Restricted Palettes

So far, then, as regards selected and restricted palettes of oil colours. Some modifications must be made in our list in order to devise corresponding palettes of useful and enduring water-colours. In the more extended list (p. 294), zinc-white must replace flake-white, while vermilion, purple madder, brown madder, and cobalt violet must be discarded. In the limited palette (No. 3), the changes to be made comprise the substitution of zinc-white (= Chinese white) for flake-white, the replacement of vermilion by one of the brightest native varieties of iron reds (the mineral turgite is perhaps the best kind), Cappagh brown by Mars brown, and of ivory-black by Indian ink. The two palettes (A. and B.) will then finally assume the following forms for water-colours:

Doubtless artists will especially miss from this palette six pigments, namely, gamboge, vermilion, rose madder, brown madder, Vandyke brown, and indigo. But after the overwhelming evidence adduced in Chapter XXVI (Trials Of Pigments). as to the want of permanence shown by these water-colour paints, one feels compelled to exclude them. Our second and more restricted palette (B.) is thus composed:

Although it is obvious that with these limited palettes it is impossible to produce exact imitations of every excluded pigment, yet there are two considerations which must not be forgotten in estimating the influence of this defect on artistic painting. Foremost may be placed the fact that pigments are rarely employed wholly unmodified by admixture with others; then it must be noted that the differences between our imitations and the original pigments which they are intended to replace are rather those of lessened brightness, translucency, and depth than those of hue.