M Y P A L E T T E
After a lot of testing I have come to a basic palette that works for me and I can mix all colours from.
Permanent Rose – a cool, "chemical" pink that is transparent and mixes beautiful oranges with
Quinacridone Gold, clear purples with the blue colours and powerful darks with Payne's Gray.
Cadmium Red – A little more opaque, bakelite-red that granulates and gets in the grain of the paper.
Cool to include in dark mixtures, with Antwerp for example.
Brown Madder – Wonderful, brownish blood-red colour. Has an enormous weight when you use it
with little water, at the same time you can reach the lightest morning redness if you dilute it.
Burnt Sienna – The nicest earth-colour in my opinon. Has the same "temperament" as Brown Madder
but is more brown/orange. Good for mixing black and grey shades with French Ultramarine. Use as is in
a sky for more life. Mixed with Antwerp it produces lovely khaki shades.
Raw Umber – A pigment with a temper! Dries unevenly, produces nice mixes. Yellowish-brown.
Quinacridone Gold - My favourite colour, that my aunt recommended a few years back. It spans
from the clearest, lightest yellow to a dark brownish-orange. This colour has made itself indispensable
in my palette. Mix with blues or grays to wonderful, warm green shades, A lot of people find mixing
greens among the hardest things to do in watercolor, this colour is the rescue!
New Gamboge - Clear, warm yellow with a strong edge-bite.
Aureolin - Transparent, neutral yellow that mixes well and glows from a distance.
Antwerp – A mischievous blue that will not be controlled but dries in the most amazing patterns and
flowers. Blue with a green hint.
French Ultramarine - Warm, deep blue. A heavy pigment that gets into the grain.
Payne’s Gray – Blue/gray colour that is one of the darkest. Beware of Payne's Gray, it's easy to fall in love and use it for all the grays and shadows, mixed grays are often better. Besides, all shadows are not gray!
