Prelude to Spring + Earth Tone Color Chart

Jim Serrett     Prelude to Spring     Oil on panel     8x10

The painting above was done over three sittings on location around mid afternoon. The first sitting was a simple washed underpainting of burnt umber to establish a tonal composition.

I approached this landscape painting with more of an indirect/layered method, a process of painting on top of a dry layer allowed for some dry brush and glazing techniques.

I have been working with a simple Earth Palette comprised of four colors, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, ultramarine blue, and white. These low key earth palettes will make you look closely at building color relationships and thinking about color saturation.

Much of the subtly in these color families can not truly be seen or appreciated unless you actually mix one of these charts. For example ultramarine blue mixed with burnt sienna or burnt umber produce two beautiful mixed blacks and an entire range of warm and cool grays. This is what I used in the study Prelude to Spring and in the chart for my mixed black or shade.

There is more info about the earth palettes on my studio site.






In the spring, at the end of the day,
you should smell like dirt.
                                                    Margaret Atwood
                                   

Explore – Question – Learn – Enjoy, Jim