Color Charts

[Laurence Finston]

Any color you buy is most likely to be more luminous than a color you mix because of the "gray portion" of the mixture. Manufacturers like Lukas, Schmincke, Old Holland and Winsor and Newton know what they're doing so when they do use more than one pigment for a tube or tablet of paint, they're most likely to get better results than the average person.

My main source of information on paints and some other materials is The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques by the late Ralph Mayer. I have the fifth edition, which to my surprise is the most recent. I thought it would have been revised several times by now.

Another good book is The Materials and Methods of Sculpture by Jack C. Rich. My copy must be in a box somewhere, but I recently went through all of my boxes and couldn't find it.

By the way, the common names for paints are most often "fantasy" names. Even when the name contains the name of some mineral or has a traditional name, it's often a synthetic pigment. Not always, however. The cadmium paints, red, yellow, etc., still contain cadmium, at least when they're from higher-end manufacturers. They are relatively expensive and to the best of my knowledge, they are still irreplaceable.

The product numbers are what counts; I just use the names as a convenience. A "forest green" from one manufacturer isn't really comparable to one from another.

[whulsey]

Not familiar with the Jack Rich book. My copy of Mayer's book is totally dog-eared from use.
I use primarily Winsor and Newton watercolors and Liquitex for acrylics.

[Laurence Finston]

The Jack Rich book is good but not in the same league as the Ralph Mayer book, but then very few books on the subject of art techniques are. I have to look for a couple of other books and I'm hoping I'll run across the Rich book.

I've got a set of 5 or so tubes of acrylic paint but I've never used it. I got out my oils because I had the idea of using them for encaustic. I've posted some photos on the "Lettering" thread I started. That's one of the media I want to use in combination with the linoleum and woodcuts.

Other media I use and have made color charts for are gouache and drawing ink (tusche). I put together a portfolio in 2006 and a lot of the drawings are in those media. Most of the drawings I'm using for the linoleum and woodcuts are from that time. I used the portfolio for applications to animation studios --- dozens of them, in several countries. Unfortunately, it was a complete washout.

I have some drawing ink from other manufacturers, but by far the best I've ever used is from Rohrer and Klingner. They are actually made by Schmincke. They are very concentrated and have to be diluted. I always use distilled water for diluting water-based paint (except for house paint, of course). They also photograph or scan extremely well, as does the gouache.

I only have gouache from Schmincke, but from two lines: Horadam and HKS Design. Horadam is the "fine art" line, corresponding to the Horadam watercolor line and the Mussini oil paint line. HKS Design contains normed colors specifically for repro and not necessarily permanent.

I've done color charts for the ink and the gouache. When I get around to it I'll post photos. I keep the ink in dropper bottles, which makes it easy to do very exact mixing. I've done a few charts with mixed colors. While most of the inks have remained unchanged over the last twenty years, as far as I can tell, the white has dried up, and all of the ink in the bottles where I mixed other colors with white. Nothing is permanent in this life.

[Laurence Finston]

Originally Posted by Laurence Finston

I've posted two PDF files and the source code for the color sample template in DIN A4 portrait and DIN A3 portrait format, respectively: [...]

I want to make some larger color samples, so I made templates for 10 x 10cm and 12 x 12cm samples and added them to this file: https://www.gnu.org/software/3dldf/g...or_samples.pdf

They're on this page: The GNU 3DLDF Colors Page

I've only made them for DIN A4. I'll make them for DIN A3 when I get around to it, unless someone needs them, in which case I'll make them immediately, seeing as how it would be no trouble.

[Laurence Finston]

Originally Posted by Laurence Finston

https://www.gnu.org/software/3dldf/g...or_samples.pdf
The GNU 3DLDF Colors Page

I have some plastic DIN A4 photo pockets that I use for large color samples. The pockets themselves are, I believe, 10 x 15cm. However, I have 9 x 11.5cm samples. I have now made a template for them (see attached image) and added it to color_samples.pdf. The links remain as above. This time, I made a "fancier" version of the template with crosshairs and "bridges" to make it more stable.

[Laurence Finston]

Cut out the template and used it to mark the first sheet of paper. I will make samples of pastels. I only have a few of this brand (Sennelier). I have a lot of old ones, but the package is long gone and I don't know if I can identify them all or if they're even still being made. So there's no point in making charts for them. The pastels I want aren't available at any of the stores in town that sell art supplies, so I will have to order some online.

[Laurence Finston]

Some more photos. This is very dusty work. I must have washed my hands a dozen times this morning. However, it's worth it because there's nothing quite like the intense color of good pastels. I won't use fixative, which is basically diluted clear shellac in a spray can, to fix the samples because it affects the color, so I'll have to be careful how I handle them and above all not handle them too much.

[Laurence Finston]

Made a couple of samples on light-colored paper. I ordered some more pastels and they should be here in the next couple of days.

Making color charts is very time-consuming. You have to make sure the colors don't contaminate each other. With paint, that means constantly cleaning the brush, with pastel, constantly washing your hands and in both cases keeping the work surface and the paper, canvas, or whatever clean.

[Laurence Finston]

Finished the samples for the three colors I had. However, today a box of 12 arrived and some individual pastels, so I can get stuck in making some more.

I'm going to need more little jars, because it won't be possible to store them in the original packages. They crumble easily and if I threw out the dust, I would be throwing out about a third of the mass.

[Laurence Finston]

Yesterday, I picked up some more black charcoal paper, Hahnemühle Ingres-Büttenpapier, 100g/m2. "Büttenpapier" is mold-made paper. It's slightly larger than DIN A2, which is 594 x 420cm. I tore each sheet into halves and then one half of each sheet into halves again.

I used the portfolio to transport the paper. You have to be quick and tell the salesperson in the shop not to, otherwise he or she will grab the paper and start rolling it up before you can say Jack Robinson. Then you will never get it flattened out again, unless perhaps you have a 594 x 420cm bookbinder's press.

The pastels I'd ordered also arrived yesterday. I'll use some of the paper for color charts and some for artwork. I thought maybe a nice portrait of Elvis and some clowns.