Today I will tell you about my current pallet choice. I'm using a warm and cool of each primary, then mixing the secondaries with them. I do cheat a little and use Cadmium Orange. I arrange them from light to dark, and I put them in the same spot so I will always know where they are. On the top left is Titanium White, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Pthalo Blue, Ultramarine Blue. Next I take equal amounts of Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue and mix them to make my purple. Greens are mixed from combinations of Lemon Yellow, or Cadmium Yellow Med and one of the blues. Lemon Yellow is a cool blue, mix it with Pthalo Blue and you get a REALLY BRIGHT green. Mix Cad. Yellow Med and Ultra M Blue and you get a grayed down green. Each of course can be adjusted to the value and intensity you need for your painting. Pthalo Blue is a cool blue and VERY powerful. When you use it, use a small amount. You can always add more, but you can't take it out if you put in too much.
TIPS:
1) If you need a light value color, then start with light colored paint. Use white only if you don't have a paint light enough for the value you want. Too much white can be a bad thing.
2) Mix your greens rather than use a tube. You end up with a larger variety of greens which makes your painting look more interesting.
3) The purple I mix from the Alizarin Crimson and Ultra M Blue can be modified with Cad. Orange and a touch of Cad Red to make a NICE Burnt Sienna. Add some Cad. Yellow Med and a little white to that and you get Yellow Ocher.
4) Use the purple, and a touch of Cad Orange and a little Ultra M. Blue and you get Burnt Umber.

Sometime soon I plan on showing photos and how the colors mix to make the colors I've discussed.

For now, I plan on going to my studio and working on a painting. I will show a few step by steps of my process in my next post.

Until then, have fun painting,
Donald