I painted this head study in a sketch group with just a blue and black and just a hint of warm. The two-color discipline made those old illustrators into very resourceful colorists. Magazine illustrators in the 1920s and 30s were often required to paint in two-color palettes, like the black and orange painting above by Mead Schaeffer. It’s easier to convey a mood or to explore strange realms you wouldn’t normally choose. Every color you mix is automatically related. If you construct a picture out of fewer colors, the resulting mixtures are more likely to be unified and harmonious-and more interesting. This is what happens if you use every color in the spectrum and fill the whole canvas with details. I did this painting as an experiment in bad taste. I present my own book cover illustration, called “Glory Lane,” as a negative example. If you have all the colors squeezed out around the edges of your mixing surface, you might tend to use them all in a single picture. There are at least four good reasons to limit your palette.ġ. In the art store we still ogle the all the delicious colors.īut it’s a good idea to limit the range of color pigments or the “palette” that you use on any particular painting. When we were in grade school we all envied the other kid who owned the giant-size Crayola set. Every Sunday I’ve been sharing some thoughts about color, and today I want to touch on limited palettes.
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