Exercise: Gamut Mapping

Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter is a popular book written by James Gurney. Patrick O'Brien as a textbook in the classroom. Patrick O'Brien, who teaches painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, uses concepts from the book to teach the following lesson (see pages 123-131, 106-107 and 116-117).

1. Find a simple photograph to copy. The reference should be simple so you can concentrate on the color scheme.
2. Using a color wheel, take index cards and tape them on the wheel to make a triangular gamut mask. If you do not have a color wheel you can print the one provided below.
3. Mix the paint colors found at each corner of the gamut mask (typically this represents your strongest primary colors).
4. Use these mixed colors with white as a limited palette to create a small painting of the reference photograph.
5. Using the same color wheel, adjust the index cards to form a new gamut mask. Remix the new palette colors found at the corners, and paint a second painting of the same scene using the new gamut.

See the following video for more insight if needed: Organize Your Palette Using a Gamut Mask.