Hi,
I have been thinking of a very
muted color palette for some time; like a muted DMP palette. I have made a few choices below. Need confirmation/suggestions on those choices. Like Zorn Palette, these colors won't produce most accurate results but interesting effects. Basic features behind the color palette are:
- Colors are commonly available, mostly series 1-2 colors. No fancy ones
- The paintings will be somewhat muted
- I can lighten the colors upto white and darken the colors down to black. No change here
- I can use colors that can be identified as red, blue, yellow and mixed ones purple, green, orange (I can live without the most accurate secondaries here)
- Reducing stress (HaHa) over correct color mixing. Focusing on values only (Hee Hee).
Here are the choices. I am also attaching the colors chart for reference:
- White: Titanium White. I cannot change this. Lightest color
- Yellow: My choice is Naples yellow as it is lighter than other muted yellows. Not sure about how light Raw Sienna is.
- Red: This is where I am getting stuck. I need a muted red that can influence other colors. Both Venetian and Indian red or orangy. So not a good choice. Shall I go with Crimson Lake (slightly violet mixed crimson; using this in my small plein air paintings; oranges not bright even with cad lemon) or the Light Red? It shows that Light Red is dark enough but not totally blueish on the tube below (color should be darker than what appears on the tube). I feel that Naples yellow has enough yellow in it to produce a decent orange with this.


- Blue: My choice is Payne's Grey due to blue undertone. Other options being ivory black and indigo (used this earlier; almost like black but very powerful)
- Brown (Warm darker orange): Is there any need of this here? I am discarding it. I can mix something similar. I don't even use it while following DMP color method.
Comments
(You already have a mixed colour with Payne's Grey..)
Frankly, I don't like that Crimson Lake colors as single red. it does a fair job but oranges are boring even with a color like cad lemon. It gets added to a 12 color set as a cooler red with an additional warm red (split primary). That's how I got it three years ago.
Any thoughts on the choices of muted red and blue? @Richard_P recommends to go with light red. Looking at the tube print it doesn't look that light, which is to my advantage.
Photos are never perfect. But here is another sample of light red. I guess this will create both muted violets and oranges. Plus I don't want the colors to be too perfect here. What do you say, this will work?
But I am making different choices now. I use DMP palette, Zorn palette and now thinking about this muted palette too.
I put my plein air box palette inside this box to keep the paint fresh for a small still life painting that I'm working on. This is DMP palette with small amount of vermilion.
Bottom lid shows the test results. Section in the middle has the secondary mixes. First lines are for DMP palette. Second is for muted palette.
Why did you prefer Yellow Ochre over Naples Yellow?