Palette Tests

In my seemingly endless (but enjoyable!) pursuit of the “perfect” palette of watercolors, I have been tinkering with my current palette yet again. I started by looking at my color cards, where I keep an ongoing index of color swatches. I pulled out colors that I have never used before in palettes, or that have been newly acquired. Then I created three temporary palettes from which to play.

Three Temporary Palettes

I have some wonderful PrimaTek colors that I have rarely used and was eager to try them out. Here is a small watercolor sketch of a stone using three Primatek colors: Lapis Lazuli Genuine, Sicklerite Genuine, and Zoisite Genuine. It’s really easy to create stones with these lovely colors, they practically paint themselves!

However, I wasn’t really looking for pebble colors for the new palette, but, in fact, colors that interact in interesting ways. I did a page of color mix tests and finally decided on this new palette. I’m pretty pleased with the results so far. And, darn it, I’m going to stick with it until I learn what it can do! I have high hopes for it as I think I’ve got a good mixture of colors here. By the way, I had to add Rose Madder Genuine to it, even though I know it’s a highly fugitive color. I’ve also added Quinacridone Magenta to step into the Magenta color spot (on the color wheel) for pieces requiring more permanence.

Now, off to paint!