Why Premixing?

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 Loading ... Much of the commentary I get while teaching the workshops is about my premixing. People say the nicest things! They’ve told me it’s made a big impact on their work.

My premixing method is pretty forgiving and flexible. I don’t use a value scale - instead I mix to the planes I can see on the actual object, like the light light, light, dark light, halftone, light dark, dark, dark dark. Sometimes it’s only light-middle-dark, especially in underpaintings.

The process usually takes me about 20-30 minutes at the beginning of a session - or right after drawing the composition in. Used to take 60-90 minutes, but now I know the pigments in my paint bin like I know the spices on my spice rack. When a mix is off, I can “smell” that it needs a little of this or a little of that, or that it’s ruined and needs to be moved to the slush pile. When I used an open palette, I wasn’t able to pay as much attention to what was happening.

After everything is laid out in nice strings- from dark to light, one for each thing in the composition - I can step back and look at my nice, organized palette and see its component colors like a graphic designer. Is it harmonious? Is it balanced? Does it just look nice?

It doesn’t stay looking all that nice though. Each pile is a starting point. Even though they’re mixed to be actual values in the actual painting, reality is that each tiny shift of the subject matter changes the color a little. But I have great starting points - each pile gets a little satellite or “child” pile that’s a little more yellow/red/blue/light/dark/grey/intense/whatever. By the time I’m done, the palette is dotted with the satellites. (LOL but they’re still pretty organized!)

One day, we’ll all have a ctrl-z key on our brushes. Until then, my little satellites do the trick. I can go back to a previous color because it’s still in its place on the palette.

In fact, I can go back days later. I keep my palettes on paper when I’m working on something that takes multiple sessions, and the whole history is there. The paint is dry, but can be remixed to the same color. Isn’t that cool?

So anyway - I know it sounds nutty. But it works for me. Most of my color and value considerations are worked out before I even touch a brush to the canvas, freeing up whatever brain power I have left think about other stuff. For me, it makes the painting process faster and easier, and slightly less terrifying or overwhelming.

Have you tried it?