Limited Palette tonal painting
Square up and copy or trace a black and white photograph on to a primed board
Simply outline the areas of differing tone in the image – create a sort of map of tones.
Try to recognise where tones are similar - you could even number them on an scale of say 1 – 5.
Creating the palette:
Mix colours on an palette and arrange them in tonal groups . The ‘hue ‘ and ‘intensity’ of your mixtures will vary according to what you want to depict but teh tones should correspond to those in your black and white photograph.
Premixing all of your colours will take time but allow you to consider their relationships and allow you to create a harmonious set
Paint the image very directly. . Fill in the traced tonal areas in the manner of ‘paint by numbers' .