Paint Swatch Fan Deck

I just thought I'd share this Fan Deck that I created. This is all my WSOs. I hang it on my easel for easy reference.

Very cool! What a great reference to have at hand.

What a neat idea. I kniw you said you were doing some swatches, but this is great..

Judy

Glad you girls like it. I tried quite a few things that didn't work for me. Too cumbersome or too awkward. This seems to work fairly well.

Great idea....

You inspired me to make my swatches at last, Janet, and here's what i did.

http://www.artforthesoulofit.com/2011/02/04/choosing-a-palette-of-watersoluble-oil-paints/

Long ago I made a fan deck of sorts out of my watercolor pencils, I had just purchased a set of 120pencils and worked on that for quite some time. Still have it, but had completely forgotten about it til i saw your lovely deck.

I still have it on my site,
http://www.artforthesoulofit.com/2008/02/08/colorcharts/

Thanks again for this fab ws oils forum.

Blessings
Joanie

For studying a particular pigment's application you might want to take this a couple steps further than just showing masstone or tinting with white, and mix them with their complements and/or split complements to see how they mix with other colors. Coverage is another aspect to examine. You can make a swatch that is rectangular and place it over a darker value (black or gray) as well as a white ground to see how transparent it is.

Absolutely, David......the lightening with white was my starting place.
Thanks for the idea, appreciated. I've got lots more work ahead of me...

Thanks to David for the nudge, I finally finished the color mixing, and photographing them. Think wet!

I switched to a palette knife this time, so they're not quite as neat as my brushed versions of yesterday, but they still give you an idea.

The whole page is here with my summary and notes...
http://www.artforthesoulofit.com/2011/02/05/color-mixing-my-water-soluble-oil-palette/

I don't know if the images are too large for uploading here. I'll try.

Wow, Great job Joanie! I love your process. I always overdo it when making swatches and include more then I need. I end up giving up part way through due to the amount of time it would take. I like the idea over measuring transparency with the black strip. The Grumbacher Red is a wonderful red. Grumbacher was the first brand I tried out and I do miss that red but prefer the Holbein for the way I paint.

Hi Janet, Yes, i agree, Holbein is a great paint, pricey but extremely pigment loaded. Some of my tubes tend to leak oil when i pour them out, that happen to you?

It's so wonderful to discover the paints, brushes, supports, etc that work for each of us. Takes awhile.....part of the colorful journey. Blessings, Joanie

Although this is all in acrylics, here is my "color wall". The top and middle left papers are mixes with the Golden OPEN Acrylics that I recently bought. I wanted to see what mixtures I could make with the 3 primaries plus white. I did buy a Phthalo Green and added that to some of the mixes.

The bottom left paper of reds was something I did to find out what all of the different reds that I own look like, which way they lean (yellow or blue) and what they look like mixed with a little yellow.

The top right paper has a color exercise that I did over a year ago to see what all of the different color produce when mixed with one another and with white.

Thanks Cindy,
I have never done this and I often wonder if it would help me if I did. Do you find having the chart readily available to you as you paint, helps in deciding on colors?

Yes, because I don't have the experience to do it automatically. If I want a certain color, especially earth colors, I like to know what colors to start with to get close to the color I want. I don't use it as much as I should - I didn't have them posted on the wall before and would forget to pull them out to use them. Since I have had them on the wall, they have been a lot more helpful!

I've never done a colour chart, but now that I see what you all have done, I can understand how useful it would be. It could save a lot of paint mixing when you are starting off a painting. I suppose a portable version could help when painting outdoors too.