The Artist's Life : Color, how to paint

Is White Really a Color?

johnandann@theartistsroad — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:04:00 GMT

There are differing opinions among color theory purists whether white should be considered a color at all, since it represents the absence of hue or chroma, and cannot be made from the three primaries, as black theoretically can be. It's not usually represented on the color wheel, but white is usually an essential ingredient of any palette.


Flamenco by Ann Trusty, oil painting.

Ironically, the history of white pigments is a dark and morbid one. Lead white was one of the earliest and most reliable whites discovered, and has been in use since 400 B.C. Unfortunately, its toxicity sickened and killed scores of people, and for that reason, it is no longer manufactured in the U.S. Lead white's victims included not only the workers engaged in its manufacture and the artists who used it, but also the women who once applied it as face cream and makeup!

However, there was no easy replacement for lead white and, despite its obvious toxic effects, it continued to be used for centuries. It took the work of many chemists a very long period of time to develop the formulas for zinc white and titanium dioxide white, two colors that would eventually replace the widespread use of lead white. Zinc white was developed for use in oil paints in the late 1700s.

By 1921, a titanium white oil color suitable for artists' use was introduced by an American manufacturer. Zinc white is more transparent and useful in tinting and glazing work, though prone to cracking over the long term. Titanium white has become the most common replacement for lead white in artists' pigments because of its lack of toxicity, its thermal and environmental stability, and its opacity.

The titanium pigment, titanium dioxide, now accounts for almost 70% of the total production volume of all pigments worldwide. As artists, we know it as the strong, brilliant white pigment available for oil painting, but that use is just a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of other commercial and industrial uses it has. It is used extensively to provide opacity and whiteness to plastics, foods and toothpastes, as well as cosmetics, skin care products, and sunblocks. It is sometimes used to whiten skimmed milk and to mark the white lines on tennis courts. Interestingly, it was also used by NASA to paint the exterior of the Saturn V rocket!

In painting, the addition of white gives us advantages and deficits at the same time. White is needed to lighten dark colors, and is used to mix colors to create tints, pastels, or high-value areas in a painting. The trouble with mixing colors with white is that white also cools a color. This may result in the necessity of adding additional warm colors to color schemes to bring the resulting mixture back to the proper temperature.

All in all, we consider this a very small drawback of the reliable, more stable and safer substitute we now have for the beloved but cruel lead white of old. What about you? What do you think of mixing colors with white? Which white(s) do you use? Leave a comment and let us know.

For more great articles please join us on The Artist's Road.

--John & Ann

May I Introduce Scott Waddell?

Courtney Jordan — Sun, 01 May 2011 06:15:00 GMT


The Den by Scott Waddell, oil painting, 20 x 16.

Scott Waddell: Weekend With the Masters Instructor

Scott Waddell was born and raised in Central Florida. He received his B.F.A. from Florida State University. After college, Waddell spent the next several years studying classical painting at The Florence Academy of Art and the Water Street Atelier under Jacob Collins.

In 2006 Scott moved with his wife to Connecticut, where they continue to reside with their son and many pets. Waddell divides his time between painting portraits, fine-art narratives, and teaching at The Grand Central Academy of Art.

He also teaches workshops at various art institutions throughout the country. His interest in color and its application has always been driven by the concepts he uses to interpret and model form. He believes it is the understanding of what's physically happening in the environment around us that keeps us out of the wilderness of bizarre coloration. It also let's us follow a logic that is relational and not necessarily dependent on the optical. Waddell finds this very liberating artistically.

As far as the colors on his palette, Waddell tries to have highly chromatic representatives of each part of the color wheel so that he can maximize his mixing range. On an average day, he has Titanium White, Yellow Ochre (as my low chromatic yellow), Cadmium Yellow (as my high chromatic yellow), Cadmium Orange (high chroma), Cad Red (high chroma), Alizarin Crimson, a couple flesh tones (tubed or pre-mixed) as short cuts (bear in mind, these are clearly recognized as low chroma, particular values of a given hue--not blindly as a flesh tone to be used necessarily in the painting of flesh), Burnt Umber, Raw Umber and Ivory Black. Were Waddell to paint something that had a local blue, green or violet hue, he would undoubtedly have a high chroma representative of that particular hue on his palette. For more information about Waddell's fine art painting and practice, visit his website.

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May I Introduce Stephen Quiller?

Courtney Jordan — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:41:00 GMT


February Shadows, Rio Grande by Stephen Quiller, acrylic painting, 17 x 19 1/2.

Stephen Quiller: Weekend With the Masters Instructor

Stephen Quiller is an internationally known painter who works primarily in water media, monotypes, and intaglio printmaking. He is best known for his innovative approach to water media painting: watercolor, gouche, acrylic, casein and their combinations, and for his use of color. He has written six books, Water Media Painting with Stephen Quiller; Water Media Techniques; Water Media: Processes and Possibilities; Color Choices; Acrylic Painting Techniques; Painter's Guide to Color.

His research and development of a color wheel for painters called the “Quiller Wheel” is now used by thousands of painters throughout the world. In addition, he has developed twelve instructional video tapes produced by Crystal Productions, as well as two tapes produced by the Richeson Company in 2004.

He is a member of the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society, Rocky Mountain National Watermedia, National Society for Painters in Acrylic & Casein, and Watercolor West and is an American Watercolor Society Dolphin Fellow. The artist has been awarded the Hal P. Moore Award, the Louise Kaep Award, the Winsor & Newton Award, Didi Deglin Award, and the Walter Greathouse Medal with the American Watercolor Society, the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, and the National Watercolor Society, among others. He has done 12 educational painting videos and DVDs with Crystal productions and Jack Richeson & Co.

Quiller has been painting full time since 1972 and lives in Creede, Colorado, where he also runs The Quiller Gallery. He has painted in many parts of the world, but is primarily known for his work done at or near his home in the high mountainous country of southern Colorado. These subjects include beaver ponds, snow shadows, water patterns, wild iris, and mountain rhythms, capturing the spirit of the San Juans.

His work can be seen at the Mission Gallery, in Taos, New Mexico, and he does a few select workshops annually in the United State and abroad. For more information on Quiller, visit his website.

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May I Introduce Jacob Collins?

Courtney Jordan — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:32:00 GMT


Thinking Man by Jacob Collins, oil painting, 30 x 20, 2004.

Jacob Collins: Weekend With the Masters Instructor

Jacob Collins is a leading figure in the contemporary revival of classical painting. He earned a B.A. in history from Columbia College and attended the New York Studio School, the New York Academy of Art, and the Art Students League, all in Manhattan.

As a student, Collins also copied extensively in museums in America and Europe. His work has been widely exhibited in North America and Europe and is included in several American museums, and he has painted numerous private and public portrait commissions.

Collins is the founder of the Water Street Atelier, The Grand Central Academy of Art, and the Hudson River School for Landscape, all in New York. The methodology of the Grand Central Academy is built on the approaches taught in the ateliers of the 15th through 19th centuries and which we developed successfully at Water Street: cast drawing and grisaille painting, progressing through to figure drawing and ultimately to figure painting.

GCA's core program, however, goes beyond this, with copying paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a thorough study of perspective, anatomy with écorché and dissection, portraiture, painting methods and materials, plein air oil sketch, color theory and composition, and art history for painters—all taught by professional artists. The historical relationship between painting, sculpture and architecture is reflected in the core curriculum, which also introduces architectural drawing and figure sculpture. Each distinct stage in the student's education was conceived and is controlled by a larger trajectory, the end of which is to give the student the skills and understanding necessary to create classically inspired paintings finely conceived and excellently executed.

He is represented by Adelson Galleries, in New York City; John Pence Gallery, in San Francisco; and Meredith Long & Co., in Houston, Texas, and he also regularly shows with Tree's Place Gallery, in Orleans, Massachusetts. For more information on Collins, visit his website.

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