Acrylic Color Palette

What paint colors do you use?

My most asked question! What colors do I use in my paintings. As my painting have developed over the years - from a strict adherence to photo realistic colors to juicy colors that sometimes bear no resemblance to the actual colors in my subjects - my palette has changed. 

​This is my current palette for acrylics and oils - most are Winsor Newton brand.  I'll post my watercolor palette in another post and discuss the other palettes shown here as style palettes for comparison. 

If you take a class from me, the first thing we are going to cover is a color wheel. Why? Because everything you were taught in 1st grade is wrong. You can not mix every color from blue, red and yellow. Which red are you using? Which blue?

If you are regularly mixing muddy colors you have to start by understanding that there are orange-reds and blue-reds. My color wheels start with 6 colors, two of each primary. Then we learn about contrast and compliments and adding white for tints.

​Until you understand color mixing, your paintings can not look their best no matter how fancy your brushes are.