Getting Started in Watercolour - starting small.
If you are not ready to jump in and buy a large number of tubes, you can do a lot with just three a few carefully chosen watercolours. To see a remarkable set of just 4 amazing colours see my blog post here.
A lovely primary triad - Ultramarine PB29, Quinacridone Rose PV19 and Hansa Yellow Medium PY97 from Daniel Smith.
Here is a suggested way to build up a set of colours over time. Start with Hansa Yellow Medium, the beautiful Quinacridone Rose (or use the more crimson Carmine) and Ultramarine and explore what they will do. You'll be able to mix a wide range of oranges, greens and purples as well as neutral browns, greys and black if you mix them all together.
Magenta, made with the less lightfast PR122 rather than PV19 is another primary red option - it is a different colour but works as a primary red. I prefer the look of rose as a basic mixing colour but some like magenta. It doesn't work so well if you are building up this suggested palette though. See it painted out with Ultramarine and Hansa Yellow Medium here.
- Note - the colours pictured are Daniel Smith. Alternatives are W&N - Winsor Yellow, Permanent Rose (or Permanent Alizarin for a more crimson option) and French Ultramarine. Schmincke - Pure Yellow, Ruby Red (or Permanent Carmine as a more crimson option) and French Ultramarine. Da Vinci paints colour options - Arylide Yellow Medium, Permanent Rose (or Permanent Alizarin (Quinacridone) as a more crimson option) and Ultramarine.
Magenta, made with the less lightfast PR122 rather than PV19 is another primary red option - it is a different colour but works as a primary red. I prefer the look of rose as a basic mixing colour but some like magenta. It doesn't work so well if you are building up this suggested palette though. See it painted out with Ultramarine and Hansa Yellow Medium here.
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To speed up your mixing and to make wonderful greys and earthy browns, add Da Vinci or Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna PBr7 to the set. It will also create yellow earths with the Hansa Yellow Medium and Red earths with the Carmine/Quinacridone Rose. Add a bit to greens and make them more realistic. If using Winsor & Newton, the Burnt Sienna, made with PR101, will be a transparent burnt orange colour. Lovely in its own right, but without the earthy granulation of a PBr7 Burnt Sienna.
To further increase your mixing options add Phthalo Green to the set. It will make bright greens with the yellow, wonderful dark greens and aubergine, plum colours and purple-greys with the rose and turquoise with the blue, as well as more interesting greens with Burnt Sienna. (Called Winsor Green BS in W&N and Blockx Green in Blockx - look for PG7) |
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To speed up mixing further, add a warm yellow such as Arylide/Hansa/Chrome Yellow Deep or New Gamboge or Quinacroidone Gold (Daniel Smith now PO48 + PY150) pictured to speed up the mixing of realistic greens with ultramarine or phthalo green. To appreciate how versatile this set of 6 would be see my Blog post here where many of the mixes are painted out.
You may also like to add a warm red and a cool blue to increase your palette to a split primary palette. Pyrrol Red DS is warm whereas Carmine is cool and Phthalo Blue GS is cool compared to the warm ultramarine. Phthalo Blue GS is called Winsor Blue in the W&N range. Cerulean Chromium as another cool blue option - less powerful than Phthalo blue but useful for skies. I like Cerulean made with PB36 such as Daniel Smith Cerulean Chromium (Cobalt Cerulean in Schmincke) rather than the more gentle PB35 versions. If you are doing landscapes and urban sketching and want to keep to a smaller palette, I'd use Cerulean Chromium rather than Phthalo blue..
This set of 8 will mix very well to create a huge range of colours.
Note - Daniel Smith have released an 'essentials' set of 6 5ml tubes that includes Hansa Yellow Light as the cool yellow, New Gamboge as the warm yellow, Pyrrol Scarlet as the warm red, Quinacridone Rose as the cool red, Phthalo blue GS as the cool blue and French Ultramarine as the warm blue - it's a great starter split primary set. Just add Burnt Sienna and Phthalo Green and start mixing! See a blog post showing this set here.
Another lovely starter set is suggested by Liz Steel and includes the primary triad above, as well as Cerulean Chromium, Mont Amiata Natural Sienna and Transparent Red Oxide. Mont Amiata Natural Sienna is a yellow earth colour and Transparent Red Oxide is a bright burnt orange with gorgeous granulation that can take the place of the more earthy Burnt Sienna shown above.
Below is a more extensive set that explores many of the characteristics of a watercolour palette. You can see there are three reds, two of them cool - Pyrrol Crimson for deeper crimsons and powerful blacks and Quinacridone Rose for very pure purples.
You may also like to add a warm red and a cool blue to increase your palette to a split primary palette. Pyrrol Red DS is warm whereas Carmine is cool and Phthalo Blue GS is cool compared to the warm ultramarine. Phthalo Blue GS is called Winsor Blue in the W&N range. Cerulean Chromium as another cool blue option - less powerful than Phthalo blue but useful for skies. I like Cerulean made with PB36 such as Daniel Smith Cerulean Chromium (Cobalt Cerulean in Schmincke) rather than the more gentle PB35 versions. If you are doing landscapes and urban sketching and want to keep to a smaller palette, I'd use Cerulean Chromium rather than Phthalo blue..
This set of 8 will mix very well to create a huge range of colours.
Note - Daniel Smith have released an 'essentials' set of 6 5ml tubes that includes Hansa Yellow Light as the cool yellow, New Gamboge as the warm yellow, Pyrrol Scarlet as the warm red, Quinacridone Rose as the cool red, Phthalo blue GS as the cool blue and French Ultramarine as the warm blue - it's a great starter split primary set. Just add Burnt Sienna and Phthalo Green and start mixing! See a blog post showing this set here.
Another lovely starter set is suggested by Liz Steel and includes the primary triad above, as well as Cerulean Chromium, Mont Amiata Natural Sienna and Transparent Red Oxide. Mont Amiata Natural Sienna is a yellow earth colour and Transparent Red Oxide is a bright burnt orange with gorgeous granulation that can take the place of the more earthy Burnt Sienna shown above.
Below is a more extensive set that explores many of the characteristics of a watercolour palette. You can see there are three reds, two of them cool - Pyrrol Crimson for deeper crimsons and powerful blacks and Quinacridone Rose for very pure purples.
Getting Started in Watercolour - my Ultimate Mixing Palette
Here is a great palette of colours to start with or to use as a limited travel set. It has a mixture of granulating, non granulating, staining, and opaque colours so you can see how each characteristic affects your work. It is made from single pigment colours with the exception of Jane's Grey which is mixed from two of the colours in the palette, and Quinacridone Gold which is now a hue.
This palette is all Daniel Smith colours but yours doesn't have to be. You can mix up paint brands, though I prefer not to try to mix Winsor & Newton with Daniel Smith.
Buff Titanium is an unusual colour in that it is a lovely cream - an unbleached white - but it granulates beautifully and I find it very useful for plein air work, especially stonework and beaches. Drop this if you want a more limited palette, if you can't get Daniel Smith paints, or if you don't like semi opaque colours.
Hansa Yellow Medium is a wonderful transparent mid yellow that can be warmed up or cooled down with ease. Alternatives are Pure Yellow (Schmincke), Winsor Yellow (W&N), Azo Yellow or other mid yellows. You may prefer a Hansa Yellow Light instead if you want a more lemon yellow. I'd suggest keeping away from cadmium colours if you are just starting out.
Alternatives to Quinacridone Gold are New Gamboge, Hansa Yellow Deep, Arylide Yellow Deep, Chrome Yellow Deep and other warm yellows made with PY153 or PY65, but DS Quinacridone Gold is wonderful for making great realistic greens. It also doubles as a transparent earth colour. Once again avoid cadmiums as the opacity can cause mixing issues.
Pyrrol Scarlet is a lovely lightfast warm red made with PR255 which is just he perfect warm red pigment I think. Alternatives are Schmincke vermilion, Da Vinci Permanent Red, DS Organic Vermilion, Winsor Red and other definite warm or orange-reds. It is great for making oranges and also can be neutralised to make red earth colours. Avoid cadmiums.
Pyrrol Crimson is a convenience colour as it could be mixed with the crimson and the rose, but is also useful in mixing. This is made with PR264. Alternatives are most brands of Permanent Alizarin, DS Carmine*, W&N Permanent Carmine*, DS Anthraquinoid Red, DV Alizarin Crimson* (Quinacridone) and so on.
*these colours work as a primary red so Quinacridone Rose is not necessary.
Quinacridone Rose makes wonderful purples. Alternatives are Permanent Rose in many brands. Look for PV19.
Ultramarine is a great warm blue and can be used as the only blue in the palette. It may be called French Ultramarine in some brands. It is made with PB29. It is a granulating colour. The least granulating version is Schmincke Ultramarine Finest. The new granulating French Ultramarine from Schmincke is also lovely, as is the DV ultramarine.
Cerulean Chromium is made from PB36. It is slightly opaque, granulating and cool. It is useful for skies, for making slightly more opaque greens and for it's granulation. It is optional if you want less colours or don't like semi-opaque paints, but I actually use it more than phthalo blue as it is perfect for skies. Avoid the hues made from PB15 and white. Schmincke Cobalt Cerulean and DV Cerulean Genuine are also PB36
Phthalo Blue GS is a powerful cool blue made with PB15. You may prefer the Red Shade or less staining Prussian Blue but this is a great colour found in any brand. It is called Winsor Blue in the W&N range, Blockx Blue in the Blockx range. It is a great mixing blue.
Phthalo Green BS is an unrealistic green on its own but an amazing mixer for making realistic greens, amazing purples(!), greys and black. I find the blue shade far more useful than the Yellow shade. Called Winsor Green in W&N and many other names, but available in most brands. Made with PG7.
Goethite is a granulating yellow earth colour from Daniel Smith. You may prefer Raw Sienna, especially if you are planning to do figure and portrait work, but I find this granulation really wonderful in many landscapes, stonework and beaches. If you can't get Daniel Smith, get a Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna or Transparent Yellow Oxide instead. Da Vinci has a nice versions of these, as does Schmincke. Daniel Smith has a lovely transparent yellow ochre colour called Mont Amiata Natural Sienna that is another lovely option. Look for PY43 or PY42.
Burnt Sienna is one of my most used colours, as it mixes with Ultramarine to make a wonderful array of warm browns, dark blues and gorgeous greys. Available in every brand, it may be anything from a transparent burnt orange in colour through to a granulating brown earth. It may be a single pigment or a mixture of two or even three. I prefer the genuine version made with PBr7 to the many hues available using PR101 so I prefer this colour from Daniel Smith or Da Vinci. If you like the more Burnt Orange colour, try Winsor & Newton or the new Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna Light. In Schmincke I really love Maroon Brown - a new beautiful burnt sienna colour released in 2017 and made with PBr7.
Indian Red is a lovely earthy red made with PR101. It tends to be fairly opaque and granulating. I love the triad you can make with this, Cerulean and Goethite. If you don't want an opaque colour you can mix this hue with phthlo blue and pyrrol scarlet.
Raw Umber is a convenience colour so could be dropped if you want less colours but it saves time making darks when painting. It is a great deep and cool brown. Best from Daniel Smith, Da Vinci or M.Graham (though they don't 'set' as well in the palette) for the real deep version. Some look very pale and are less useful.
Jane's Grey is a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine - colours already in the palette - to make a convenience dark that is just on the cool (blue) side of a neutral grey. Alternatives are DS Neutral Tint but this adds black into your palette which I prefer not to do. Schmincke Neutral Grey is a three-pigment grey made without black so is a better pre-made option, though Jane's Grey was released commercially in 2019 by Daniel Smith. This is another optional hue on the palette as it could be mixed each time, but it is incredibly useful to have it premixed from tubes to be a lovely dark. Instructions on how to make it are on my Blog here.
This palette is all Daniel Smith colours but yours doesn't have to be. You can mix up paint brands, though I prefer not to try to mix Winsor & Newton with Daniel Smith.
Buff Titanium is an unusual colour in that it is a lovely cream - an unbleached white - but it granulates beautifully and I find it very useful for plein air work, especially stonework and beaches. Drop this if you want a more limited palette, if you can't get Daniel Smith paints, or if you don't like semi opaque colours.
Hansa Yellow Medium is a wonderful transparent mid yellow that can be warmed up or cooled down with ease. Alternatives are Pure Yellow (Schmincke), Winsor Yellow (W&N), Azo Yellow or other mid yellows. You may prefer a Hansa Yellow Light instead if you want a more lemon yellow. I'd suggest keeping away from cadmium colours if you are just starting out.
Alternatives to Quinacridone Gold are New Gamboge, Hansa Yellow Deep, Arylide Yellow Deep, Chrome Yellow Deep and other warm yellows made with PY153 or PY65, but DS Quinacridone Gold is wonderful for making great realistic greens. It also doubles as a transparent earth colour. Once again avoid cadmiums as the opacity can cause mixing issues.
Pyrrol Scarlet is a lovely lightfast warm red made with PR255 which is just he perfect warm red pigment I think. Alternatives are Schmincke vermilion, Da Vinci Permanent Red, DS Organic Vermilion, Winsor Red and other definite warm or orange-reds. It is great for making oranges and also can be neutralised to make red earth colours. Avoid cadmiums.
Pyrrol Crimson is a convenience colour as it could be mixed with the crimson and the rose, but is also useful in mixing. This is made with PR264. Alternatives are most brands of Permanent Alizarin, DS Carmine*, W&N Permanent Carmine*, DS Anthraquinoid Red, DV Alizarin Crimson* (Quinacridone) and so on.
*these colours work as a primary red so Quinacridone Rose is not necessary.
Quinacridone Rose makes wonderful purples. Alternatives are Permanent Rose in many brands. Look for PV19.
Ultramarine is a great warm blue and can be used as the only blue in the palette. It may be called French Ultramarine in some brands. It is made with PB29. It is a granulating colour. The least granulating version is Schmincke Ultramarine Finest. The new granulating French Ultramarine from Schmincke is also lovely, as is the DV ultramarine.
Cerulean Chromium is made from PB36. It is slightly opaque, granulating and cool. It is useful for skies, for making slightly more opaque greens and for it's granulation. It is optional if you want less colours or don't like semi-opaque paints, but I actually use it more than phthalo blue as it is perfect for skies. Avoid the hues made from PB15 and white. Schmincke Cobalt Cerulean and DV Cerulean Genuine are also PB36
Phthalo Blue GS is a powerful cool blue made with PB15. You may prefer the Red Shade or less staining Prussian Blue but this is a great colour found in any brand. It is called Winsor Blue in the W&N range, Blockx Blue in the Blockx range. It is a great mixing blue.
Phthalo Green BS is an unrealistic green on its own but an amazing mixer for making realistic greens, amazing purples(!), greys and black. I find the blue shade far more useful than the Yellow shade. Called Winsor Green in W&N and many other names, but available in most brands. Made with PG7.
Goethite is a granulating yellow earth colour from Daniel Smith. You may prefer Raw Sienna, especially if you are planning to do figure and portrait work, but I find this granulation really wonderful in many landscapes, stonework and beaches. If you can't get Daniel Smith, get a Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna or Transparent Yellow Oxide instead. Da Vinci has a nice versions of these, as does Schmincke. Daniel Smith has a lovely transparent yellow ochre colour called Mont Amiata Natural Sienna that is another lovely option. Look for PY43 or PY42.
Burnt Sienna is one of my most used colours, as it mixes with Ultramarine to make a wonderful array of warm browns, dark blues and gorgeous greys. Available in every brand, it may be anything from a transparent burnt orange in colour through to a granulating brown earth. It may be a single pigment or a mixture of two or even three. I prefer the genuine version made with PBr7 to the many hues available using PR101 so I prefer this colour from Daniel Smith or Da Vinci. If you like the more Burnt Orange colour, try Winsor & Newton or the new Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna Light. In Schmincke I really love Maroon Brown - a new beautiful burnt sienna colour released in 2017 and made with PBr7.
Indian Red is a lovely earthy red made with PR101. It tends to be fairly opaque and granulating. I love the triad you can make with this, Cerulean and Goethite. If you don't want an opaque colour you can mix this hue with phthlo blue and pyrrol scarlet.
Raw Umber is a convenience colour so could be dropped if you want less colours but it saves time making darks when painting. It is a great deep and cool brown. Best from Daniel Smith, Da Vinci or M.Graham (though they don't 'set' as well in the palette) for the real deep version. Some look very pale and are less useful.
Jane's Grey is a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine - colours already in the palette - to make a convenience dark that is just on the cool (blue) side of a neutral grey. Alternatives are DS Neutral Tint but this adds black into your palette which I prefer not to do. Schmincke Neutral Grey is a three-pigment grey made without black so is a better pre-made option, though Jane's Grey was released commercially in 2019 by Daniel Smith. This is another optional hue on the palette as it could be mixed each time, but it is incredibly useful to have it premixed from tubes to be a lovely dark. Instructions on how to make it are on my Blog here.
Art Basics palette and Pocket Palette each with 14 colours.
Here are two examples of small travel palettes set up with 14 colours from the above range. The first is made by Art Basics and available from Art Scene store in Ryde, Sydney, but is also very like the 12-colour metal palette available from Schmincke and other brands. The half pans can be removed or rearranged very easily, and refilled from tubes once empty.
The second is from Maria at Expeditionary Art and is only the size of a business card holder. The little metal pans are held in by a magnet. Very clever! This is a gorgeous pocket sized palette that holds 1/4 of a pan of colour in each pan - half the amount in the other palette - but the large surface area makes it easy to access the colour with a brush. If you would like to buy one filled with artist quality paint please contact me. They are AU$90 plus shipping or AU$40 empty. (Note - I now set this palette up with two tiny pans so all 15 colours can be included) See more on setting up this set of colours here.
Experiment with this set of 15 colours, and you will find you can mix a wonderful range of oranges, greens, purples, browns, reds, earths...pretty much anything you want. See the 'Building your palette of colours' tab for options if you wish to extend your colour range with some convenience mixes, but I highly recommend getting to know this wonderful limited palette range. I have published a Blurb book and e-Book as well as creating on-line tutorials that delve into all you can do with them showing all two- pigment mixes and many three-pigment mixes. See more in the tab 'The ultimate mixing palette: a world of colours', including information about the books, or click here to see all my books.
Colour wheel produced using a split primary system of 6 colours.
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This colour wheel shows the secondary colours you can mix using the two yellows (Y1- Quinacridone Gold and Y2- Hansa Yellow Medium), two of the blues (B2- Phthalo blue and B1- Ultramarine) and two of the reds (R1- Pyrrol Scarlet and R2- Quinacridone Rose). Click here to link to a template with a key to setting out the colours. There are two options, this one on the left of the template has the warm yellow and warm blue and cool red around the outside as these are the greens, purples and oranges I find most useful in Australia. The yellows, which you can see alternating in the centre at the top, mix with the blues which you can see alternating 1/3 around to the right to make a whole range of greens. The Yellows mix with the reds which you can see alternating 1/3 of the way to the left to make a whole range of oranges and the reds. Finally the blues mix in the bottom segment to make a whole range of purples as well as some interesting earth reds. So all these colours are created with just 6 of the above set. (There is a lot more information on colour mixing in other tabs.) |
16 segment colour wheel created using just 8 colours.
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This colour wheel shows more of the colours from the palette, some pure and some mixed, to create a full colour wheel around the outside, then each is mixed with its opposite on the wheel to create a range of tertiary colours. You can see how you can create a burnt sienna hue in the orange segment, an indian red and light red in the red segment and indigo hues in the blue segment. Crimson and Phthalo Green make a wonderful black as well as a range of aubergine and deep green hues. This wheel uses, from top right, going clockwise around the outside of the circle -
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Note that an 18 colour wheel would be better as then the primary triad could be evenly spaced around the wheel. I only used 16 to limit the number of mixed colours on the outside of the wheel since this was an exercise in using very few pigments.
Click here to link to an 18 colour wheel template with 6 opposite hue spaces. Click here for a more complex version, with 8 opposite hue mixes. You can use either of these to put your primary triad evenly around the wheel and your secondary triad evenly in the spaces between them. See an 18 colour wheel here, based around a primary triad of Phthalo Blue GS, Quinacridone Rose and Hansa Yellow light.
See a 24 segment colour wheel here. This is based around a primary triad of Ultramarine, Hansa Yellow Medium and Pyrrol Crimson and a secondary triad of Phthalo Green BS, Benzamida Orange and Carbazole violet - my favourite powerful primary and secondary colours. See those colours painted out as a 6 colour mixing set here. The rest of the colours in the wheel are all single pigment colours rather than mixes.
Need help? If you are getting started with watercolour and need some help with colours, brushes and papers, consider my on-line consulting or on-line tutorials here. For details about workshops and demonstrations, see here.
Click here to link to an 18 colour wheel template with 6 opposite hue spaces. Click here for a more complex version, with 8 opposite hue mixes. You can use either of these to put your primary triad evenly around the wheel and your secondary triad evenly in the spaces between them. See an 18 colour wheel here, based around a primary triad of Phthalo Blue GS, Quinacridone Rose and Hansa Yellow light.
See a 24 segment colour wheel here. This is based around a primary triad of Ultramarine, Hansa Yellow Medium and Pyrrol Crimson and a secondary triad of Phthalo Green BS, Benzamida Orange and Carbazole violet - my favourite powerful primary and secondary colours. See those colours painted out as a 6 colour mixing set here. The rest of the colours in the wheel are all single pigment colours rather than mixes.
Need help? If you are getting started with watercolour and need some help with colours, brushes and papers, consider my on-line consulting or on-line tutorials here. For details about workshops and demonstrations, see here.
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Last edited May 2019