An Odd Six Colour Limited Palette
Greetings! I recently had the opportunity to revisit the colour selection in my mini travel palette, due to a much needed cleaning session. Sticky binder had gradually separated from some of the paint and trickled throughout the palette over time. One of my paints is particularly prone to this, and I have to clean up after it every once in a while. Usually once the stickiness has reached a point where I can’t really ignore it anymore! In the case of my travel palette the binder was all over the outer sides of each half pan and even inside the hinges. Definitely past ignoring!
Changing needs, changing tools
I have been using the same six colour limited palette for well over a year now, if not two. It was put together with my past goals and tastes in mind, which have gradually changed over time. Cleaning offers me the opportunity to check in with myself and my tools to see where my goals are at in the present moment and if anything in my kit requires realigning.
The previous palette featured Indanthrone Blue (PB60) by Daniel Smith, Phthalo Turquoise (PB15:3 and PG7) by Sennelier, Rose Madder Lake (PV19) by Sennelier (the leaky perpetrator!), Red Orange (PO73) by Mission Gold, Yellow Lake (PY150) by Sennelier, and Brown Red (PBr25) by ShinHan. At the time of selecting these paints I was aiming for a transparent and non-granulating selection, to mainly focus on line and wash illustration with a broad range of application due to lack of texture.
My goals with painting outside remain similar, but have shifted with repeat practice using the palette outside and also with the pigments I have been using in my art practice as a whole recently. In 2024 I began to really fall in love with Azo Orange (PO62) and Azo Green (PY129) by M Graham. A pigment love affair that has only grown since. I have found myself reaching for my beloved PY150 less and less when mixing greens, instead reaching for Azo Green as a glowing base or for Azo Orange when I want a soft muted hue. So I knew pretty early on that I wanted to fit those two colours onto the palette.
My watercolour travel palette, featuring the new line up of colours!
Choosing the new colours
Going in I knew I wanted to keep the Rose Madder Lake. Otherwise known as Quinacridone Rose, the pigment PV19 has been my solid cool red since I first dipped my toes into professional paints years ago. I also know that I like having a split blue primary on all of my palettes. However, I was open to changing the warm blue. I have been craving a little bit of granulation when painting outside, and despite my love of Indanthrone I decided to switch it out for the softly granulating Ultramarine Deep by Sennelier. The cool blue would remain as Phthalo Turquoise. Half the palette down, but those were the easy choices!
This left the warm tones: yellow, orange, and red. Including the muted variations of those in the form of earth tones. Another relatively easy swap was changing Red Orange to Azo Orange. The former is more of a red-orange (hence its name haha) and fit the role of a warm red in my previous palette. Azo Orange is more of a yellow-orange in comparison, which would affect the oranges and warm reds I would be able to achieve when mixing it with the Rose Madder Lake. However, after some colour mixing tests I was satisfied with the slightly more muted reds and oranges. When I paint outside I often focus on animals and natural environments. Pure bright red is not a colour I frequently come across, and as such the more muted warm hues in this new arrangement still fit my needs.
Next came my brown pigment. I have found with experience that I like having an earth in limited palettes to help speed up my mixing process. It limits the gamut of colours available to me in comparison to using a six colour split primary (a warm and cool variant each of yellow, blue, and red), but enables me to reach the muted tones I see in animals and nature much more quickly. Again, I am fitting the palette to my own personal requirements and tastes at this point in time. Brown Red is a gorgeous transparent earth tone, but I chose to switch it out for Burnt Umber by Da Vinci to complement the Ultramarine.
“Burnt Umber? Why not Burnt Sienna?!” some of you may ask. Pure indulgence, for the most part! I used up the last of my Burnt Umber from Daniel Smith last year and picked up Burnt Umber by Da Vinci as a replacement. I have been itching to use it, but I still have some of the dried Daniel Smith paint left on my main palette that I have been waiting to finish. An earth slot opening up on my travel palette was the perfect opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. And lack of patience, but no one is judging me here right? Right?
I also chose Burnt Umber over Burnt Sienna because I have an appreciation for them both when it comes to neutralising Ultramarine. Burnt Sienna mixes gorgeous soft greys, muted browns, and mellow blues. In comparison the Burnt Umber produces “stormier” or “moodier” greys, browns, and blues with Ultramarine. Throughout my painting practice I go through periods of loving the results of one combination over the other, occasionally flip-flopping which one I prefer. At the moment I am in a Burnt Umber appreciation period.
Hand painted mixing chart using the new limited palette. From the top clockwise: Red, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange.
An unconventional split primary yellow
Finally, we are left with yellow. This one was a struggle. I love PY150, and it fits really well into limited palettes for me when I only want to include one yellow instead of a split primary. However I really wanted to include Azo Green in the palette. I debated removing the turquoise instead, but I wanted to keep the mixing range a cool blue can provide. Yellow Lake would have to go if I wanted to use Azo Green, but could I bring myself to lose my primary yellow?
As I gazed at the colours though I realised something. In a way… Azo Orange and Azo Green are a split primary yellow. Just a very extreme version of one. Bear with me here!
Although its name and green-leaning hue might convince you otherwise Azo Green is the pigment PY129 - a yellow pigment. Just a very green, or very cool, leaning yellow! Azo Orange is also a yellow-orange, or in other words a very very warm yellow. Both pigments also have high chroma, meaning that if the two are mixed together they can still produce quite a bright and clean colour without muting it too much. A yellow colour to be exact. On the above mixing chart the yellow produced from mixing Azo Orange and Azo Green together is on the line marked “Y”, with Azo Orange above it and Azo Green below.
It is possible to mix primaries without a pigment of that hue, but the resulting mix is more muted than the two pigments used. For example, purples can mix with cool greens to produce lovely soft and muted blues. The key to this is utilising high chroma colours, so that the resulting mix doesn’t become too muted.
A way to visualise this is by using a colour wheel where the outside is the purest high chroma form of each primary and secondary colour and gradually becomes more muted towards the centre. By marking approximately where your pigments are on the wheel, and then connecting those dots together you will end up with a shape inside the circle. Everything inside that shape shows you roughly all the hues you can mix from your pigments, and everything outside of that shape are the hues you cannot mix. This is the gamut of your palette. James Gurney has wonderful videos and blog posts on this topic and how to utilise gamut masking. To see this idea in action check out his video on using a triad of purple, orange, and green: Painting Using Secondary Colors.
Since Azo Orange and Azo Green are both closer to the edge of such a colour wheel, when you connect them together the possible range of yellows is still able to reach quite high up the wheel. If I were to lay the mixed yellow next to single pigment yellows such as Hansa Yellow Medium though, you would notice that the mixed yellow is more muted.
Testing the new limited palette in my sketchbook, with a line and wash leopard.
Putting the new palette to the test
When I am mixing a yellow for animals and natural environments I typically find myself muting it slightly, so I theorised that the lack of a “pure” yellow on my palette would not hinder me. To put this to test though I decided to actually use the new palette for a line and wash leopard in my sketchbook. There is only so much colour mixing swatches will tell you. Practical application will show you the rest.
To mix the yellow earth tones I used various combinations of Azo Green, Azo Orange, and Burnt Umber. To create shadows, I muted those mixes by adding Ultramarine. The result was similar to hues I would have mixed if I had been using PY150 and muted it down. I’m intrigued to see how far I can push this selection of colours with future paintings.
The New Six Colours:
Azo Green (PY129) by M Graham
Azo Orange (PO62) by M Graham
Rose Madder Lake (PV19) by Sennelier
Ultramarine Deep (PB29) by Sennelier
Phthalo Turquoise (PB15:3 and PG7) by Sennelier
Burnt Umber (PBr7) by Da Vinci
Overall I am happy with this odd little selection of colours. It is certainly not a palette I would recommend to beginners putting together their first palette, nor will it fit the needs of every experienced artist out there. It fits mine right now though, and that is all that matters in my own art toolkit! I hope that explaining my thought process gives you ideas for tailoring your toolkit to your own tastes and requirements.
That’s all for now, lovelies. Happy painting!
