a muddy painting. Start off slow in the
beginning, then add more colors as you become more experienced.
Color choices for a limited palette vary from artist to artist. Here
are the colors of my palette: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Pale,
Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Orange, Phthalo Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt
Umber, Cadmium Red Medium, Phthalo Green, Titanium White, Ivory
Black. I recommend purchasing 1.25 oz tubes of all colors except
Titanium White. Purchase a larger tube of Titanium White, as you
will be using more of this color.
First, you should get into the habit of laying out your colors
the same way every time you paint. This is just good practice and
keeps the painting process flowing nicely. Arrange your colors along
the edges of your palette leaving a lot of room in the center for
mixing.
Don't be afraid to squeeze out a good amount of paint, especially
your whites. You will be more productive if you aren't continuously
stopping to squeeze out more paint.
Make certain to include all of the colors you think you will need
to complete that session of painting as well. Again, this will make
you more productive.
When adding paint to the palette, I have found that squeezing the
paint out in long lines, as opposed to puddles, keeps my colors
cleaner. When you have puddles of paint, they tend to get soiled by
other colors when mixing. With a long line of paint, you can just
take paint from the end as needed and not dirty the rest. Keep some
rags or paper towels handy for wiping your palette knife clean.
It's a good idea to continuously wipe your palette clean during
the painting process. There is nothing more frustrating then trying
to remove dried up oil paint. Keep some alcohol handy so that you
can keep the mixing area of your palette clean.
I hope these tips have helped. Happy Painting!
About the Author
Ralph Serpe is
webmaster and founder of Artsymmetry.com.
Artsymmetry is an
online directory of articles and resources for the Arts. You can
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