Gamblin’s Torrit Grey Competition

A Very “Green” Grey

Every now and then, while reading up on paints I would notice a “torrit grey” joke or comment. Now, I have used Payne’s grey, but I hadn’t heard of Torrit Grey. Tonight, I noticed a link on the Gablin website called “Torrit Grey” — I was intrigued. I found out the mystery behind the color:

“Every spring, Gamblin Artists Colors collects a wealth of pigments from our Torit® Air Filtration system. We filter the air around the areas where we handle dry pigments so that our workers are not exposed to pigment dust. Rather than sending any of our high quality, expensive pigments into the landfill, Gamblin paint makers recycle them into “Gamblin Torrit Grey”.

“Pigment dust should not go into the earth, water or landfill, but into paint,” says Robert Gamblin.

Gamblin Torrit Grey on CopperThe mix of pigments is different every year, so Torrit Grey is always unique and will never be repeated. Torrit Grey tends to have a greenish tinge because of the great strength of the Phthalo Green pigment, which is a dark bluish green. Torrit Grey varies from a medium dove grey to a dark earthy grey.

We are now dating the tubes, so artists can collect them from year to year and enjoy the unique qualities of each edition. Whatever you create with these popular limited edition colors is solely up to you and your imagination.”

Every year, Gamblin holds a Torrit Grey Painting Competition. The deadline for this year has been extended to October 1st, 2011. This is a link to the 2010 competition winners. and you can find the rules and guidelines here.

I can’t wait to see this year’s Torrit Grey paintings!

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Jeremy Lipking’s Portrait Sketch

This clip is just a teaser of Jeremy Lipking’s instructional DVD, but I enjoyed finding out a little about the way Jeremy approaches his paintings. As one can see, he has a very deliberate and careful approach. He focuses on the illusion of the earring by simplifying the shapes and colors; only hinting at the delicate form as it recedes. He seems to have an intrinsic ability to paint as the human eye perceives. Where one artist might flatten the image into obvious 2D forms, Jeremy looks as if he is rendering forms in space.

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Painting Supplies – for beginners

“ok, you’re probably gonna laugh your ass off, as well you should, but i’ve been watching bob ross a lately on pbs (it’s very soothing for background noise) and i think i wanna give painting a go. can you recommend what kind of stuff i should get, maybe not so expensive? i know supplies are really expensive and there’s no way to avoid that, but stuff that’s not really the most high-end and pricey. i guess i need an easel? palette? brushes? paint? what kind of paints? oil? i am basically the biggest painting newbie ever. canvas? gesso? i heard one rubs gesso over the canvas to protect the oil paint from touching the canvas and thus avoids deterioration? hahahah. could be way off.” ~anonymous

A friend of mine asked me what painting materials a beginner needs, which has prompted me to outline the bare essentials of painting. From my experience, this is as minimal as you can get.

Where to buy art supplies:
Art supplies can be pricey, but there are three store I have found have a lot of great sales:
Jerry’s Artist Outlet
Utrecht Art
Dick Blick Art Materials

Paints:
I personally like using Gamblin paints. When I first started graduate school I was a lot more thrifty, and I bought mostly Winsor & Newton – Winton brand. My professors would look at me with pity. One professor recommended that I let the paint sit on paper towel before using it to let the fillers seep out. So, I would recommend NOT buying Winton paints because you will struggle to get the rich colors you want. The pigments are simply more dense in professional brands. Instead of using poor-quality paint, you can use a very simple palette. Anders Zorn used a palette consisting of four colors: yellow ochre, cadmium red light, ivory black and white. His painting, “Martha Dana,” shows how beautiful a limited palette can be.

Minimal Palette (the Zorn Palette):
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Red Light
Flake White Replacement
Payne’s Grey

Expanded Palette:
Ultramarine Blue
Quinacridone Violet
Quinacridone Red
Indian Yellow
Transparent Earth Red
Venetian Red
Burnt Umber

I like the bright synthetic colors because you can use them mixed with medium as a transparent glaze or you can create a bright tint when mixed with white. Once you have mastered the Zorn palette, you can start adding additional colors.

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