Self Portrait With New Palette

Tonight I’m trying out a new palette and medium based on Daniel Greene’s palette which I was motivated to buy after watching his portrait DVD.

First of all this palette has many more colors than I’m used to. I tend to go with a more limited palette so having 12 colors on my palette was ver confusing at times.

Daniel E Green’s Palette

• Flake White
• Ivory Black
• Prussian Blue
• Raw Sienna
• Yellow Ochre
• Naples Yellow
• Cadmium Yellow Medium
• Cadmium Red Light
• Alizarin Crimson
• Burnt Sienna
• Raw Umber
• Burnt Umber
• Sap Green
• Pthalo Green

Here is a PDF download about Daniel Greene’s palette which provides a lot of great information about Daniel Greene and his palette. Most of the information comes from his first portrait painting DVD where he goes over all the colors on his palette.

My New Palette and Medium

I had to adjust some of the colors here due to price or availability, but for the most part it’s almost exactly like Daniel Green’s. Also most of these color are made from Jack Richeson shiva series of paints. I often use Gamblin oil paints for their color but I like the consistency of the Jack Richeson shiva out of the tube.

• Flake White
  • I used Titanium White by Gamblin instead. Flake white is much too expensive, and I wanted to use up my titanium before I purchased a zinc white. Greene puts a lot of importance on the white he chooses, and his choice is based on drying time. Zinc white for slow drying and Flake white for fast drying.
• Ivory Black
  • I used ivory black by Gamblin.
• Prussian Blue
  • I used Prussian blue shiva, and I have been using this for a while now and I must say like this blue tremendously. It is a very strong blue and you must be very careful with it, but with it I can achieve even the most brightest turquoise out there.
• Raw Sienna
  • I used the shiva brand for the raw sienna and this is a very new color for me, I’m not sure how to use it at all and must do more paintings with it to fully understand how to use it.
• Yellow Ochre
  • I used Gamblin yellow ochre, another color that I have been using for a while but still I don’t feel like I really understand how to use it well.
• Naples Yellow
  • I didn’t use naples yellow on my palette. In his video Greens states that naples yellow is an optional color and considering that this color can be achieved with a mixture of cadmium yellow and white, I didn’t feel it was necessary to have.
• Cadmium Yellow Medium
  • I have used cadmium yellow medium for a while now, but mostly in the Gamblin line. I did a test today to see the difference in color between the shiva series and Gamblin and I found that the Gamblin color is bit more cool and the shiva more warm and bright.
• Cadmium Red Light
  • The Shiva brand of paints does not have a cadmium red light. It has a cadmium red scarlet which Greene indicated on his video is what he paints with, and he states that the scarlet is much the same as the red light, which I would have to disagree with. I have used Gamblin cadmium red light for a while and upon comparing the gamblin with the shiva these colors are much different. The cadmium red light is much brighter and warmer than the scarlet.
• Alizarin Crimson
  • I used the shiva alizarin, but I have the gamblin alizarin and the comparison between the two is not much different.
• Burnt Sienna
  • I used the shiva burnt sienna and this is a very new color for me. I have never used burnt sienna before but I really like this color especially for portraits.
• Raw Umber
  • I used raw umber off an on for a while, I’m not totally sure how to best use this color still. It’s like a warm gray when adding white to it. I’ve tried to use it to gray out and darken other mixes of color, but too often I make mud with it.
• Burnt Umber
  • Burnt umber is another color that I have used ofter. It is a really nice dark brown color yet much warmer than raw umber.
• Sap Green
  • I have never had green on my palette. I picked up a tube of the shiva sap green only because I wanted to reproduce some of the nice mixtures Greene uses on his fully mixed palette.
• Pthalo Green
  • Here again is an option color that Greene indicated on his DVD which I did not purchase or use.

Here is Greene’s palette fully mixed.

I didn’t make all these mixtures on my palette, it’s not big enough. But after painting with this palette tonight and making more mud that I should, I definitely will try to make these mixtures next time.

On the left is my self portrait from several days ago with my normal limited palette. On the right is the new palette with Daniel Greene’s influence. I didn’t do much drawing on the painting tonight in that respect is looks terrible.

The earlier portrait has more accurate colors in places because of the time I worked on it but it also has more muddy or low chroma colors. I think this is due to all the mixing and that all the mixtures I would use on my old palette would have all three primaries in each mixture.

So is the new palette better? I have no idea I need to do more testing on it before I make a determination. I will probably do a another self portrait next but with more focus than the one today. I’ll just take my time and think out each mixture before applying it.