The palette of Rubens?

[Studio Colrouphobia]

So I've been searching for an image of the different colours used by Rubens, and found nothing.
Refferences in words to specific types of colours (usually refferences to "Rubens Yellow" or "Rubens Black") But quite honestly that doesn't really help me as I don't paint using traditional tools, but rather use Photoshop and Painter.


So I was hoping for some help with this.


If anyone knows the colour palette Rubens worked with, and have/can put together an image with those colours clearly displayed on, I would be very gratefull.

[Felicia]

Have you tried color picking from a photo of one of his paintings?
Art Renewal Center (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=85) has some good pictures of his work.
His paintings are amazing in person. I love Rubens.

[chobomaster]

A quick search on google reveals this:
Rubens’ basic palette probably consisted at minimum of Lead (Flake) white, Madder, Malachite green, Orpiment, Ivory black, Yellow lake, Vermilion, Ultramarine blue made with Lapis Lazuli, Burnt sienna, Yellow ochre, Red ochre, Cobalt blue, Tere verte, and Verte ajur. (from here (http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/spanishpath.htm)

You can probably find a color chart online.

But how is this information supposed to help you in digital painting?

[Studio Colrouphobia]

Felicia, yeah, but that gives me something else. I want to do some practices using only the colours he had on his palette. colourpicking would make me start picking all over the painting to get the "right" colours.
My aim is to learn how to mix colours on the digital canvas itself.



Chobomaster: Like I said above, I want to practice to mix the colours a traditional artist used on the digital canvas itself. This way I will not only have the chance to build up my own colourpalette (as I learn what works for me and not), learn how to blend colours digitaly and learn better how colours work, but I will also have the luxury of being able to look up images for refferences as to how blended colours could/should turn out if I blended them like Rubens did (which is a classical school I have learned).

[chobomaster]

Colrouphobic, I would strongly advise you from doing this.

First of all, the colors as you see them on the screen are not the same as you see them in reality. Second, and more importantly, colors blended digitally are nothing like real oils. For instance, quinacridone colors are more transparent compared to other oil colors and if you blend them 50-50 with another pigment they are less prominent. Phthalo colors--one drop of it can ruin your palette very quickly if you aren't careful. Painter's artist oils tool, while pretty good at simulating oils, doesn't really take these factors into consideration.

I understand that being able to pick any color you want instantly is a difficulty of digital painting, but to undergo this exercise you want to do, you really should work with the real thing.

[Studio Colrouphobia]

You missunderstood me, I don't ant images of the rendered picture, I want the real deal, how the colours would look on a screen.

Rubens had very vibrant colours, looking at them on the screen and they look extremely dull.

I want the colours he worked with, as how they would look on the computer.

With this, I can work with composing colours and then (I have the luxury of being able to see a Rubens in the flesh, roughly once every three weeks) I can look and see if I have grasped the idea.

After this, I can start to build up my own palette, but to get to that point, I need to start somewhere.
That compiled list of yours lasted me a long ways (haven't been able to find an example of "Yellow Lake" yet) And it gives me a very nice sensation of what colours work next to eachother, how to blend them in the digital medium without it looking forced and so on.

If I worked with traditional means, I sure would do this with the traditional tools, however, since I don't, I do this with Photoshop and Painter. (which are two completely different things, when it comes to mixjng the colours on the canvas).

And just to explain further, I don't want to be able to "pick any colour I want instantly". I want to be able to paint and build up a colourpalette tha I then can work with.

If I wanted to meerely mimick Rubens then I would download an image of his, up the saturatin slightly and just use the colourpicker... that would get me ...nowhere... I wouldn't evolve whatsoever.

[Bhrazz]

That's what I found for the color YellowLake.
183900
Yellow Lake
Michael Harding Handmade Artists Oil Colour 40ml Series 1

183901
Bright Yellow Lake
Michael Harding Handmade Artists Oil Colour 40ml Series 1

Know I kinda like the idea to restrain the color picking

[chobomaster]

OK, I think i'm understanding better what you're trying to do. Didn't realize you were going to reference from Rubens in the flesh, I think that's a key element. Though what I meant about blending paints was just be aware that if you mix two colors in painter you might not get the same results as you would mixing them with oil. Anyway it's an experiment worth a shot, good luck with it!

[Bhrazz]

OK, I think i'm understanding better what you're trying to do. Didn't realize you were going to reference from Rubens in the flesh, I think that's a key element. Though what I meant about blending paints was just be aware that if you mix two colors in painter you might not get the same results as you would mixing them with oil. Anyway it's an experiment worth a shot, good luck with it!

Yea I think is a good exercise to restrain color just if you could not all the available color but do the best you can with what you got. I'm probably gonna give this a shot as well.

[Studio Colrouphobia]

This is what I had prior to that Yellow Lake example.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e44/colrouphobic/Tutorials/Rubenscolourpalette.jpg

Please note two things.
1) I looked up the colours, took them from a colourwheel and then painted them myself on a canvas piece.

2) There is a colourwheel in the bottom. That one is for a future experiment, but I thought it was easier to have them both collected in one spot. The colourwheel comes from something called "Masters Palette" in refference to "old Masters". I have no clue whom actually painted with them though.

Thanks for the Yellow Lake Bhrazz. I will add it to my image as soon as I can.


Chobomaster- it's okay, it usually gets confusing when someone wants to take elements of traditional painting and add them (in whatever fascion) in a digital medium.
I am aware that mixing two of the colours wont give the same resault. What I'm looking at is how to combine to get "similar" resaults, but also to see if I can collect a palette completely of my own.
Right now, with a bit of experimenting, I think that a quite dll palette will give a very nice resault. Which is weird, because I allways thought saturated images looked the best.. :/