Basically, It's All About Color

We get a lot of calls from beginning artists, particularly watercolorists. They are excited about getting started, perhaps taking a class and want the best materials they can afford. Watercolor paints can be a big investment and most beginners want all the wonderful colors they can get! But is that always the best choice?

Most teachers recommend a basic color palette. However, they all have their own idea as to which minimum colors are needed. A basic palette consists of a warm and cool of each of the three primary colors, red, blue and yellow. There are several choices in each of the six classifications. This is just one possible choice:

Warm Red – Cadmium Red

Cool Red – Alizarin Crimson

Blue – Ultramarine Blue

Blue – Cerulean Blue

Yellow – Cadmium Yellow

Yellow – Lemon Yellow

How can a color be warm or cool? You say? Well, it’s a matter of color theory. Red, Orange, and Yellow are considered WARM Colors and are associated with the sun, fire, heat. Blue, Purple, and Green are COOL colors and are associated with water, the sky and foliage. However, there are warm and cool versions of the three primary colors. You can determine the temperature of color according to the location of it on the color wheel.

A red chosen between primary red and orange would be a WARM red like Cadmium Red. A red was chosen between the primary red and violet would be a COOL Red like alizarin crimson. And the same principle applies to the Blues and Yellows. The color choices will vary between brands. What you will have is six primary colors that will make just about any color you could need. There are other colors you can add to supplement your palette which may include Viridian or Hooker’s Green, Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna. Payne’s Grey can also be added to strengthen the darker values.

A very useful resource for this information is Steven Quiller’s book, Color Choices, Making Color Sense out of Color Theory. Steven has done the research for us in this incredibly useful book. He has placed familiar color names where they would appear on the color wheel. He has also designed and included his own color wheel that will make you wonder how you ever painted without it! His color wheel can be transferred to his specially designed palette. A very unique design that represents a color wheel, making it a visual learning tool. This is a great combination to make learning color theory very easy! It also makes mixing your colors a breeze!

Learning color theory will enhance your use of colors in your paintings and allow you to make better choices when adding new colors to your basic color palette. It is recommended that you start with the least amount of colors needed to complete a painting. This teaches you to mix colors correctly and you will save a lot of money on what artists call convenience colors. These are premixed colors that can usually be mixed by using the basic palette. Often they are purchased to avoid mixing colors each time when using a lot of the same color. Your painting will be more harmonious when your secondary colors are mixed from the basic color palette.

So you see, it is really as basic as this and the choice is up to you. The more you know about the color, the more exciting your paintings will be!