I generally use a more extensive palette consisting of Cadmium Yellow Light, Indian Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Quinacridone Magenta, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo Blue (Green Shade), Phtalo Green (Yellow Shade), Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Black and White (14 colors), plus sometimes Red Oxide.

That’s very similar to my full palette – though I rarely (if ever) would use all these colors in a single painting. How did you come to choose these ones?

If I want to mix a green, for example, I usually start with my Pthalo Green and then adjust from there (lighter, darker, more blue, more yellow, less or more chroma). In other words, I generally pick a color whose hue is closest to my target color, and go from there, without any set rules about how to darken, lighten or adjust chroma. Sometimes I darken with black, or raw umber, or burnt umber, or purple, sometimes with a complement or near complement, sometimes I dull with grey, sometimes I dull a red with red oxide, etc.

Carder’s method is to start by mixing yellow and blue, adjust the value first (use yellow to increase the value of Yellows, Reds and Oranges; use white to increase the value of greens, blues and purples; use brown to lower the value of yellows, reds and oranges, and use blue to lower the value of greens, blues and purples), and then adjust chroma and hue as needed, while constantly readjusting the value after each step as needed. He dulls chroma by adding a complement to the mix.

Your method and Carder’s are equally valid. If your target color is high chroma, you might prefer to start with a tube color that is close to it, then make adjustments. For lower-chroma target colors, the ‘mixing from primaries’ approach offers a faster way to make large color adjustments.

Using those prescribed colors to lighten and darken may often work well, but there will be some exceptions, it really depends on the particular color and lighting as well as your personal color taste. For example, adding only yellow to lighten a red might get a result that is too orangy – a visual 50/50 mix of white and yellow might be a better default. You often have to play around a bit to find what works. I personally find Dioxazine Purple works surprisingly well to darken most colors without greying them too much…this gives a different look/feel than using black or complements or Burnt Umber.

I could equally well see using Pthalo Blue (Cyan), Quinacridone Magenta (Magenta) and Cadmium Yellow Light (Yellow) to make the hue adjustments and Cadmium Yellow Light, White, Pthalo Blue and Burnt Umber to make the value adjustments. Any thoughts on this? To me, which blue and whether to use red, magenta or both is potato-potahto.

I’d avoid using Phthalo Blue like the plague unless it’s necessary. Does it give you unwanted green-ness when you use it to darken? I’d much rather use Ultramarine Blue or PB60.

I know someone is going to say that a limited palette is more economical and promotes color harmony. I’ve never understood these claims. To me, if I am using 3 tablespoons of paint, the cost will be the same whether the 3 tablespoons come out of 1 tube, 2 tubes, 3 tubes or whatever. And, if I have a green in my painting, I don’t see what difference it makes to color harmony how I mixed the green, i.e., with only a blue and a yellow, or with a green and a yellow, for example.

What I am trying to figure out is whether a limited palette of 5 colors is simpler, or more complex than my 14 colors, in terms of getting to my desired color most efficiently and accurately.

The only way to save money is to use cheaper paints, and use less paint :rolleyes:. Using fewer colors promotes color harmony by limiting the maximum gamut possible; this reduces (but doesn’t eliminate) the likelihood of using clashing colors that don’t fit in with each other. If your palette limits you from reaching the highest chroma colors in the reference scene, that isn’t always a bad thing. Partly due to the phenomenon of simultaneous contrast, you often need far less chroma than you’d think by looking at the reference. But nothing wrong with using high chroma if done judiciously…how high you go in chroma is at your discretion. Getting the values right, otoh, is far more important…at least for realism.

I personally find a 5-color palette (which includes a dark brown) far easier to manage than a full palette. IMO, not having to fight so much to achieve color cohesion is a bigger benefit than maximum gamut potential, especially in acrylics.

As an absolute minimal palette, I like these 4:

–Titanium White
-transparent middle yellow (PY73 is ideal but there is a lot of latitude in hue preference)
-transparent slightly to moderately-blueish red (Naphthol Red PR112 or PR170, PR264, Quinacridone PR209 or PV19 Red/Rose)
-Ultramarine, or Prussian Blue (I love Anthraquinone/Indanthrone but it’s less versatile than those two)

Almost as essential, 2 more:

-Burnt Umber or an alternative dark brown, perferably transparent (Golden’s ‘Transparent Brown’ or Van Dyke Brown, Liquitex’s ‘Transparent Raw Umber’ or Benzimidazolone Brown PBr25). Browns can be mixed but it’s tedious to constantly mix from ryb. A touch of this brown into yellow will get more or less a Yellow Ochre color, which is also important.
–green I like student-grade Phthalo Green to keep tinting strength down as much as possible (student grade Phthalo Green is usually/always Blue Shade). Viridian/Hue is an alternative if you don’t need quite the darkness/value range.

Paul Foxton has several useful YouTube videos on color and shading of an object.

Dr. Briggs also addressed this;
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1442433

David – doing shadows/gradations on oranges can be tricky, although not as vexing as yellows. If the color you mixed looks wrong on the palette, it might still be the right color once it’s on the canvas, in the context of the surrounding colors, and the context of 3-dimensional form.

Regular Burnt Sienna, without any white added (or a mixed color more or less like that) might be just the ticket (at least the base shadow color – before accounting for reflected light). Friendly tip: using the color picker tool in Photoshop (or some similar app) is invaluable to learning to see color.

I’ve read that an oil painting is 1/3 to 1/2 white paint …so using a good studio (student) quality Titanium White could save a lot of money in the long run. Unless you’re a devotee of flake white… Personally I’m conflicted on that one.

Studio-grade Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber can form a strong foundation for studies and and underpainting, …even when en plein air. The Burnt Sienna/UB for mid-grays, and the Burnt Umber/UB for darks and black. Why use tons of expensive, pure pigment high-chroma paint to desaturate even-more expensive, pure pigment high-chroma paint? And transparency isn’t a major issue when working alla prima.

This painting season I’m planning on experimenting with starting close to the Munsell neutrals backbone and concentrate on correct values, ..and then work outwards towards higher chroma when necessary. Much of Nature is relatively low-chroma, with mid to high-chroma accents. I’m primarily a watercolorist, but I think that oils would be a better media for this experiment, it’s easier to see and control the value and chroma in oils.