What’s in a Palette, Anyway?

Because I’ve changed my watercolor sketching palette so frequently, I haven’t often gotten to the place that allows me to see what I actually use in the way of empty pans. The well-used palette pictured above shows a fairly consistent set of colors for me, and should lead me to feeling “set” with my color selection. After all, though it sometimes takes some mixing to get there, I rarely, if ever, feel like I couldn’t get close enough to a color I needed while out sketching. For some reason, instead it leads to the questions, “Do I really NEED…?” and “What could I swap or add instead?” Why can’t I just be satisfied and leave it alone, you ask? I wish I knew.

I love pigments and colors. And I am constantly in a quest for the most perfect combination; a well-rounded selection of primaries and convenience colors, both granulating and non-granulating choices, and colors I love both on their own and as mixing components. All in the smallest, lightest palette possible for travel. Unless I am painting a particularly unique subject, I prefer to paint at home with the same colors I carry when sketching in other locations. That allows me to become very familiar with my paints. That is, I would be if I ever stopped changing them. Here are two versions of my standard go-to palette similar to the well-used one above:

You can see these are pretty similar. There are a few colors I wrestle with and tend to swap more frequently than I probably should: Cerulean or Cobalt, New Gamboge, Quin Gold, or Transparent Orange, Phthalo Green, Sap Green, or no green at all, opening a spot for a crimson or dark brown. There are also a couple of versions of the earth orange and scarlet that I alternate between. Fourteen is pretty much the smallest palette I find completely functional, and either of these variations have proven very workable for me in most situations. I have reliable, quick mixes that I am super familiar with, especially if I stick with paint brands that I have been using for a long time. But that’s another story.

How do I decide? I do quite a lot of testing. My husband calls it “painting squares.” I find it quite satisfying, and it gives me an opportunity to play with mixes that I can make with the colors I have in my limited palette. It refreshes my memory for combinations I may have forgotten, and allows me to work much faster when I am sketching. Here’s an example where I applied a method I learned from Liz Steel in one of her workshops to an 8-color palette recommended by Max Romey Trailbound Sketches.

I created color categories, then used the 8 colors in the palette to mix as many combinations as possible in each category. I then followed with notes. I have learned that if I don’t include notes what I end up with is a bunch of notebooks filled with paint swatches that are pretty, but don’t provide enough information to be a valuable resource. In this go round, given the lack of cyan and magenta, I was not surprised to confirm that I could not make a pink or a turquoise. It is a palette that is quite adequate for sketching woods and mountains or urban areas. The convenience colors, sap green, violet, and indigo, make nature scenes in particular come together quickly. However, for an all around palette, I bump it up to 10 by adding Phthalo Blue GS (PB15:3) and Quin Rose (PV19).

At some point I realized that it would be helpful to me to have listed out the color slots I find most useful and the pigments that I consider to be (somewhat) interchangeable in these slots. Partly in an attempt to stop buying different colors that I often don’t love as much as what I already have. I have scraps of paper all over the place and in various notebooks, but Ive begun to more formally organize my thinking. Since my preferred palette is the Art Toolkit Pocket Palette filled with 14 standard pans, I based my chart on a palette of 14, and build from there.

Color Slot	Pigment/Hue Options	Notes
Cool Yellow	PY97, PY151, PY175…PY129?	PY175 very (too?) transparent
Mid Yellow	PY150 (If PY129 as cool then PY97)	Could combine this slot with warm yellow and cover both with quin gold
Warm Yellow/Orange	PY110, New Gamboge, Quin Gold, DPP, PO71	See note in mid yellow. Orange won’t replace warm yellow as an optional additive to sap green.
Earth Yellow	MANS PBr7
Earth Orange	PR101	PBr7 just isn’t the same
Warm/Mid Red	PR255, PR188, PR149, PR254
Cool Red/Magenta	PV19 rose, PR122
Violet*	PV15, PV62, PV23, PV19 violet, PV55	Not necessary, but makes nice shadows. and enhances greens and browns.
Neutral Dark (Blue)	PB60, Indigo	Indigo is more neutral dark, but greener.
Warm Blue	PB29	Greens, browns, greys/darks, violets
Mid Blue	PB28, PB35	Can mix a PB35 hue with PB28+PG50
Cool Blue/Cyan	PB15:3	More powerful cyan than PB16
Turquoise	PG50
Green	PG7, PG36, Sap, PY129	Sap is faster, but phthalo more versatile

When I travel I often worry that there will be colors that I “need” and wouldn’t have with me in my standard 14, so I jump to a folio palette filled with anywhere from 18-24 colors. This allows me to include some of the colors I swap in and out a lot as well as those that would be the “next” colors, like crimson, dark brown, etc. It also provides more mixing space.

Here you can see that I have both PB35 and PB28 as well as PG7 and Sap Green for example. And I have room for a dark brown and a neutral grey, neither of which fit in the smaller palette. The drawback is that it’s a larger palette, not as easily tucked into a small bag, and takes up more space on my painting surface. Art Toolkit does make what they call mini pans that would allow me to put up to 28 colors in the pocket palette, but I find that pans that small do a number on the points of my brushes and make it much harder to pick up a decent amount of paint.

Of course, color slots and how they are filled are very personal choices based on both the artist’s preferences and subjects to be painted. Whatever the palette size, I start with a set of split primaries and add a couple of earths, convenience colors and useful colors that just bring me joy, like PG50 Cobalt Teal Blue. Most of all, they will be based on what works for you as you create.