Show us your palette colors and tell us why: 2006-present

[Paint_Tube]

I have a pretty extensive arsenal of oil paints; I love color! There are so many delicious colors that I couldn't resist trying and they never left my palette.
The majority of the paints are single pigment paints, but there are some exceptions.

I actually don't normally have all 32 pigments laid out at once as I first decide on the palette before beginning the painting. When I do lay them out, they always take the same positions on the palette as indicated below.

[nankid]

i don't know the proper names for them; i just buy whatever looks best </amateur> but..

red
yellow
blue
white

...that's it


I figure, why spend more money on a whole tube of decent paint, to use a little bit (or even a lot) when you can invest in the primary colours and a LOT of white - and make every colour ever dreamt of. with a bit of skill and luck(!)

No black though... I used to get told off in art class for using black, "if you have to use a black pencil, then you can't really see what you're looking at, and if you can't see it, how can you expect to draw it" EUGH. Miss Johnson. I guess it's just stuck.

but that's acrylic and watercolours.. if it's oils I'll use whatever tasty colours I can get my hands on!

[UGH]

This thread looks fun so I want to reply!
I have a few different colors for acy and oils. I just started doing a very limited pallette with oils and it is working pretty well since I can blend so much easier!

Oils
Torrid Grey
Gold Ochre
Cad Redmed
Zinc White

Acyrlic
Quin Magenta
Yellow Ochre
Raw Sienna
Hansa Yellow
Cad Redlite
Cad Yellow Hue
Pyrrole Orange
Thalo Green
Colbalt Blue Hue
Mang Blue Hue
Cerulean Blue
Thalo Blue
Zinc White & tia white

[RebeccaJFleming]

It does look like a fun thread. I want to play too I also have a few acrylic paints and some gouache (thinking of selling the gouache though since I've had it for nearly a year and haven't used it), but for now I'll start off with my watercolours, since they're what I use most. I should mention that aside from this, I have several tubes (more than 30; made the rookie mistake of buying ALL THE COLOURS! and I think a lot of them I either won't use or could easily mix, so I'm going to go through and sell some of them as well), as well as the Lukas 1862 48 colour set.

Here is my recently acquired WN Field Box, with a few colours changed and added:

Winsor Yellow, Indian Yellow, Winsor Red, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Magenta, Winsor Green (Yellow Shade), Winsor Blue (Green Shade), French Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Payne's Grey and Chinese White. (I removed the Winsor Yellow, Raw Umber and Ivory Black that originally came with it)

I figure this is sort of limiting but not too much so, and so far while I've been playing with it, I've been able to mix pretty much any colour I thought of. I was planning to replace Winsor Blue with Cerulean Blue, but when I actually compared the colours, I decided I liked the Winsor Blue much better (and I can get pretty close to Cerulean by watering down the WB anyway). I really love the violets and purples I can get with the Quin Magenta

[Art_song]

I have a preference for transparent colors, as they mix so well. They makes beautiful rich colors! I have found the below selection to be extremely useful, as it is capable of mixing any color. It is a more or less based on a split palette theory, with all modern pigments, with the exception of one: yellow ochre. This is and has been for many years, Golden's minimal suggested palette. I use it in all paint mediums. I love it!

Napthol Red Light
Quin Magenta
Phalo Blue G shade
Phalo Green B shade
Hansa Yellow Med
Yellow Ochre
Titan White
Golden also recommends Zinc white, but I, personally, have never felt the need to use it.

http://www.goldenpaints.com/artist/mixguide.php

[JamieWG]

Originally Posted by RebeccaJFleming

It does look like a fun thread. I want to play too I also have a few acrylic paints and some gouache (thinking of selling the gouache though since I've had it for nearly a year and haven't used it), but for now I'll start off with my watercolours, since they're what I use most. I should mention that aside from this, I have several tubes (more than 30; made the rookie mistake of buying ALL THE COLOURS! and I think a lot of them I either won't use or could easily mix, so I'm going to go through and sell some of them as well), as well as the Lukas 1862 48 colour set.

Here is my recently acquired WN Field Box, with a few colours changed and added:

Winsor Yellow, Indian Yellow, Winsor Red, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Magenta, Winsor Green (Yellow Shade), Winsor Blue (Green Shade), French Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Payne's Grey and Chinese White. (I removed the Winsor Yellow, Raw Umber and Ivory Black that originally came with it)

I figure this is sort of limiting but not too much so, and so far while I've been playing with it, I've been able to mix pretty much any colour I thought of. I was planning to replace Winsor Blue with Cerulean Blue, but when I actually compared the colours, I decided I liked the Winsor Blue much better (and I can get pretty close to Cerulean by watering down the WB anyway). I really love the violets and purples I can get with the Quin Magenta

That's a great watercolor palette. Personally, I'd substitute the zinc white for titanium, since when you need white in watercolor, you usually need the most opaque white you can get! But I love your color choices. (As long as I have quin gold, pure PR206 and ultramarine, I can be happy. )

Jamie

[Sterbenz]

My palette is always changing a little bit. Though my basic landscape palette tends to be:

-Titanium/Zinc white mix
-Yellow Ochre
-Quinacridone Rose
-Prussian Blue or Ultramarine

I'll add Cadmium Lemon if the landscape calls for more vibrant greens (I don't get that too often painting mostly AZ landscapes), I'll also add Burnt Sienna, Terra verte, or some other earth tones for convenience when painting outdoors.

I've been working with a Zorn palette lately too. As well as the cad lemon, pyrrole red and ultramarine primary palette. It all depends on the subject.

-Matt

[MrCairo]

Hi everyone,

Awesome thread, I always enjoy looking at and learning about artist's palettes!

I'm currently using a fairly basic setup. It's based on Titian's palette and 19th century French academic palettes, but featuring colors that are neither too expensive nor difficult to find.

1. Titanium White (Old Holland or Lefranc)
2. Naples Yellow Extra (Old Holland)
3. Yellow Ochre (M. Graham)
4. Vermilion (Lefranc)
5. Red Ochre (Old Holland)
6. Venetian Red (Old Holland)
7. Emerald Green (Lefranc)
8. Ivory Black (Old Holland)

I might also use Burnt Sienna and/or Umber for underpaintings occasionally. Sometimes maybe ultramarine for glazes. If I need a brighter red, I might add W&N's Scarlet Lake (which is essentially a pyrrole vermilion).

For some funky subjects I might need Quinacridone Violet or Cad Orange, but in general I can do with the 8 colors mentioned above. Lastly I have an alkyd Mixing White by W&N that I might use to help with the drying time.

I use a simple mix of OMS and refined linseed oil (mostly 1:1). In final glazes I might use stand oil. Sometimes I add a bit of Liquin Light Gel to my paints to help with the drying time.

I live in the Netherlands, so the Old Holland brand is easy to come by and actually slightly cheaper than the Winsor & Newton. I like them a lot, although lately I'm really enjoying paints by Lefranc & Bourgeois and most notably M. Graham.

[adamsaso]

Hi,

I am still experimenting with colors but for now I use for acrylics:

titanium white +
primary yellow (going toward green) +
perma. yellow medium (orange undertone) +
yellow greenish (probaly will get rid of this one) -
orange (not necessary, i will leave this one or sandal red to mix orange ) -
raw sienna (easy to get yellow orche from this one) +
Vermilion (warm red) +
alizarin crimson (cool red) +
sandal red (its nice but not necessary) -
phtalo green (to mix light greens) +
sap green (to mix dark greens) +
ultramarine (warm blue) +
phtalo blue (cool blue) +
violet +
raw umber (still thinking if its necessary) -
black +

All these are Maimeri Polycolor or Maimeri Acrilico, before i used Amsterdam but did not fit me.

"+" means that color will stay in my palette for a long time

Adam

[earthnut]

I'm still new and experimenting, but this is my current palette. I like to use Daniel Smith or M Graham, as those are companies local to me. I also try to use the least toxic pigments and single pigments when possible. These are all watercolor, which is a new experience for me (gravitated towards pencil and acrylics in the past).

Mineral pigments - I like these more than I thought I would. They make interesting mixtures and some are beautiful all by themselves, and surprisingly I really like granulation.

MG terra rosa (PR101) - super strong, nice in mixes though
MG yellow ochre (PY43) - love it
WN nickel titanate (PY53) - weak, to be replaced by PY151 (organic pigment)
MG viridian (PG18) - lovely in mixes
MG ultramarine blue (PB29) - lovely
MG ultramarine pink (PR259) - pretty by itself but very weak, will try PV15 or PV16 next, or maybe DS rhodonite
MG lamp black (PBk6)
MG chinese white (PW6)
I'd love to try DS sleeping beauty turquoise and serpentine too.

Synthetic organic pigments - I find these tend to be harsh to my eye, and uninteresting in themselves. Sometimes they make interesting mixtures though. I think I may keep a few to add punches of color, used sparingly. The ones I have currently are left over from my school days.

quin red (PR19) - nearly out, to be replaced by DS quin magenta (PR202) or MG quin violet (PV19)
plan to get PO73 soon.
perm green light (PG7+PY3) - to be replaced by PG36
Cotman phthalo blue (PB15) - to be replaced by PB15:3

[Marine66]

New to painting very new. Wondering where you get transparent colors I see on peoples palletts have not seen them anywhere. Or how do you make transparent colors. Marine 66 (Timothy)

[RebeccaJFleming]

Originally Posted by Marine66

New to painting very new. Wondering where you get transparent colors I see on peoples palletts have not seen them anywhere. Or how do you make transparent colors. Marine 66 (Timothy)

A colour's transparency generally depends on the pigment used, ie. some pigments are naturally more transparent than others, while some are quite opaque. Manufacturers generally list the opacity/transparency of a colour in their colour charts. For example, have a look at the colour chart for Winsor and Newton's watercolours here, and try clicking on the swatches for Permanent Rose and Venetian Red. You will see that Permanent Rose is listed as transparent, while Venetian Red is listed as opaque. I have both of these colours and when I paint over a black line with PR, the line is fully visible, whereas if I do it with VR, the line is almost completely covered.

Of course, if you water a the paint down enough, even an opaque paint will become semi-transparent, if not completely transparent (you need a LOT of water though).

If you want to have all transparent colours, you just need to check on the manufacturer's colour chart that the paints you are buying are transparent.

[opainter]

This is my current palette of heavy body acrylics, 11 colors, that I use for knife painting.

Across the top of the palette, left to right:

1. Titanium White (Golden - PW6)
2. Titanium Buff (Golden - PW6)
3. Yellow Ochre (Golden - PY43)
4. Cadmium Yellow Light (Liquitex - PY35)
5. Cadmium Orange (Liquitex - PO20)
6. Cadmium Red Light (Liquitex - PR108)
7. Alizarin Crimson Hue (Golden - PR122/PR206/PG7)
8. Burnt Umber (Golden - PBr7)
9. Prussian Blue Hue (Liquitex - PB15:3/PV23/PBk11)
10. Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) (Golden - PB15:4)
11. Sap Green Hue (Golden - PG36/PR101/PY150/PBk7)