Sky Palette II

I’ve always been fascinated by the colors of skies. They’re a major consideration in all my palettes; after all, there are skies in every season and every type of landscape. I made a dedicated Sky Palette about two years ago. After taking Brooke Morales’ Sky Windowscapes class, examining Brooke’s Sky Palette, and doing a month of daily skyscapes in November, I put together a new sky palette. I’ve refined it over the past three months, and find myself using it frequently for all sorts of scenes!

The Palette

Starred colors are most important.

Top Row:

• DV Arylide Yellow (PY97)
• DS Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255)
• ★ DV Quin Red (PR209)
• ★ HO Quin Magenta (PR122)
• ★ HO Lavender (PW6, PB29, PV15)
• ★ HO Phthalo Blue Yellow Shade (PB15:3)
• HO Payne’s Gray (PB15, PR122, PBk6)

Bottom Row:

• ★ WN Naples Yellow Deep (PBr24)
• DV Burnt Sienna Deep (PR101)
• DS Perylene Red (PR178)
• DV Thioindigo Violet (PV19, PR88)
• ★ DV Cobalt Blue (PB28)
• ★ SH Cobalt Turquoise (PG50)
• Qor Titanium White (PW6)

Color by Color

Arylide Yellow (PY97)

To be honest I think this Arylide Yellow or any bold middle yellow is an unnecessary color for this palette as I rarely use it in skies, and when I do I tend think it looks garish and I wish I’d used Naples Yellow Deep. But, when I don’t have it, I find my dry palette looks dark and sad. I like to open my palette box and find everything looking happy and cheerful.

Naples Yellow Deep (PBr24)

My favorite for yellows is still Naples Yellow Deep, which looks glowing on horizons. It is warm and desaturated enough not to look garish as bright yellow can, and it tends not to mix green, which is great for blue-to-yellow gradients.

Pyrrol Scarlet

I had a lot of luck using Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255) in sunsets lately, as I noted in the post “Shaking up my sunset colors“.

Quin Red (PR209)

Quin Coral is another favorite of mine (actually I use DV’s which is called Quin Red, but PR209 at any rate). It is just a beautiful color that often matches exactly the warm pink I see in sunset clouds.

Quin Magenta (PR122)

To bring cooler pinks into the sky, you can’t beat Quin Magenta. Quin Magenta is excellent for mixing violets and sometimes you just want a fresh, pinky-violet.

Burnt Sienna Deep (PR101)

This is a smooth alternative to Transparent Red Oxide. To tell the truth, I’m using it because I need to use it up (the tube broke), but it’s also apropos for the sky palette because it is nongranulating which is usually my preference for skies.

Earth orange is arguably not a truly necessary color for skies, but I use it to mix grays with blue. This allows me to easily shift between brownish and bluish grays, which can be great for cloud shadows.

Perylene Red (PR178)

Perylene Red is a weird color to include in a sky palette, because its base hue – mid red – is not a very sky-ish one. But it is great at desaturating blues and mixes up low-chroma violets. For example, a cool way to get to a lavender hue is to mix the Cobalt Blue and Perylene Red. I find this to be an exciting mix, allowing me to get at a soft periwinkle blue with hints of pink.

I have this directly in place of Brooke Morales’ Perylene Maroon pick. Brooke also seems to use her Perylene for desaturating blues, but I find that when I use Perylene Maroon I get an orangey undertone that I don’t like. With Phthalo Blue, in particular, I prefer the more violety gray-blues I get from Perylene Red than the more browny ones I get from Perylene Maroon. For example, here’s a tester page where I was trying to quickly mix up some sky and cloud blues using Phthalo Blue and Perylene Violet (PV29), Perylene Red (PR178), and Perylene Maroon (PR179).

Perylene Violet and Red are both good, but Perylene Maroon gives everything and old-timey sepia quality that is not my jam.

Lavender (PV15, PB29, PW6)

Brooke has Lavender in her palette so I tried it in mind, and I’ve found it super useful as a starter for blue skies and cloud shadows. Technically it’s unnecessary because you could mix it yourself, but it sure is convenient. For whatever season, I actually find that I enjoy using it more than most of its components (Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, and white).

Thioindigo Violet (PR88, PV19)

Thioindigo Violet is an oddball color. From Da Vinci, it is a mix that appears indistiguishable to my eye from it (probably main) component, Quin Violet (PV19). I haven’t used it particularly much, but as I found in Gotta pick a purple or two, purple is a color that I find unnecessary but aesthetic: it seems to add a certain magic to all its mixes. My main use case in the sky palette has been turning Phthalo Blue Green Shade into a Red Shade hue.

Could I do this with PR122? Maybe, but I find that PR122 mixes become vivid violet very quickly, and it’s easier for me to modulate my blue-violet when using the Quin/Thio violet.

Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3)

During Brooke’s class, especially the week on Finding Your Blue, I played around with mixing Phthalo Blue Red Shade and Lavender. I really liked this combo for pastel blue skies. But when I used PBRS in my palette, I found I missed the ability to go greener, especially in horizons. Phthalo Blue Green Shade is more versatile, and can easily be pulled to a more middle or violet blue with Lavender or Quin Violet.

Cobalt Blue (PB28)

One of my favorite colors for blue skies is Cobalt Blue. It can look sky-ish all on its own, with its gentle, true blue hue. I also love it in mixes for shadows. It makes great violets.

Cobalt Turquoise (PG50)

Cobalt Blue is especially nice when mixed and contrasted with Cobalt Turquoise – the quintessential bright cyan horizon color. I just love this combination.

Titanium White (PW6)

Titanium White is useful to have on hand to make blue-sky mixes smoother and more pastel-looking. I also find myself using it to make thick, pea-soap fog and heavy-looking grays.

Payne’s Gray (PB15, PR122, PBk6)

A convenient color for gray skies, shadows, etc., but also darkened silhouette foregrounds in non-daytime skies. I experimented with removing this and mixing my own grays, but found it inconvenient.

Conclusion

I’ve given this palette a workout, and I’m really enjoying it – and not just for skies (but mostly for skies, since that’s most of what I paint). It’s also a great winter palette.