My Studio Palette and favourite Pigments

Note - I try to regularly update posts with additional information but they don't normally repost. I wrote this post in 2013 and, for some reason, this re-posted in 2019 when I updated it. So I've updated it again to make it completely current!


I am often asked what other colours I use or like, and why. There are rather a lot. I have posted a paint-out of my main studio palette before, which I have recently updated. This would have some of my top 20 pigments, and allows me to paint almost anything I choose as it has a good range of yellows, reds, blues, greens and neutrals. These are all Daniel Smith watercolours as follows:

• Yellows  - 

1. Hansa Yellow Medium as my mid or primary yellow
2. Quinacridone Gold as my warm yellow
3. Goethite DS as my earth yellow
4. Raw Umber as my dark cool brown

• Reds/Oranges - 

1. Quinacridone Rose as my cool and purple-mixing red
2. Transparent Pyrrol Orange as my warm red (note 2019 - this colour seems to have changed to a mid orange rather than a red-orange so pyrrol scarlet is probably more useful here), 
3. Indian Red as my earth red  
4. Pyrrol Crimson as my deep crimson. (In my smallest travel palette I sometimes use Carmine in place of the crimson and rose pigments)

• Blues - 

1. Phthalo Blue Red Shade as my cool blue. 
2. Ultramarine DS or DV, as my warm blue
3. Cerulean Chromium as my liftable granulating cool blue
4. Indanthrone Blue just because I love it - a deep warm blue.

• Greens - 

1. Phthalo Green Blue Shade as a mixing green
2. Undersea Green mix DS (PB29+PO49) for foliage and leaves
3. Sap Green (PO49 + PG7) for foliage, botanicals
4. Perylene Green that is so useful for foliage in shadow.

• Neutrals - 

1. Buff titanium which is so useful for urban and beach subjects
2. Burnt Sienna PBr7 is my preferred pigment for Burnt Sienna
3. Burnt Umber as my warm deep brown
4. Jane's Grey mixture of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine. This is the one I refill the most. 

Here is the palette - In the first photo from 2013 I arranged the colours with all the yellows together in the first column, then all the reds, then the blues, then greens, then earths. There is more on this arrangement here.

My 20 colour brass studio palette from littlebrassbox  - photo from 2013. 

I now have them in a more 'rainbow' order with light buff titanium, then yellows running down the first column, into reds, blues, greens and then the earths. This is how I tend to arrange all my palettes.

My 20 colour brass studio palette from littlebrassbox in 2019 - same colours but in a different order.

My studio palette colours.

So then what to do with the colours I want to use on occasions but not all the time? 

One option was to use a bigger palette. I had a wonderful large palette that worked very well in many ways. It held 34 colours and had good mixing areas but it took up a lot of space on my work desk and was not easily portable if wet so it was really only good in my studio. (Called the Bullet Proof Palette, by the way, though it is not actually made of glass but strong plastic.) It also had a number of colours that were more for special use than for all the time. My brass one is very compact when not in use, with great mixing space during use. What I wanted was a separate 'extras' set that I could keep in the drawer when not in use but pull out easily when painting in my studio. I've ended up using a set of 18 half pans in a custom made brass box. It works fine :-)

So what are these special extras?

My studio 'extras' palette.

Some are opaque versions of colours I have, some are more granulation, some are cool yellows for florals. They are colours that have their uses in particular paintings. I try to limit the number of pigments I use in any one painting but I like to have a good range to choose from.

Included in this little extras set might be - 

Cadmium Yellow Light - an opaque yellow for when more coverage is required or Hansa Yellow Light Daniel Smith PY3 which is a lovely transparent cool yellow. 

New Gamboge  - the original PY153 version from Daniel Smith. It is the most lovely transparent warm yellow I have tried. Mixable, but at times it's good to start with a single pigment colour. Hansa Yellow Deep is another excellent option.

Benzimida Orange Deep DaVinci - this is a gorgeous orange with a lovely and unusual orange  undertone. Once again it is mixable, but just lovely. Or Transparent Orange Schmincke, which is more transparent and has a more yellow undertone. 2019 update - The DS Transparent Pyrrol Orange that I use in my main palette as a warm red seems to have changed to more of a true mid orange - rather like the Benzimida Orange Deep, Winsor & Newton Transparent Orange and almost the Schmincke Transparent Orange. It would now sit in with my extras and I'd change the main palette to Pyrrol Scarlet for the warm red.

Pyrrol Scarlet DS - a very lightfast warm red. I like the pyrrols and they intermix very well. A bright red can be perfect for certain flower studies. This is the red I recommend in all my teaching, rather than the Transparent Pyrrol Orange that I have in my main palette.

Quinacridone Lilac DS - this is the lovely PR122 magenta that makes the most gorgeous purples, and is prefect for painting bougainvillea. It's great if I want to work in a limited CYM palette too! Not currently in my extras palette as I use Quinacridone Rose to make most purples.

Imperial Purple DS - purely convenience if painting purple flowers. Some might prefer a PV23 Dioxazine violet.

Moonglow DS - this mix of Ultramarine, Anthraquinoid Red and Viridian is just lovely for many floral shaded areas.

Cobalt Blue - this lovely mid or primary blue doesn't get a lot of use, though it's wonderful in the Greek Islands and for skies.

Phthalo Blue GS DS - this is the colour I recommend in all my teaching, rather than the Red Shade that is in my main palette. I have it for demonstration purposes for my on-line tutoring since it is a traditional choice for most people. The Red Shade can be adjusted to look like the Green Shade with the addition of a little Phthalo Green.

Cobalt Turquoise DS - this is an easy enough colour to make but the granulation is something special.

Jadeite Genuine DS - this granulating pine-like green is a beautiful pigment. It mixes a bit like Phthalo green but is much deeper in mass-tone, more like Perylene Green, and more liftable thatn phthalo green. Wonderful in foliage. Still in my little travel palette.

Green Apatite Genuine - I love this colour and use it often. Goes from a light green gold through a sap green to a deep undersea green all in one - still in my little travel palette.

Serpentine Genuine DS - wonderful fro grassy meadows, with lovely flecks of brown in the green wash.

Green Gold - PY129  DS - this is another useful convenience colour for botanicals and foliage.

Yellow Ochre PY43 DS - an earth yellow that is a little opaque. Makes great olive greens, when I don't want the granulation of Goethite.

Raw Sienna PBr7 DS - for skin tones or if I want a warm glow in the sky without it turning green mixed with a blue - one of the characteristics of this pigment.

Transparent Red Oxide DS- this is an option for a burnt sienna but is wilder so I keep it for special purposes, especially rust. Fabulous granulation!

Piemontite Genuine DS - a granulating Primatek colour that has an amazing tonal and colour range. It washes down to a dusty pink. A very interesting alternative to Indian Red, but I like to use both.

Grey Titanium  DS - introduced in 2019, along with Jane's Grey, this is an interesting colour that can be just perfect for concrete, neutral passages in a wash and some stone effects. I tend to use this in my plein air extras palette too.

Lunar Black DS - I don't generally use a black pigment but I love this one due to its extraordinary granulation.

My 'extras' palette colours

I have many other watercolours that I don't use so often so my other problem was how to store and potentially carry these extra pigments when teaching colour workshops. I found the answer that solved all the rattling pans and wrote about Malcolm Carver's flower palettes, and my 'special use' pigments in another post - here. I have also written about 48 'special pigments' that I put into a MAC travel case here, with more detail in the following post here.

Daniel Smith dot card - Jane Blundell

I am home from a fabulous trip to the US, where I met up with Urban Sketchers and SBS sketchers in San Francisco, Seattle and Mount Vernon. I spent six days in the Daniel Smith Seattle store where I had a solo exhibition of my prints, A Splash of Colour, and I had a great time doing demonstrations and workshops, not to mention wandering around exploring the many nooks and crannies of that enormous and very friendly store.

I've brought home a number of my palette Dot Cards - a great way to try new colours. It has 19 of my basic palette colours, the 20th being my custom mixed Jane's Grey.

My personal palette is a bit different from my recommended Ultimate Mixing Palette. It starts with the same 15 colours, with two slight changes, and then includes some more convenience mixtures made from these colours and some lovely deep extra colours to make a total of 20. I have explained each colour as well as the slight changes I make for my own palette in an earlier post about how I designed my palette. You can find that here.

Jane Blundell Dot Card - a nifty way to try new colours

My Palette. Updated December 2015

I use a beautiful hand made brass paintbox made by John of Littlebrassbox for my regular studio palette of 20 colours. It contains a really useful selection of paints along with some great convenience mixes.

For travel I have two smaller portable brass palettes made by David of Classicpaintboxes. One is a lovely size to take with me for plein air painting and it holds 24 colours. (Pictured left).

The other is much smaller, still with 24 colours, and lives in my handbag all the time.

I also have a small travel palette with 16 colours.

Below is my travel palette, and how the colours are laid out. The 20 on the left are the same as my basic studio palette. The 4 extra colours on the right are colours I may choose to change around over time. These are all Daniel Smith, though other options are mentioned below.

My regular 20 colour 'studio' palette colours, plus the 4 'fun' extras in my 'plein air' palette.

Yellows.

I use 4 yellows, as you can see on the left column. The first is a transparent mid-yellow. I find limited use for a lemon yellow so am more interested in a mid-yellow that can go warm or cool and will make lovely oranges or greens. I am using Daniel Smith Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97) but I also liked Da Vinci Arylide Yellow Medium, Schmincke Pure Yellow (PY154), M.Graham Azo (Aureolin) Yellow (PY150) and Daniel Smith Quinaphthalone Yellow (PY138). Hansa Yellow Light (PY3) is an excellent alternative if you are looking for a cooler yellow, or Cadmium Yellow Light if you like an opaque cool yellow.

I use Quinacridone Gold (PO49) by Daniel Smith for my warm yellow. It is a little more neutral than other versions of a warm yellow and will double as a transparent earth yellow. It mixes with blues to create realistic greens and adds a lovely glow to washes. Other lovely brighter warm yellow options are New Gamboge (PY153) by Daniel Smith,  Gamboge Hue by Daler Rowney, Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue by Daler Rowney and Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65) by Da Vinci or Daniel Smith. If you like opaque colours you can't go wrong with Cadmium Yellow Deep from any manufacturer really. I am not so fond of cadmiums but keep a couple of pans in my studio for special purposes. For an even deeper orange-yellow try Permanent Yellow Deep.

For my earth yellow I use Goethite by Daniel Smith rather than the more usual Raw Sienna or Yellow Ochre. I love the colour but even better is the wonderful granulation. I have the other traditional colours in my studio - Yellow ochre (PY43) if I need a neutral opaque yellow, Mont Amiata Natural Sienna for a transparent version of a yellow ochre colour or Raw Sienna (PBr7) if I want a transparent warm earth yellow that doesn't make greens in a wash, or a basis for skin tones - but for most of my work, whether landscape, plants or buildings, Goethite is perfect.

My cool dark brown is Raw Umber (PBr7) by Daniel Smith, though Da Vinci is also excellent. This neutralised yellow should be a dark, cool colour made with PBr7, but in some brands it is closer to a yellow ochre so of little use. M.Graham also has a lovely version, though the M.Graham range has honey as an ingredient so will not set in a palette - best used in a studio rather than for plein air work.

Reds

I have chosen 4 reds, as you can see in the next column. I have opted for a red-orange and a rose to create a huge range of bright red and crimson mixes. I tried the versatile PR122 as a primary magenta, settling on Schmincke Purple Magenta for this colour, but I have reverted to the more useful Quinacridone Rose PV19 Daniel Smith for my cool red (Permanent Rose in many brands) as I find I need a pink more often than a magenta in my painting. Another alternative is a PV19 Quinacridone Red by Daniel Smith. The important function of a cool red is to make purples. A crimson alone won't usually work so well, with a few exceptions, so a rose is a good choice.

I tried a huge number of warm or scarlet reds from many brands and there are many excellent choices including Scarlet Lake or Winsor Red by Winsor & Newton, the gorgeous bright Pyrrol Scarlet by Daniel Smith, Permanent Red by Da Vinci, Schlev. Red Light by Old Holland and many cadmium reds if you like opaque colours, but I chose Transparent Pyrrol Orange by Daniel Smith for this colour. Going with an orange as my 'warm red' means I can create even more warm browns, but I can't create an Indian Red hue mixing with a cold blue as I would be able to do with a more red version such as Pyrrol Scarlet. That's not a problem in this palette as I have included Indian red. The other advantage is that this orange creates a perfect black with Phthalo Blue as well as a lovely range of other neutral greys along the way.
Note - in my teaching I use and recommend Pyrrol Scarlet as the warm red, rather than Transparent Pyrrol Orange. It is more versatile than my personal choice, and is featured in my book The Ultimate Mixing Palette: a World of Colours. 

Indian Red is my earth red. There are some other lovely options for this position in the palette too, including Venetian Red, or the Primatek Piemontite by Daniel Smith, but I like the depth of the Daniel Smith Indian Red. This is the place for PR101.

I experimented with the very powerful and deep Perylene Maroon PR179 as my fourth and deepest red. It is an earthy red in many ways and makes a wonderful triad with Indanthrone Blue and Quinacridone Gold, or another mixed black and grey range with Perylene Green. However, I don't like it alone and I'd rather have pigments in my palette that I love. I found it far more useful to have a strong crimson in the palette and mix the deeper hues as needed so have placed Pyrrol Crimson by Daniel Smith in this spot. Permanent Alizarin Crimson by Daniel Smith is a lovely alternative though it is a three-pigment mix. The same pigment is found in W&N Winsor Red Deep and Mission gold also make a crimson with PR264.

Blues

The third column has 4 blues starting with Phthalo Blue RS (PB15) which is a more mid-blue and a very beautiful colour for Australian skies. The usual choice for a cool blue in the palette is Phthalo Blue GS, which is a beautiful almost cyan colour - powerful and staining. I recommend Green Shade generally and use in my teaching, as it is cooler and more different from ultramarine

My next blue is Ultramarine (PB29) by Daniel Smith or use Da Vinci, or if you want less granulation, try Schimincke Ultramarine Finest. Schmicnke French Ultramarine was released in 2017 and is also lovely. This is a fabulous warm blue for mixing realistic greens, beautiful purples and great greys and browns. Some prefer Cobalt but I like the depth of Ultramarine. This is my favourite blue, and my choice for a single blue in a limited palette, though Phthalo Blue would also work.

Cerulean Blue Chromium (PB36) is my earth blue. I don't use many opaque or semi opaque colours but I do like this one by Daniel Smith. It has real body and granulation. I also liked Old Holland's Cerulean Blue Deep. A lovely alternative granulating green-blue option is Cobalt Turquoise (PB36) made by Daniel Smith and Winsor & Newton or Cobalt Turquoise Deep by Da Vinci.

Indanthrone Blue (PB60) Daniel Smith has different names from different manufacturers. It is a deeper blue than Ultramarine, and not an essential colour, but a gorgeous deep non-granulating blue that will mix with a warm yellow to make deep greens. It makes a wonderful powerful triad with Pyrrol Crimson and Quinacridone Gold. Mix with Quinacridone Gold to create a Perylene Green hue.

Greens

Many artists don't have greens in their palette but mix them all. This is great advice as it is important to know how to mix greens that will work in a painting, however I find having a basic green speeds up the mixing and painting process tremendously, especially when painting botanicals. In this 20 colour palette I find it useful to also include some convenience colours. Phthalo Green PG7 is made by most companies, though is called Winsor Green by W&N, and Blockx Green by Blockx. It is a powerful staining transparent colour. I don't use it alone but it mixes with a crimson colour to create black, a range of greys, deep greens and aubergines, and with a warm yellow creates lovely sap green hues. It will also make lovely purples with a quinacridone Rose, Magenta or Violet so it is a very useful mixer, and will mix with Phthalo Blue or cerulean if I need turquoise water colours.  Lovely alternatives are Viridian PG18 by Winsor & Newton, Da Vinci or Daniel Smith (though you may need to add a drop of glycerine or use fresh from the tube as this colour can be tricky to reactivate) or Jadeite (Daniel Smith) for a granulating treat that can double as a phthalo green and a perylene green. I use Jadeite in my more limited 16 colour travel palette.

My favourite green for Australian gum leaves and landscapes is a mixture of Ultramarine and Quinacridone Gold, and Daniel Smith Undersea Green is exactly that mix. It saves me time while painting to have this ready-made deep olive green.

The next green is Sap Green by Daniel Smith, which is a convenience mixture of Phthalo Green and Quinacridone Gold. I find this useful for many floral works as it is a realistic green. Green Apatite Genuine is another Daniel Smith Primatek colour that could be used in this spot (and I do in my 16-colour palette). It is a multitude of greens in one - a lovely grass green in a wash, a sap green in stronger dilutions and an earthy olive green in mass-tone. It is a more expensive option than Sap green but really wonderful.

Perylene Green can be mixed easily with Indanthrone Blue and Quinacridone Gold or a warm yellow, but I do a lot of landscapes and botanicals so enjoy this convenience colour. It is actually a black pigment PBk31 but I find is very useful. In my travel palette, I use Jadeite in place of Phthalo Green and Perylene Green since it is another very versatile granulating pigment.

Neutrals

I love Buff Titanium (Daniel Smith), though it is an unusual choice in a watercolour palette. It granulates beautifully and creates the perfect effect for beaches, rocks, sandstone and shells mixed with Goethite or other earth colours. I use is all the time.

Burnt Sienna PBr7 is my other favourite earth colours. It is a wonderfully useful colour to have for creating a range of browns and greys with Ultramarine and for skin tones. Some people prefer the brighter and less earthy versions made with PR101 such as the W&N Burnt Sienna (which is actually a hue), or even use Quinacridone Burnt Orange for the same orange earth position on the palette, but I'll stick with Burnt Sienna. I prefer Daniel Smith or the slightly more orange Da Vinci version. Transparent Red Oxide (Daniel Smith) is another great option for a brighter orange with even more granulation, though it is wild in a wash and less predictable. This is one of my favourite 'extra' pigments.

Burnt Umber PBr7 is another convenience colour as it can easily be mixed using Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine so I don't have it in my 16 colour travel palette, but I use it as my deep warm brown in my regular palette. It should be a deep warm brown and my preference is, once again, Da Vinci or Daniel Smith for this colour.

The final colour is a custom mix that I call Jane's Grey. I make it up in 60ml tubes every couple of months for myself and my students. It is a mixture of Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine, in almost exactly equal amounts, stirred up well and allowed to dry. This saves so much time when painting as it is an instant dark that can be washed out for lovely soft greys for shadows or clouds. Others may prefer Payne's Grey, or Neutral Tint, but these usually have black in them which will look dull in a painting. Originally Payne's Grey was made without black. (See more here.) Jane's Grey is granulating and liftable and is my most used colour :-)

Extras

I have added four extra pigments to my basic 20 colour palette for my plein air palette and these are shown at the right. I have a large range of other gorgeous pigments and mixes in my studio but wanted to include a couple more in my palette, the first being Green Gold PY129 (called Rich Green Gold in Daniel Smith), which is an interesting yellow/olive that I find useful in landscape and floral work. This spot may some day get filled with Green Apatite Genuine, which, as mentioned above, is a gorgeous Daniel Smith green, or Serpentine Genuine, an alternative grassy green. (I have these two as extras in my tiny Pocket Palette :-)

The next colour down is a fun one. I don't often use it and it may not stay forever, but Cobalt Turquoise PB36 (Daniel Smith or Winsor and Newton) or Cobalt Turquoise Deep in Da Vinci is a gorgeous colour - granulating and interesting. Lovely with yellow for copper effects. I could change this to Cobalt Blue some time...or Raw Sienna.

Next down is Transparent Red Oxide (PR101), Daniel Smith, a granulating alternative to Burnt Sienna that I use to give the glow to sandstone and Australian landscapes. A great pair with this is Piemontite, as together they make wonderful rusty effects.

The final colour is a wonderful three-colour mix by Daniel Smith called Moonglow. Made with Ultramarine, Viridian and Anthraquinoid Red (a crimson), this is a gorgeous shadow violet colour that separates and granulates beautifully. It is lovely in florals and as a background colour for a range of subjects. 2016 - This has been changed to Piemontite.

Other favourite extras are Yellow Ochre (PY43) and Raw Sienna (PBr7). It is a fiddle to change colours in this palette so I don't do it often.

So that's my choice of colours for my palettes, but I keep many others in my studio just in case :-)

There are so many different pigments and mixtures available and every artist has to choose what suits them best for what they are painting.

2015 update - I have created a book 'The Ultimate Mixing Palette: a World of Colours' to show how 15 of these palette colours can be mixed to create almost any hue you might wish for. See the Ultimate Mixing Palette tab in my website for more information.