Skin Colours and Organizing the Palette

A recent lesson I learned is to organize the palette by colours and values before you begin a session. Below is a sample for skin colours (for the Patroclus painting). I take one colour out of the tube (Burnt Sienna, for example) and create a range of values down to 9 (white). Then I line up additional colours and do the same thing, trying to create rows of matching values. My first attempt is shown below.



When you begin painting, you first pick the value you need and then determine the most suitable colour. By laying things out beforehand, some guess work is taken out of mixing. If I need a value that combines colours, I can choose from the appropriate row on my pallete, perhaps blending two squares or blobs. The paint that I apply should then be accurate for value and be cleaner.

Below is detail from the Patroclus painting. I painted the lower calf in a session before I began organizing my palette and the paint is streaky. A few weeks later I painted the thigh using the organized pallete (in which Burnt Sienna was my dominant shade).