Choosing Your Watercolor Palette Colors
Choosing your watercolor paints for your palette is a first step in getting started in watercolor painting. This is a confusing subject for a lot of beginning watercolor artists, so we're going to cover it today using my quick and simple method. But before we get started, take a moment and subscribe to my Youtube channel.
I know how it feels to go to an art store, you can see the watercolor section and there aremasses of products. There are little tubes, big tubes, little pans, and boxes of paint. What do you choose? It can be so overwhelming that sometimes you just want to leave. I don't want it to be that way, so I'm going to give you a few tips that you may not have heard anywhere else.
The first tip is become an art observer. Before you start any painting, learn how to observe art. This isn't technical at all. This is totally subjective; it's totally about what you like. I would suggest you look at other artists' works, go to some galleries, get some books from the library that show you other artists' work, and do it with the intention of seeing what you like best. For example, I'm going to show you some pictures from a few books I have, that will give you a variety of not so much styles, but color styles, that you can choose from and you can decide what works for you.
Here's the first one. This has a lot of warm colors in it. You can see this one as well, you can even see the palette. This book is Outdoor Painting Scenes in Watercolor by Richard Kaiser. Now, what I want you to notice here is the colors are all warm and if looking at those colors warms your heart and just makes you go, "Oh man, I love that," just make note of it, because these are the colors that you will want to work with.
I know how it feels to go to an art store, you can see the watercolor section and there aremasses of products. There are little tubes, big tubes, little pans, and boxes of paint. What do you choose? It can be so overwhelming that sometimes you just want to leave. I don't want it to be that way, so I'm going to give you a few tips that you may not have heard anywhere else.
The first tip is become an art observer. Before you start any painting, learn how to observe art. This isn't technical at all. This is totally subjective; it's totally about what you like. I would suggest you look at other artists' works, go to some galleries, get some books from the library that show you other artists' work, and do it with the intention of seeing what you like best. For example, I'm going to show you some pictures from a few books I have, that will give you a variety of not so much styles, but color styles, that you can choose from and you can decide what works for you.
Here's the first one. This has a lot of warm colors in it. You can see this one as well, you can even see the palette. This book is Outdoor Painting Scenes in Watercolor by Richard Kaiser. Now, what I want you to notice here is the colors are all warm and if looking at those colors warms your heart and just makes you go, "Oh man, I love that," just make note of it, because these are the colors that you will want to work with.
Below is another example from the same book. If you like these deep dark colors that you see in the woods, there are heavy shadows, there are dark greens, there are dark browns, there are dark purples, this also will give you a hint of what kind of colors that you are really drawn to.
That's the most important thing. What colors are you drawn to? Because when you start painting you don't want to do like I did. When I decided years ago that I wanted to go get into watercolor, I do what I normally do, which is go to the library and see what I can find. I brought home some books, one of which said go out and buy all these colors. So I thought, "Okay, well, I guess I'll do that," and I went and bought all those colors. As time went on, and I started painting more of the things that I really am drawn to paint, I thought, "I don't even like these colors," because they were all basically various shades of brown and I'm not a big fan of brown. So I had to selectively get rid of some of those colors so I could replace them with colors that I really liked.
Here's another example. If you are drawn to this sort of palette, with pale pastels, light florals, or lots of light in them, then you would want to choose a whole lot of different colors than if you lean towards the last one that you've seen.
This book is Pulling Your Paintings Together by Charles Reid. Beautiful book; lovely style.
Here's another example. If you are drawn to this sort of palette, with pale pastels, light florals, or lots of light in them, then you would want to choose a whole lot of different colors than if you lean towards the last one that you've seen.
This book is Pulling Your Paintings Together by Charles Reid. Beautiful book; lovely style.
This book is You Can Paint Vibrant Watercolors by Dan Burt. This gives a totally different palette. Have a look at this. Look at the abundance of color there (below). If this makes your heart sing, you're going to choose a whole lot of different colors than if you want to do muted fall scenes and dark mountain scenes or things like that.
So that's the first thing to do. When you look at these paintings, just make a note, in a little notebook or in your phone, of the colors that you're really drawn to, because that will help you to choose a palette that really works for you, that excites you. That's the most important thing.
So that's the first thing to do. When you look at these paintings, just make a note, in a little notebook or in your phone, of the colors that you're really drawn to, because that will help you to choose a palette that really works for you, that excites you. That's the most important thing.
Now, when it gets into the qualities of paints and the different brands and things like that, there's a also a vast array. However, when you're just beginning, I'm going to stick my neck out a little bit and say it doesn't really matter all that much, because your goal when you're starting is not to produce the most professional work or rival someone else who's been painting forever. What you want to do is get started.
So once you've chosen your paint colors, there are different ways you can go about getting paint. Like I did with my watercolor paper video, I'm going to start from the smallest and go up to the largest. You also now want to think about where are you going to be doing your painting?
Are you a studio painter?
Do you want to paint big paintings?
Are you wanting throw a little sketchbook into your backpack and head out into the woods or to the lake or whatever? These things are all considerations.
Or are you a plein air painter? That means out in the air.
Or do you want to paint at home in your studio or at your dining room table or on your lap? Any of these things is fine. One is not better than the other, it's just what works for you.
So here's a place that you could start if you want to carry something with you. This tiny palette is a Winsor Newton palette, and you can see the colors in there. They're pretty basic colors, but for me, there's more brown than I need. I went on a trip recently and I took this along with me and when I got to my destination, which was Rome, and wanted to work in my travel journal, I found myself a little bit frustrated because I hadn't really thought through what colors I wanted to take. I was thinking more about keeping the size small so that my luggage wouldn't be too heavy.
However, if this palette appeals to you, then by all means it's the thing for you. It also comes with this tiny brush which folds back into itself, as you can see, for storage. Then you pull it out here and flip it around and you have a nice little paintbrush that matches the size of the project because you're using a small palette box.
So once you've chosen your paint colors, there are different ways you can go about getting paint. Like I did with my watercolor paper video, I'm going to start from the smallest and go up to the largest. You also now want to think about where are you going to be doing your painting?
Are you a studio painter?
Do you want to paint big paintings?
Are you wanting throw a little sketchbook into your backpack and head out into the woods or to the lake or whatever? These things are all considerations.
Or are you a plein air painter? That means out in the air.
Or do you want to paint at home in your studio or at your dining room table or on your lap? Any of these things is fine. One is not better than the other, it's just what works for you.
So here's a place that you could start if you want to carry something with you. This tiny palette is a Winsor Newton palette, and you can see the colors in there. They're pretty basic colors, but for me, there's more brown than I need. I went on a trip recently and I took this along with me and when I got to my destination, which was Rome, and wanted to work in my travel journal, I found myself a little bit frustrated because I hadn't really thought through what colors I wanted to take. I was thinking more about keeping the size small so that my luggage wouldn't be too heavy.
However, if this palette appeals to you, then by all means it's the thing for you. It also comes with this tiny brush which folds back into itself, as you can see, for storage. Then you pull it out here and flip it around and you have a nice little paintbrush that matches the size of the project because you're using a small palette box.
Another one that I've come across recently is this one called Pastel Dreams by Prima Marketing, (above right) and because I love pastels and I paint in them a lot and these are the kind of colors that I like to work with, this one really appealed to me. Now, it opens up like this and you can see the beautiful shades in here. I find they even have beautiful names like Crimson, Rose, Lemonade, Icy Sky, Sea Dream, Pool Party, and Bumblebee. This, to me, is exciting. It feels wonderful and I want to paint with these colors.
Now, when I was traveling, I did take this one, but I was missing a few of my old favorites or my standby colors. So I found an art store in Rome and I picked up some of these tiny, pans. They pop right into this box and just sit there. If you have a box like this, you can add to it, which is wonderful, because like I said, sometimes the box has almost everything you want, but the palette is not really perfect for you because you find that it doesn't have enough purple, which if you do florals or shadows, you'll want purple; you need purple.
Now, when I'm working at home on my studio table, which is an antique drafting table, I often use this box (below). I created this myself by just purchasing this plastic palette. That way I can put in the colors that I really want. You can see by what's dried here what kind of colors I work with. I choose the colors that work for me.
Now, when I was traveling, I did take this one, but I was missing a few of my old favorites or my standby colors. So I found an art store in Rome and I picked up some of these tiny, pans. They pop right into this box and just sit there. If you have a box like this, you can add to it, which is wonderful, because like I said, sometimes the box has almost everything you want, but the palette is not really perfect for you because you find that it doesn't have enough purple, which if you do florals or shadows, you'll want purple; you need purple.
Now, when I'm working at home on my studio table, which is an antique drafting table, I often use this box (below). I created this myself by just purchasing this plastic palette. That way I can put in the colors that I really want. You can see by what's dried here what kind of colors I work with. I choose the colors that work for me.
These colors start out as liquid and I buy them one little tube at a time. I keep my tubes in a little funny children's lunchbox because I like everything with artwork on it (above right). So that's an example of those, and like I said before, if you're just starting out don't worry about whether it's a student grade or a professional grade. When you get to be professional, you can choose the ones that really make a difference for the kind of painting you want to do, but when you're exploring, you don't really need to do that.
Now, this is also my big palette (below centre) and this one carries the most of my colors that I use with regularity, and because they're big and because it has big spaces for mixing paint, what I do is use it when I'm making a bigger artwork. I work small quite a bit because my artwork goes on my products in my store at summerbaystudio.com.
Now, this is also my big palette (below centre) and this one carries the most of my colors that I use with regularity, and because they're big and because it has big spaces for mixing paint, what I do is use it when I'm making a bigger artwork. I work small quite a bit because my artwork goes on my products in my store at summerbaystudio.com.
That's my rundown today, just to get you started. This is the quick and simple guide to choosing your watercolor paints, your first palette. As you work with watercolor, you'll find that you define the kind of styles and colors and things that you like.
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