Color Palette Possibilities

People always seem to be interested in what my palette looks like, what colors I use and how I arrange them, so here it is:
For oils -

When I first started painting at age 13 my teacher showed me this way to set up my palette and I have done it this way ever since. I always know where the colors are and this saves me from searching as I work.

Upper left corner - Titanium white

Across the top, light to dark warms - Cad. yellow lt., yellow ochre, Winsor red (or Cad. red lt.), permanent rose, burnt sienna, burnt umber

Down the left side, light to dark cools - sap green, veridian green, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, and sometimes Thalo blue


I often try out other colors and over the years some colors I use have changed, but this is my basic palette at the moment. Oils dry out on the palette, so once dry they get scraped off and thrown away.

For watercolors -

I never tackled watercolors seriously until I was in my 20s and my palette is set up differently, like a color wheel.  Think ROYGBIV! Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, (no violet, I mix that). Then earth tones down the right side. I use the same colors as in oils plus alizarine crimson, new gamboge, aureolin, manganese blue, thalo blue, raw umber, sometimes cerulean blue.

Because I work much faster in watercolor I have colors on my watercolor palette that I would mix myself if I were using oils. Saves me time that way.



I used to imitate the palette of whatever artist I was admiring at the time, but just because I was using the same colors didn't mean that my work looked like theirs. So, don't fall into that trap.

However, it did mean I got to try out a lot of different colors and find the ones that worked for me!

Tip: I never throw out watercolors, because even if they have dried out I can remoisten them by misting them and then putting a damp sponge inside the closed palette (all my watercolor palettes have lids). I just squeeze a little fresh paint on top of the old and I am ready to go!

Still making kits.....yuk!