Recently, I received a comment that expressed some of the major confusions that occur when beginning to delve into the color theory of Robert Henri and H.G. Marratta. I decided to use it as a platform to clarify my understanding of the spectrum palette. I have spent the past 14 years experimenting with the spectrum palette and its variations and through my practice have come to understand it intimately. Below is my explanation of particular issues faced when using the Spectrum Palette followed by highlights from the comment I receive.
When I first immersed myself in Henri’s color theory it took a lot of time and patience to unravel its mysteries. The one thing that was most significant about it was that you, your self, create the palette from your chosen colors. It is not about using this color or that color, but creating an inherent harmony with one’s chosen palette (I am always wary of a painter who says you need to use such and such a palette or color). You cannot purchase this. There are no commercial paints that fulfill this type of harmony. You, yourself, must create the harmony by the inter-mixtures of your chosen colors-And Henri can take you down that road.
First begin with three primaries. At first, I would recommend choosing a balanced set of primaries that have a shared intensity (the Frans Hals palette manipulates this relationship by using one intense color-red- and two subdued colors- raw sienna and ivory black and we can talk about this at another time). To create a spectrum palette, you need to mix these primaries out to 12 colors that are inter-related as such:
R-RO-O-OY-Y-YG-G-GB-B-BP-P-PR
Place your primaries on your palette leaving plenty of space between them. Next mix your secondaries such as G with Y+B (placing this in the middle between your Y and B). Next mix the tertiaries such as YG with Y+GB(placing this between the Y and GB). One should have a visual flow from one colour to the next across the palette. It should feel like the colour spectrum and unified. If it does not, than mix the intervening colours again until it does. This is the simplest way to come to an understanding of the spectrum palette. One can choose primaries that are akin to your work. Lately, because I paint the human figure, I use R- Chinese vermillion (Sennilier); Y- Cobalt Yellow Aurelion;B- French Ultramarine Blue. I have also used other colours depending on my chosen subject. I have used R- Cadmium red medium; Y- yellow ochre+ cadmium lemon yellow; B- cobalt blue. I have also used R- cadmium red medium; Y- raw sienna; B- Ultramarine blue+ ivory black. Any of these combinations will do, it all depends on the effect you wish to get and your subject matter. But choose colours that relate to your own tendencies not mine. As you see, even the primaries of the palette sometimes need to be mixed. Don’t depend on off-the-shelf colours.
Once you mix out the spectrum palette, you will be utterly amazed how much colour is at your disposal and in fact too much colour for any one subject. Henri found this to be the case also. So he desired to limit the palette even further. Here he found that the chords related to him by H.G. Marratta (a colour theorist and paint maker), were more useful. Because they created an even closer relationship within the paint, they were more harmonious. So if you know music you can use a minor or major chord as your primaries keeping the intervals at the proper relationship (use the guide at the top of this page describing the spectrum palette to get the colour at the proper intervals using Red as the C#). So if I use an A major:B- R-OY, I take these as my new primaries and mix them the same way as I did the initial spectrum palette. And what you will notice is that the palette becomes more limited but also has a beautiful intensity that is harmonious and more closely aligns with your subject matter. I almost exclusively use chords in my work, although there are other variations that are effective, I like the chords because they are really balanced and easily convey a particular emotive effect. And if one changes the initial spectrum palette prior to choosing the chord, one can in fact have an infinite number, of say, an A Major chord. So the artist is in charge and is the very creator of the emotive effect within the paint.
As regards the use of black- black, especially ivory black, is a beautiful and rich colour that can create an immensity of depth. I have used it as a substitute for blue, common among the old masters. If you designate black as your blue and do not introduce any other blue into the palette, that black will appear blue and carry a subtle richness into the depths. I have even used it for the flesh tones as you have seen in my blog of Frans Hals and the Simple Palette. The way to test this is to create a spectrum palette from the R-Y-B ( cadmium red medium, raw sienna, and ivory black- as a side note: only use the very best earth tones such as Old Holland or Williamsburg paints because these have the proper range and saturation of pigment).
As regards black and the Munsell system, I have serious questions about this. In the Munsell system, the artist separates the value from the chroma and then combines them to achieve the proper tone for the subject matter. This gives one an extremely accurate tone. But does this tone remain vital? The harmony achieved in the Munsell system stems from the black/ brown tone being prevalent throughout the painting- existing everywhere and in all tones. This has its advantage because it simplifies the very difficult task of achieving the value, chroma, color temperature by dividing up the tasks. Is this the best way?
My theory about it is that as I have matured over the years, I find this division unnecessary because I have trained my eye to see things as a unity and express them as such. Am I as accurate as those that use this system exclusively? Probably not. But have I achieved a realism that is emotive as well as full of colour? I would have to say yes. So if you are at the beginning of your training, maybe the Munsell system can help solidify your work. When I was a student, I swore by under painting and used it exclusively. Now I find it too dry, too rigid and I yearn for spontaneity and the free stroke. So one learns and one grows always being open to one’s inner voice who is the true guide within us all.
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(Highlights from the comment that inspired this post.)
Hi Judith,
Thanks so much, your writing is very helpful. I have a couple of questions regarding the spectrum palette and the one you were talking about in the Frans Hals article.
I started studying colours after reading “Blue and yellow don’t make green- by Michael Wilcox”. His system of using primaries, makes some sense to me. I noticed in the writing of John Sloan this same spectrum palette that you mention and also something about triads and chords. I haven’t sat down and read his book yet, but immediately I was struck by the relation to colours and musical intervals (both have 12). I definitely saw some possibility of major/minor chords in colour. I set up a simple still life with certain colours and by dropping one colour an interval… the feeling was exactly like strumming a major chord and then dropping it into a minor on the guitar. I have been looking at three ideas… the Michael Wilcox split primary system, the spectrum palette you have mentioned and also some ideas from Frank Faragasso via Frank Reilly, which use Munsell neutral greys to bring colours down in tone(I must say that I’m slightly adverse to using black/umber greys to neutralize colours… It feels a little muddy and looses the richness and possibilities of using the compliment.)
The split primary system seems full of possibilities, but although he does advocate the use of yellow ochre, raw sienna and burnt sienna… I feel that there must be more to be got out of some of the more traditional colours used in the past like earth colours and colours like ivory black. What’s more… using these modern bright colours is very expensive… they can fade and sometimes look a bit acidic. The actual earth pigments have a different feel.
I’m interested about what you wrote in this article about using cadmium red medium, Raw sienna deep and ivory black… is it really possible just by using these three colours to produce a lot of the lighter skin tones I see in Franz Hals paintings? Somehow I have had a fear of using black built into me.. that it kills colours. I get that it is on the blue side, but mixed with cad red medium and a deep raw sienna can you really achieve enough purity of colour in the lights? Especially the skin tones? When you say that you used the secondaries O-G-P… did you just mix the fore mentioned paints? If this is all true, then how important is paint quality when using these particular colours?
Yes, keep it simple! Sorry I think I get a bit carried away, when I start writing, but im sure you’re right. I think I’m going to have to arrive at that conclusion the hard way though 🙂
Regarding a previous conversation on using multiple triads: I was experimenting with glazing a couple of months ago and tried using 3 chords on the same canvas. The 1st, the 4th and the fifth. I just did it in 3 segments from left to right. It was a simple landscape.. blue to blue green sky… hills… sun begind clouds just after sunrise.. a bit of water and a foreground. So I was aiming at pretty uniform masses of colour over the entire canvas, but restricted to different triads in each of these 3 segments. So I was aiming at these final colors through different applicions of each colour in the available triad, relying on optical mixing (scumbling and glazing) i didn’t cover each layer fully, but allowed a lot of broken colour and I think it was quite interesting… a lot of colour variety. Problem is that as the colours sank in and faded the effect diminished and was hard to control. May try a more solid application, but still let the undercoats show through. I think it would work quite well with foliage.
It might have been me leaving those questions a long time back. I don’t think I ever saw that you replied…but thank you Judith and thank you so much for putting this site up. Apart from older books, I didn’t know where to look. It’s a great help 🙂
Here are some thoughts and a link about applying music theory to colour that might be relevant to the post:
Because we are able to divide the spectrum neatly into 12 intervals R,RO,O,YO,Y,YG,G,GB,B,BV,V, RV and because the octave is also often split into 12 semitones, I instinctively believed that they must have correlations. Musical theory is rooted in patterns like the harmonic series, but I wouldn’t know where to start trying to analyse the spectrum in the same way. So I was (and am) concerned that trying to apply musical theory onto colour might be a blind alley.
This description in chapter 3 of Frank Morley Fletcher’s book ‘colour Control’ might however offer some insight into why it could work:
http://petercullum.com/Documents/COLOUR-CONTROL%20by%20Frank%20Morley%20Fletcher.pdf
(Be warned, I have found it very difficult to explain this clearly without diagrams, so anyone interested might be better off having a look at the book!)
He takes the 12 tones or colours in the circle and then divides it up in this sequence: First he takes what in music is the fifth degree(8 semitones/colours away from the root.) The object is always to divide the largest interval without creating a direct compliment (tritone), that is why he goes to the 8th interval and not the 7th. The distance between this and the root is the widest spread of intervals so again he divides it as equally as he can. This takes you to the 5th interval( in music the major third). The largest area of free space in the circle is now opposite.. he avoids the direct contrast/tritone and goes to the 10th interval ( in music the major 6th)… now the biggest interval is between the root and the 5th interval… right in the middle is the 3rd interval (the major ninth in music) it is not a tritone, so no problem…. there are two gaps left.. avoiding tritones formed with the first(root) and the 5th interval(major third) you are left with the 11th (major seventh) and the 6th interval (perfect fourth).
I’m sorry, I can’t word it as clearly as I’d like too, but: It gives the optimal spacing of the greatest amount of tones into the circle (without cramming 3 in a row), the tones are for the most part well separated and tritones are avoided. The exceptions are of course the last two tones.. the 11th (major seventh) and the 6th interval (perfect fourth). These two form a tritone together. These two tones were classically considered dissonant. In fact the major pentatonic scale which consists purely of those first five degrees is clearly more consonant and easier to handle. Having a slight background in jazz theory the 11th interval(major seventh) is used a lot, but the 6th (perfect fourth) is often considered an ‘avoid note’, primarily I suppose because these two when together form a tritone. Actually if you do not play the major seventh, then the perfect fourth sounds perfectly sweet. The tritone clearly has to be handled carefully.
Frank Morley Fletcher does write about using them both as a means of direct compliment within the picture if used judiciously. This sounds interesting, but I haven’t tried it.
Previously, the only explanation that I had of why we use the major scale was through the harmonic series and a very vague understanding of pythagorean geometry. Anything that may exist geometrically that amplifies triads or other configurations is not easy to prove, but what I came away with from Fletcher’s description is a notion that the (Ionian) major scale is just packed very nicely. All intervals are given enough space to stand alone and to resonate without muddying each other and direct contrast/clashing is avoided.
I’d just like to add a note for anyone with some knowledge of music theory. This question bugged me and if it bugs you then I’d better mention it (and apologies to anyone who hasn’t studied music!):
Well, you might reason that any of the 7 modes derived from the major scale would have the same intervals and therefor the same harmonious feeling, but I ran through them and only the natural minor scale works in the same way(this is why it is the relative minor). Instead of the perfect fourth and the major seventh forming a triad, it is the 9th and the minor sixth. The Dorian creates a tritone with the third, the Phrygian with the fifth, the Lydian with the root.. mixolydian with the major third and Locrian with the root. I guess the reasoning is that these primary divisions (root, fifth & third) will sound very dissonant against a tritone. It is only in the Ionian mode and the Aeolian mode where the tritone doesn’t interfere with the main triad.
Some of the music theory is beyond me. Henri mainly used the major and minor scale with intervals spaced as 3-4-5. These tones are separate enough to allow clarity in the color without complements. They then rely on near-complements to heighten simultaneous contrast in the image. Henri did some work with naturals but very little.The theory must support the framework of the image and heighten the color sensation in the mind of the viewer. Simplicity is the key.
I like this website’s artistic content about color and classical approache of figurative work…Thanks alot dear.Judith Reeve.