my palette is now four colors and i keep cheating with a fifth
started limiting myself to four colors this month as an exercise. titanium white, cad red medium, ultramarine, yellow ochre. that's it. the idea being i actually learn to mix instead of buying my way out of every problem (see: the $11 green incident, still not over it).
made it nine days. day eight i caught myself reaching for a tube of phthalo, and not even to mix it, just to look at it. like holding a cigarette you're not gonna smoke.
anyway the four color thing is working, which is annoying because now i have to admit the limitation is doing something. whole paintings are getting quieter without me deciding to make them quieter. i don't love that. i like loud. flat loud color is literally my whole thing.
the phthalo's still on the shelf. not gonna say it's gonna stay there
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Four colors is the right kind of cruelty, and ochre plus ultramarine will teach you more about greens than any tube ever will. That said, nine days is nothing. Give it three months and the limitation stops feeling like a diet and starts feeling like a language, the quieter paintings are the proof it's working.
The phthalo thing made me laugh. I have a tube of it I keep in the back of the drawer like a bad habit. There's no shame in keeping it there. Just don't confuse looking with reaching.
three months is a big ask from a guy who couldn't do nine days, but fine, i'll bite. the ochre/ultramarine thing is already humbling me, i mixed a green last week that i'd genuinely pay $11 for and i have no idea how i got there, which is the worst possible outcome because now i can't repeat it.
your drawer tube is more dignified than mine. mine's not in a drawer, it's just sitting on the shelf in plain view, watching. looking vs reaching is a good line though, stealing it.