My favorite color color is Orange. My favorite pigment is quinacridone burnt orange from D.Smith.

I struggled leaving that off a 4 color limited palette posed in the other thread. In fact, I’m considering to drop the half pans of buff titanium and quinacridone burnt orange off my palette and replace with a full pan of quinacridone burnt orange.

I love it.

In fact, I’d rub quinacridone burnt orange all over my body if people wouldn’t mistake me for a politician. (Sorry couldn’t resist)

QoR offers a set of six “earth colors” in 5 ml tubes:
Indigo
Sap Green
Naples Yellow
Venetian Red
Transparent Brown Oxide
Raw Umber
Sometimes I limit my palette to them…for the challenge

I paint a lot of landscape, so I use a lot of brown.. but my palette dont have a brown because after adding Burnt Umber (PBr7) into my palette, I notice that it’s not very useful other than mixing browns and blacks..

so I replace it with Pyrrole Orange R.S (PO73).. even if it’s technically a warm red, it serve as my mixing brown on my palette but it not as limited as having a brown like Burnt Umber.

Ok, humor aside.

Earth colors are important to my palette, The role that my earth colors play is primarily in support for the higher chroma primary pigments but are used in all my paintings. Used to lower chroma, for granulation, for opacity, or other unique properties and traditional uses. Depends on my subject. Wildlife, Architecture, Landscapes, Human Figure are most of my subjects… so props to those doing portraits!

So Q. Burnt Orange PO48 is a hue easily mixed from Perylene Maroon PR179 and Nickel Azo Yellow/Transparent Yellow PY150,, which are both a staple on every one of my palettes, so PO48 is not important if I want that hue. It is important when I paint things like clouds reflecting low lying sunlight against a blue sky. The hue mixture described above has beautiful separation properties wet into wet, but PY150 would not normally be desirable dropped into blue pigment skies, although it might for water.

Earth yellows are helpful in preventing green skies and clouds, mix natural looking (if not a bit drab) greens, and some have useful opacity. I keep transparent yellow oxide PY42, W&N yellow ochre PY43, and W&N gold ochre PY42 on my studio palette. If I could only keep one earth yellow I’d choose PY42 flavor, probably the Transp. Y. Oxide.

Earth browns. D. Smith Burnt umber PBr7 makes any warm mix a bit cooler in color temperature without risk of overpowering. Subtle granulation adds texture and interest to mixes as well. I use it often in combination with PO48. Speaking of granulation, D. Smith Goethite PY43 (is this the lowest chroma yellow pigment ever?) I love it for that property alone, but really it’s a not very important pigment to My palettte.

Earth reds. PR101 Has many nice flavors, but I mostly use W&N burnt Sienna, and Indian red. I really like D. Smith quinacridone burnt scarlet PR206, for many of the same reasons as PO48. It seems to resist making purple when dropped into blue washes, just get in and out without fussing too much.

Earth Greens (LOL, WUT?) , I include D.Smith as an earth green in my palette. It spans hues from yellow, to green, to browns, granulates like mad… acts and handles like many earths. I like mixing it with W&N FUMB PB29, and a touch of PR206 for easy variegated vegetation painted contre-jour. Very useful pigment but I can easily go too far if I don’t control myself…fortunately it’s low staining.

So, yes, they’re important, but they get less credit than they deserve for the role they play because they do things other pigments can’t or can’t without difficulty, IMO..

I love all the pigments….now I wonder how much a drum of PO48 might cost delivered?

…So Q. Burnt Orange PO48 is a hue easily mixed from Perylene Maroon PR179 and Nickel Azo Yellow/Transparent Yellow PY150,, which are both a staple on every one of my palettes, so PO48 is not important if I want that hue. ….

I have found that Quinacridone Burnt Orange, made with the single pigmeant PO48 makes a fantastic range of colors when mixed with a blue like Phthalo Blue. However, when I substitute for the single pigment burnt Orange PO48, a mixture of Perylene Maroon PR179 and Nickel Azo Yellow/Transparent Yellow PY150 they do not give me the same results (i.e. as PO48 would)when mixed with a blue like Phthalo Blue.

Must be my shaking old hand…

Earth colours are very important on my palette as I paint animals mostly. I love love love Daniel Smith’s Yellow Ochre as it’s a beautiful colour and also transparent. I also like DS’s Burnt Umber. Oddly I don’t use Burnt Sienna that much as it always seems to be a just a bit too red for my liking.

The earths are very important on my palette for pretty much everything I paint.

I use yellow ochre PY42 and permanent alizarin crimson PV19 for my skin tone base. I can neutralize it somewhat by adding a little burnt sienna PBr7. Yellow ochre PY42 is a good colour for shading paler yellows such as azo PY151.

I love using W&N’s version of burnt sienna PR101, along with Quinacridone Burnt Orange PO48 for shading yellows and oranges. Can they be considered vibrant earths? They really do add “life”.

Raw umber PBr7 is beautiful in tree limbs and trunks… but I use it more saturated to define darks in hair and fur. And in very weak washes, it’s perfect for toning down whites so that they’re not so stark.

Burnt sienna PBr7 or Raw umber mixed with ultramarine blue PB29 make everything from black to pale grey. It’s a beautiful mix that granulates adding textures as a bonus.

Burnt sienna PBr7 is a good neutralizer. When mixed with sap green, for example, it creates a really pretty olive green. With permanent alizarin, it creates a lovely blood red that’s deep and rich.