Often when creating a palette, using the brightest colors or all your colors won’t help you paint successfully, and you may even be wasting paint you don’t need. The best way to resolve this is to unify your colors by taking one specific color to mix in and use as a visual anchor.
In this blog, we will go over a few considerations to think about when creating a palette and how to best unify it.
Pick the Unifying Color
There are many choices for a unifying color with classics including Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, and Yellow Ochre. They are largely browns and yellow tones and are also ideal for underpaintings.
However, many colors can be used to unify a palette. The main thing you want to keep in mind is if the color is a “medium tone” or “middle tone”. Or, in other words, a color that will help move the overall palette into the middle of a chroma map, instead of the highest chroma or lowest. This will help move both darker and lighter values around as well as make your higher chroma paints pop when used on their own. Good examples outside of the brown and yellow spectrum are Medium Violet, Medium Green, Chromium Oxide Green, and Venetian Red.
Below is an example of high chroma primary colors that have been mixed with both Burnt Sienna and Medium Violet
Quick reminder: When mixing, use different ratios of the unifying color based on the relative value of each paint. Basically, it’s easier to darken a hue than to lighten it. So, if you’re mixing brown into yellow, use more yellow than brown and only add a bit of brown in to unify it without losing the value of the lighter yellow. And if you’re mixing a darker blue with the same brown, you’ll have to use more brown paint to shift the value of the blue.
Picking the Colors to Unify
You could potentially unify every color you own and create a painting with every single one. However, it’s more important to select colors you want to utilize the most in your paintings. For example, if you’re painting a portrait, you’ll likely be using a flesh tone closer to your subject than a color that doesn’t show up on your portrait at all. Be sure to keep in mind what your subject is and what the lighting surrounding that subject is.
In conclusion, unifying your palette can be a great way to elevate your paintings and keep your colors looking consistent and in line with one another. It can also help you plan your paintings better to avoid wasting paint and time mixing.