I paint in oils not watercolor. But just because someone can recreate earths by mixing, doesn’t mean they can do it with any consistency. Nor can they recreate the characteristics of those paints.

While some would argue using earths is “convencience”.. let’s be honest, it’s also easier to just have the paints there on your palette.

Recreating Yellow Ochre from Hansa Yellow and Ultramarine is not something people do with any consistency or speed, simply because of how much adjustment is needed and how strong those opposing colors are. You’ll be adding red, and white…by the time you have your yellow ochre, someone else will have finished their painting.

Basically, it’s a pain in the ass and a waste of time for most people who just want to paint.

Just because your palette has a high gamut, doesn’t mean it’s easy to use.

One has to wonder how many hours she spent on those swatches.

I tried to recreate yellow ochre with a limited palette that is similar.

Ultramarine, Pyrrole red, Hansa Yellow and Titanium white.

I wasted 57 seconds just to get to Yellow Ochre. If I had to mix every earth myself, I would be wasting a lot of time mixing instead of painting.

And the color doesn’t have the same characteristics as an actual yellow ochre either, you can see the red and yellow pigment I used come through the immitation when it’s thinly applied.

[IMG]http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/16-May-2016/1558522-sfsfsfsf.JPG[/IMG]

You can get a slightly more convincing hue by mixing black, red, yellow and a touch (only a tiny amount) of black. It’ll be slightly cooler than the hue you got and less garish, but still not quite there (e.g, actually Yellow Ochre tints beautifully).

Wendy, Jane regularly posts here (as [I]Quinacridone Gold[/I]).

The palette she suggests should indeed be much better than a regular CMY palette because it has a wider mixing range, and is more intuitive to use. I’ve been arguing myself about how useful a blue-green in your palette can be – particularly, to mix colors around the teal/turquoise gamut, which a regular CMY palette just can’t mix properly. But I don’t know if Jane added green to her palette for that reason (Jane, are you around?).

Yes I’m here
This palette was designed for someone wanting to get just 6 tubes of paint and wanting a transparent palette with no earths and no granulating colours. It’s very specific! It was designed around a number of very powerful mixing pairs. It is not a palette I would necessarily choose to paint with as I love granulating colours and earth pigments.

The green will certainly create turquoise colours when mixed with the Phthalo Blue RS, but it is also useful because it perfectly neutralises the crimson. It also makes great realistic greens with the yellow if you add a touch of crimson to warm it up.

Personally I paint with a much larger palette of colours including no less than 5 earth colours – a yellow earth ( I love Goethite for its granulation), burnt sienna, Indian red, burnt umber and raw umber – and sometimes I add a transparent red oxide, yellow ochre and raw sienna. So I am not suggesting that you don’t use earth colours. I also prefer Ultramarine blue to a phthalo blue as a basic blue pigment – it is liftable for a start, which is important in watercolour. And I like the granulation. My ‘Ultimate Mixing Palette’, about which I created a book, has 14 pigments including 3 blues, 3 reds and 4 earth pigments.

Anyway – the one above is remarkable for its strength but the smaller the number of pigments you start with, the more mixing space, colour understanding and time you need.

Happy painting

Why paint with a palette of six when you can paint with a palette of 30+?

Jane, I was wondering if the “blue” in this palette was Ultramarine Blue (PB29) or Phthalo Blue (RS) – the picture and the text seemed to disagree.

Thanks!

AJ (opainter)

The palette I originally painted in my blog is Phthalo blue RS, which completely neutralises and is neutralised by Transparent Pyrrol Orange.
(I personally prefer Ultramarine)

Why paint with a palette of six when you can paint with a palette of 30+?

I’m with you. But for some 30+ is unaffordable. I just enjoy the challenge of exploring and playing with limited palettes.