Unit I, Lesson 4--Transparent Oxide Red Color Chart

Transparent Oxide Red color chart

Transparent Oxide Red creates fantastic skin and earth tones, as well as great neutral grays when mixed with blues.

Materials needed:

• Oil Colors
• Alizarin Permanent
• Cadmium Red Deep 
• Transparent Oxide Red (lots of it)
• Cadmium Yellow Light
• Cadmium Lemon
• Viridian Green
• Phthalo Blue
• Ultramarine Blue
• Titanium Zinc White
• Canvas pad--I used Centurion oil-primed linen, 9"x12"
• Masking tape--I used 3/4" tape

Unit I, Lesson 4 took me about 2 hours to complete.  

Step One: Divide the canvas

Divide your canvas pad using the method outlined in Unit I, Lesson 1.  See my time-saving T-square trick here.

Step Two:  Arrange the colors

The colors remain in the same order as in the first color chart.

Step Three:  Mix the colors and apply the paint

My first column consisted only of Transparent Oxide Red, tinted to increase (or lighten) the value down through the rows.  I continued through Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Yellow Light (the next color on the color wheel in my palette), Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Lemon, Transparent Oxide Red + Viridian Green, Transparent Oxide Red + Phthalo Blue, and Transparent Oxide Red + Ultramarine Blue.  Then, going full circle, I added a column of Transparent Oxide Red + Alizarin Permanent and Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Red Deep.

Transparent Oxide Red color chart in progress

I completed this color chart fairly late on a work night, and it shows.  For the last little row of the last column (Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Red Deep), I only had a small spot of white left, and I tried to make it stretch.  It didn't work, see?

Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Red Deep value mistake

I saw the mistake, but because I was tired, I waited until the next day to fix it.  I needed to mix up another pile of Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Red Deep to add enough white to make the value appropriate, scrape the incorrect value, and add the correct hue and value.  Here it is fixed.  To prevent this from happening, see my value exercise that I figured out later here.

Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Red Deep lightest value corrected

Studio Tip

With all of these color charts, I've been going through paint like crazy.  Here are some items I find useful in the studio.  The first is a paint tube wringer:  

Tube Wringer

This tool squeezes out every last bit of paint.  You can buy one here.  Second, because I go to my canvas during little windows of time during the day, I frequently have leftover unused paint on my palette which I don't want to go to waste.  These "paint savers" form a more-or-less airtight seal over the paint on my glass palette to keep the paint fresh for days (maybe longer--I haven't tested this.)

Paint Savers

You can buy the paint savers here.

Step Four: Remove the tape

Step Five:  Let it dry

Transparent Oxide Red color chart columns left to right:  Transparent Oxide Red; Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Yellow Light; Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Lemon; Transparent Oxide Red + Viridian Green; Transparent Oxide Red + Phthalo Blue; Transparent Oxide Red + Ultramarine Blue; Transparent Oxide Red + Alizarin Permanent; Transparent Oxide Red + Cadmium Red Deep

Things I learned:

• Don't be lazy when shifting the values lighter.
• Transparent Oxide Red mixed with blue makes beautiful neutral grays.  
• You'll see the color squares are not as sharp as in my previous charts.  I think this is because I was reaching the end of my roll of masking tape, so it was more tightly curved.  Consequently, I think it buckled on the canvas.  For the next color chart, I will make sure I press the tape more firmly down. 

Here is a (blurry, sorry) comparison of the color charts made in the first four lessons of Unit I.  

Unit I, Lessons 1 through 4--Color Charts.
Upper left: Full Color Palette Color Chart (Unit I, Lesson 1); upper right: Alizarin Permanent Color Chart (Unit I, Lesson 2); lower left: Cadmium Red Deep Color Chart (Unit I, Lesson 3); lower right: Transparent Oxide Red Color Chart (Unit I, Lesson 4) 

You can access all of the lessons in this unit from the Index of Lessons page here.

Upcoming Lesson  

Unit I, Lesson 5--Cadmium Yellow Light Color Chart

Materials needed:

• Oil Colors
• Alizarin Permanent
• Cadmium Red Deep 
• Transparent Oxide Red
• Cadmium Yellow Light (lots of it)
• Cadmium Lemon
• Viridian Green
• Phthalo Blue
• Ultramarine Blue
• Titanium Zinc White
• Canvas pad--I used Centurion oil-primed linen, 9"x12"
• Masking tape--I used 3/4" tape

Unit I, Lesson 5 took me about 2 hours to complete.  

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