How to Paint with a Limited Palette: Step-by-Step

Before diving into the limited palette, let me share some background on this painting. I recently went through old family photos and felt inspired to paint them. It’s a special way for me to reconnect with amazing people. For instance, there’s my aunt Lois, whom we called Lolo, and my dad, Richard, from 1927. They were both Americans born in Paris during the 1920s while my grandpa, Lewis Adams, studied architecture at the École des Beaux Arts. Grandpa became a successful architect in New York City, my dad was a theater arts professor in California and founded several key arts organizations, and Lolo was a talented pastel artist in Maine.

The painting is based on a photo, taken by my grandfather. The children look so sweet all dressed in white. Two-year-old Lolo in her pretty dress, and four-year-old Dad in his sailor suit. But scuffed and dirty shoes give away his mischievous nature.

I wanted to add a little fantasy by adding to this limitted color painting some saturated color to the crystal ball, and this is the story of what I did.

What is a Limited Palette?

A limited palette refers to when an artist paints with just a few colors rather than a more common array of more than a dozen. Swedish master Anders Zorn (1860-1920) is famous for his use of a palette limited to four colors – red, yellow ochre, white, and ivory black. (Learn more about Zorn, his palette, and how to master it here.)

Why use a limited palette?

• Painting with harmonious colors becomes easier.  
• It trains you to think primarily in terms of value, the relative lightness and darkness of colors. – This is crucial because to perceive and comprehend the world our brain uses relative values far more than color.
• It also allows you to enjoy the challenge of creating interesting paintings without relying on brilliant color.  
• My personal choice—because it’s fun!

Using a limited palette for this painting simply made sense. Not because it was based on a 90-year-old black-and-white photo. Because I love to imply a story in my figurative paintings, and I wanted to add fun and fantasy to a muted environment by contrasting it with a few small sparks of rich color in the crystal ball. So I reduced my regular palette of fourteen colors to five colors: Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black, plus White. OK. Seven. For the crystal ball, I added the tiniest bit of Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Yellow.

Step-by-step on how “Crystal Ball” was painted

Step 1: Underdrawing, Tone and Lift

I made a detailed freehand drawing directly on a primed canvas. I used a soft 2B pencil for the drawing, which I sprayed with a light coat of retouch varnish to keep from smearing as I continued to work the surface of the painting.

Next, I spread Burnt Umber, thinned with fast-drying medium (no mineral spirits), over the entire surface. Using paper towels, Q-tips, and dry brushes, I scrubbed off and blotted the Burnt Umber to create the underpainting. That technique is called lifting.

Step 2: Establishing the Darks

Painting in the darkest darks with burnt umber, I focused on the shadows under objects, making them appear more anchored to the surface they stand on. With the other darks areas, they created a rhythm of dark and light shapes that dance to create interest and lead the eye around the painting.

Step 3: Refining and Details

Details were then added along with refining edges and building up the lights. I kept the paint thin and transparent, which adds a little more energy to the color. (Sorry, photographs don’t capture the effect of transparent colors very well.) I love transparent colors, especially when the shadows contrast by a more opaque handling of the light areas and highlights. I used a scumble technique for building up thin layers of tinted white paint applied with a very dry brush with a light, random motion. The highlights are created with larger amounts of paint brushed on in deliberate single strokes or dabs.

Step 4: Color, Details, and Tints

I then focused on detail and a final balance within the painting by looking for areas that just didn’t work and correcting them, whether it was the drawing, value, color, or brushwork. Once satisfied, I set the painting aside for a couple of weeks to allow it to dry. When dry to the touch, with color liberally thinned with medium, I applied a thin layer of warm tint to the flesh tones and some blue tint to my father’s uniform. I also added stronger reds, blues, and yellows straight from the tube to the crystal ball to give it a stronger punch of bright color.

Finshed!

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