Setting the palette

To "set the palette," means to take out the colors needed for the day's work and arrange them in convenient form and regular order upon the palette.

This should always be done before painting, as a well-set palette is of great assistance in mixing tones and keeping the colors clean. Begin with the upper right hand corner and put out the white first, squeezing from the tube what seems sufficient for the day. Next in the following order conies yellow-ochre, light-red, vermilion, madder-lake, cobalt, antwerp-blue, rawumber, burnt sienna, bone-brown, and ivory-black.

Place these colors almost an inch from the outer edge of the palette and leaving, say an inch and a quarter or more between each color. This is the regular palette for ordinary occasions. If any other colors are needed they are put just above or to one side of these in their proper places. For instance, in painting landscapes we shall need cadmium in addition to yellow-ochre; the cadmium is put directly over or under the yellow-ochre.

If terre verte and zinuber-green are needed, place them between the blues and the raw-umber. The regular palette is always kept ready for use.  When the day's work is over, the mixed tones in the middle of the palette are wiped off with a rag, but the upper row of colors is left untouched and will keep quite fresh enough to work with the next day, adding fresh color to each little pile where needed, and if necessary, mixing a little oil with those left over.

Before beginning to paint, each day, the colors are prepared in the following manner:

A second row is placed on the palette beneath the first row of colors, and these are mixed with white. A little of each is taken up with the palette knife from the colors already put out. The color is placed about half an inch below the upper row, and a little white is loosely mixed with it, making a series of tones from light to dark ; for instance, a little yellowochre is taken out with the knife, and a little white is added, making a number of shades of yellow from pure ochre to white.

The vermilion is placed next to the yellowochre and mixed in the same way, forming different shades of pink. Next comes the light-red and white, then madder lake. After this place rawumber and white, letting cobalt and white come the other side so that in painting the reds and blues will not run together. The only two other colors thus arranged after cobalt, are bone-brown with white, and ivory-black with white. The object of thus preparing the colors is to facilitate the mixing of tones, as these suggestive tints are at hand ready to be used when needed, and must be used freely.  Another advantage is that the upper row of colors are thus kept always clean, as they are only resorted to when the pure color is needed, and it is not necessary to mix one into the other, as might happen were it not for the tones prepared below. The diagram is given to explain exactly the manner of setting the palette and preparing the colors for work as above described.