What about Color?

the Fresco Pallette:
Everything changes when you begin to do fresco.  The whole process is a chemical reaction that can take 6 months to a year to 'cure'.  So it is really important to stick with known and trusted colors, the traditional pallette is mainly comprised of earth minerals.  Here is a list:

• Browns

• Raw umber - Natural earth - Highly Permanent - Tedancy to flour : needs a lot of binder

• Burnt umber - Burnt natural earth - Highly Permanent - Mix it well before puddling the colour

• Raw Sienna - Natural earth (Italy) - Highly Permanent

• Burnt Sienna - Natural earth (Italy) - Highly Permanent - Mix it well with the brush before application

• Purples

• Cadmium red purple (genuine) - Cadmium sulfo seleniure - Highly Permanent

• Reds

• Venise red - Iron oxide - Highly Permanent - Very good light resistance - stable in mixture (Mars Red, Pozzuoli Red)

• Cadmium red (genuine) - Cadmium sulfo seleniure (minéral) - Highly Permanent - Covering - don't mix with leads or titanium white

• Oranges

• Mars orange - Iron oxide - Durable

• Yellows

• Yellow ochre - Natural earth - Highly Permanent - Many variations and shades of this exist, Italian, Greek, and French

• Cadmium yellow (genuine) - Cadmium sulfide - Highly Permanent - Covering - don't mix with white lead or with ultramarine blue

• Greens

• Viridian (genuine) - Hydraded chrome oxide - Durable - Very solid in mixture - use it in glazes

• Chromium oxide green - Chrome oxide - Highly Permanent - Covering and coloring - very stable in mixture

• Green earth (Terre Verde) - Natural earth - Highly Permanent

• Blues

• Ultramarine blue - Silico-aluminate of polysulfuretted sodiums - Highly Permanent - Luminous and intense - don't mix with chrome yellow

• Cerulean blue (substitute) - Barite sulfate and phtalocianine blue - Highly Permanent - High colouring capacity

• Cerulean blue (genuine) - Cobalt stanate - Highly Permanent - Opaque - unvarying in mixture

• Cobalt blue - Cobalt aluminate - Highly Permanent - Excellent light resistance - stable in mixture

• Black and white

• Titanium white - Titanium dioxide - Highly Permanent - Don't mix with cadmiums - luminous - intense

• Lime white - slaked lime - Highly Permanent - dull highlights, natural plaster tint

• Lamp black - Carbon - Highly Permanent - The favourite black for fresco
  
  

Some examples of fresco

Medium:
Did you know that the medium dictates the pallette?

Color Theory
Additive and subtractive color basics...

Oil Pallette
How to choose?

Egg Tempera Pallette
Best practices...

Fresco Pallette
the gentle chemistry of the earth