Limited Palette Anyone?

I work with a very limited palette. I put a red, blue, yellow and white on my palette and do my own mixing. I like the mixing as part of my process.

Sometimes a green or violet will be a must have in the moment. ;-)

cyan, yellow,red, white, black(I know I Know)

I'll get you in Word for Friends for that abstract remark!

Black is great when mixed with Yellow, you can get a great Green out of them.

Zeanna,

I am just beginning to paint....in Photoshop....

I pay $10.09 including Connecticut sales taxes every month
for that right. I get all the colours.

Dave

The more you limit your choice of bought colors, the more you will learn about mixing paint.
Zeana, as you know I am an abstract artist, but what most don't know if that I was a portrait painter for my first 10 years in the professional world. I used acrylics and the choices were very limiting...we had no choice but to learn how to mix all those pretty colors on our own.
Get the primaries and a white and black and payne's gray.

This contains some invaluable info

http://dianalee.com/tutorials/mixing_color.htm

The main thing is the 'cool' aspect of primaries - the purer the colour tone the more versatile, though beginning with certain pre-mixes makes life much easier.

Also take notice of the paragraph about black, and how mixes give better blacks than 'black'

I have heard that mixing black is better than getting it from the tube. It takes time and patience. Sometimes I have no patience to mix black.

Zeana, depending on what colour tones you prefer, you could consider the three primary colours in both a warm and a cool tone, and then just choose maybe three (or so) colours for a painting. I try out combinations first and mix on the brush when painting.

I have never used black, preferring to mix several colours to achieve it - e.g. a warm black, cool black, purple toned black, etc! Depending on how much of each colour you mix on the brush you can get different black tones to suit your painting.

But it all depends on how you prefer to paint. Some like to premix the colours, others, like me, select a minimum of colours and mix as you go!!!

sap green, burnt umber, raw umber, Hansa yellow deep, titanium white, mix your black with burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue (I mix mine because I have control over how warm or cold my black or grey is), Venetian red these are all my colors for portraits or landscape.

Great subject.

I love pretty colors, but using too many colors and not understanding their mixing dynamics = icky muddy colors.

My watercolor paintings are crisp and vivid by using fewer paints and using single pigment paints.

I found this information useful: http://learningcenter.susieshort.net/basics-splitprimarypalette.html
My main palette includes 8 of those split primary colors.
Hansa (med PY97)
New Gamboge (PY153)
Pyrrol Orange (PO73 )
Quinacridone Rose, (PV19)
Cobalt blue (PB28 )
French Ultramarine (PB29)
Phthalo blue, (PB15)
Quinacridone Burnt Orange (PO48)

I keep my excess paint tubes in a separate bag and use them only when I feel I can't mix a particular color from my primary set (rare).

My mainstay black is created by mixing Quin Burnt Orange (similar to burnt sienna) and French Ultra Marine Blue

I achieve zillions of beautiful vivid colors using my basic 8 colors :-)