Adventures in Creating a "Perfect" Watercolor Palette

I have been interested in trying out Schmincke watercolors for some time now and thought I scored when I picked up a 12 half pan travel set of Schmincke watercolors on eBay. Unfortunately, when I was preparing to write this blog post on my new artist quality Schmincke watercolors, I realized that I didn't purchase the artist quality Hordam paints, but instead got the student quality Akademie watercolors. This is not the first time I made an ill conceived purchase on eBay - but it will be my last!!

The good news is that I have always loved the Sennelie metal travel box that I have recently started using for my gouache paints - and the Schmincke metal box is even better! It is the same size, relatively light when the metal tray holding the half pans is removed, and has 3 large mixing sections in the lid instead of the two that the Sennelier box has.

I have been very happy with the Daniel Smith watercolors I have been using and love the colors. I had been using a large metal watercolor box filled with 46 colors in half and full pans.

My Daniel Smith watercolors in a 8.5" x 4.5" metal palette that folds out to about 13"

While I love how this large palette allows me to use as many colors as I would like - and has let me explore the use of so many lovely Daniel Smith pigments, I have started to worry that I had been using too many colors straight out of the tube and my color mixing skills were being degraded. So, I decided to use one of my smaller metal palettes with a select number of pigments ideally chosen for their mixing capabilities - for which, I have relied heavily on Jane Blundell's excellent watercolor blog - and adding some colors that I just love using. So, I chose to fill this tiny box with Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Yellow Ochre, Perylene Maroon, Pyrrol Crimson, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Rich Green Gold, Phthalo. Green (BS), Undersea Green, Cascade Green, Phthalo Blue (RS), Burnt Sienna, and Raw Umber.

My 3.25" x 2.5" tiny metal palette filled with Daniel Smith watercolors

I have really enjoyed using this palette, but the metal stays that hold in the half pans are not removable and the palette itself becomes a bit heavy as a result. Also, the two mixing wells are just not enough for me. So, despite not getting to try out the artist quality Schmincke watercolors, I am happy to have another perfectly sized metal travel palette, which I am able to fill with slightly more Daniel Smith watercolors.

My new Schmincke palette with Daniel Smith watercolors

Here are colors I've chosen: M. Graham Titanium White gouache; Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Yellow Ochre, Perylene Maroon, Pyrrol Crimson, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Buff Titanium, Rich Green Gold, Phthalo Green (BS), Undersea Green, Cascade Green, Cobalt Teal Blue, Phthalo Blue (RS), Cerulean Blue Chrom., Indian Red, Sodalite Genuine, Moonglow, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, and Cobalt Blue. I may change up this palette as I use it and see what I feel is missing. I will let you know!

What do you have in your palette? What do you find as the "right" number of pigments to have on hand?

New Portable Watercolor Palette

Inspired by Stephanie Bower's brilliant homemade palette that she showcased in her Craftsy classes: Perspective for Sketchers & The Essentials for Sketching Architecture, I decided to make one of my own.

To make it, you need a piece of corrugated plastic (I got it from my art supply store, but Stephanie says you can get it from hardware stores as well); a prescription pill bottle, and a binder clip to hold your palette. Just cut two circles in a piece of corrugated plastic cut to size (mine is 8" x 7.75"). Add tape to protect your thumb against the cut edges of the plastic. Put down some scrap watercolor paper to test your colors, clip on your palette, add water to your pill bottle, and hold some paper towel or tissue in your hand underneath the palette and you're ready to go!

I can't wait to try this out in the field!

Do you have your own portable palette solution? I'd love to hear about it!

UPDATE: I added a couple of holes to the palette to hold some paint brushes.

Trying Out a Limited Palette

I would really like to improve my watercolor mixing. To that end, i took Kateri Ewing's Craftsy class: Improve Your Paintings with Luminous Watercolor Mixing. I liked this class and learned a lot about my paints, pigments, and how to avoid muddy colors. Kateri focuses on a traditional split primary palette with single pigment paints and making watercolor charts.

The number of potential mixes you can make with a split primary palette is great (and mind boggling when you keep adding to your watercolor mixing charts with each new color) and adding convenience colors has helped me sketch quickly (one of my goals) but has led to some over reliance on these convenience greens, browns and earth colors.

So, I thought I would try an even more limited palette suggested by Jane Blundell, who has a fabulous blog that features tons of helpful information on watercolor paint brands, colors, comparisons, and palettes.

Jane suggests a lovely limited palette of just 6 Daniel Smith colors for people just starting in watercolor and she also provides 6 additional colors to add in with some other interesting options to make your palette your own. The six basic colors in her limited palette are: Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Carmine, Phthalo Green (BS), and Burnt Sienna. Here is my version of her excellent watercolor mixing illustration:

I painted this Sktchy portrait using just these 6 colors.

But, today, I decided to add in the additional 6 colors Jane recommends - adding in Buff Titanium (great for skin tones and buildings, etc.), Cerulean Blue Chrm. (essential for skies), Phthalo Blue (RS), Transparent Pyrrol Orange, Goethite - Brown Ochre, and Raw Umber. All by Daniel Smith.

But, since I plan to go out sketching this evening with some friends at the Lafayette Art & Wine Festival, I decided to resist going back to my 24 half pans in my usual metal tin and, instead, transferred my half pans to an Altoid tin in which I can fit 3 more colors - Quinacridone Rose, Monte Amiata Natural Sienna, and Jane's Gray (a premix of 50/50 Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna).

I will try this palette out tonight and let you know how it works out for me! In he meantime, here is my figure in action for today 17/50 that I painted with this 15 color palette.

I found the Phthalo Green is really helpful for mixing with Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna, Monte Amiata, and Goethite to make a huge range of greens that I used in this piece.

What are your experiences with using a limited palette?