How to Fill Your Own Custom Watercolor Palette
How to set up your Watercolor Palette with the best 12 colors
If you’re a watercolor artist, you know how important it is to have a customized palette that suits your style and needs. In this blog post, we’ll go over the steps to create your very own custom watercolor palette.
Watercolor classes for beginners available:
What You Need
- Sheet of Watercolor Paper
- Empty watercolor palette
- Watercolor paints in tubes
- Waterproof ink pen
- Paintbrush
- Water
- Rag
What to Consider Before Filling Your Watercolor Palette
Before you start filling your palette, you need to consider a few things. Firstly, what are your painting goals? Are you looking to create realistic landscapes or abstract pieces? This will determine the types of colors you’ll need. Secondly, think about the size of your artwork. If you prefer painting smaller pieces, a smaller palette with fewer colors may be sufficient.
*It’s important to note that the size of the palette you choose will depend on the number of colors you want to include in your custom palette.
If you paint large 30” paintings, you’ll need a much larger palette for mixing with lots of space for larger brushes to be charged up with watercolor.
I made a video palette tour so you can see all my favorites palettes from travel size to studio palettes.
My Favorites Palettes:
Huge Palettes: 55 Color Watercolor Palette: https://youtu.be/Gsapf3NanEs
Travel Palette: https://youtu.be/1EvfzEgnAvs
Best Watercolors to Have in a Summer Palette
Summer palettes are typically inspired by warm, bright colors. Here are some essential watercolors to include in your summer palette:
12 color Essential palette:
includes 9 essentials to any palette + 3 fun effect colors that are granulating, metallic or a convenience pigment that you can’t mix.
The Mixing set by Daniel Smith is a great place to start: here
Recommended colors:
- Lemon yellow : Light cooler yellow
- Cadmium yellow : Medium Warmer yellow : Azo Yellow is my favorite alternative.
- Ultramarine blue : Warm Mixing Blue
- Cobalt blue : Medium Mixing blue : Toxic
- Burnt Sienna: For making earthy tones and mixing neutrals
- Cadmium red : Clear bright Single pigment Warm red orange Toxic: Scarlet Pyrrol Red is a great alternative.
- Alizarin crimson : Clear bright single pigment cool red
- Quin Rose or Quin Magenta: Single pigment violet / pink
- Sap Green/ Hooker’s green : A convenient green but can be fugitive PG8 so the best Sap green
Lemon Yellow is a staple but I also recommend adding a Quin Gold or Azo Yellow to your mixing tray for moody shades.
Ultramarine Blue PB29 is a warm blue containing traces of red. It sits towards Violet on the color wheel. Ultramarine is a strong, sedimentary pigment and mixes well with other colors to make rich strong darks, subtle greys or mauves.
Cobalt Blue PB28 is a clean blue that is neither warm nor cold. With a moderate tinting strength, it is useful on the palette for muted colour mixes. Toxic so I typically use Manganese Blue or Cerulean . I often would rather have a
Phthalo blue is intense and vibrant and I love to add this to my watercolor palette for mixing bright greens and purples. Ultramarine blue tends toward having a violet undertone, and so it is a warmer blue.Phthalo blue tends toward a more green undertone, and is therefore a cooler blue. It’s this green undertone that can help produce the blue-green shades.
Burnt Sienna PBr 7 is an ancient colour, made by roasting Raw Sienna. It is the most useful earth colour in the palette, as it combines with its opposite, Ultramarine, to form a range of blues, greys and browns.
Cadmium red is a vibrant reddish-orange shade but toxic so I prefer to use Scarlet Pyrrol Red PR255 is a transparent and intense red-orange, a vibrant scarlet.
Alizarin Crimson is the oldest synthetic deep red-crimson pigment. It is a lake pigment which when applied in strength and kept from the direct sunlight so if you can’t find a paint that is not fugitive, I suggest quinacridone red to fill this slot.
Permanent Quin Rose (PV19) is a slightly warmer pink with a violet bias whereas Quinacridone Magenta (PR122) is cooler and has a very strong violet bias. Sennelier Rose Madder Lake (PV19) has the same index number as Permanent Rose and they are indeed very similar. I love them all.
Sap Green vs Hookers Green: This is a beautiful but Hookers green is a fugitive green PG8. This non-fugitive formulation Sap Green PO 48, PY 150, PG 7 creates deep forest shadow-green mixed with French Ultramarine and mossy golden-greens and green-browns when mixed with Burnt Sienna or Quinacridone Sienna or Burnt Orange. Sap Green mixes well with most pigments and leaves a stained residue when lifted.
Recommended Watercolor Palettes:
Schmincke 12 Fine watercolor set: Perfect for mixing and getting started in watercolor: https://amzn.to/3ppetv0
Schmincke 12 watercolor 1/2 pans with brush: https://amzn.to/3qVtaqa
Schmincke Botanical Set: https://amzn.to/43QgFe1
Schmincke Ocean set: (You will need to add yellow and reds to your set..) https://amzn.to/43TGw4M
Roman Szmal Open Stock Full Pans are professional grade and have every color you need. I love them
Watercolor Brush:
TINTORETTO retractable Travel brushes made in Italy. Adorable, light weight and smaller profile to fit in most travel palettes or your pocket. The synthetic style has a nice point where the Squirrel belly holds tons of water for quick even sketchbook washes.
How to Fill the Palette with Watercolor
Now that you have everything you need and have considered your painting goals, it’s time to start filling your palette:
- Squeeze out a small amount of each watercolor paint onto a slot on the palette. Allow the first layer to dry before filling completely or you will need to keep the palette upright for up to 1 month depending on the amount of honey in your watercolor.
- I use a drop pf water and a brush to level the watercolor out and speed dry time.
- Label each well with the color name on a sheet of watercolor paper for easy identification. Be sure to include the pigment color.
Final Tips on Creating Your Own Custom Watercolor Palette
- Start small (12 colors) and add more colors as needed.
- Use a spray bottle to keep your paint moist but your palette does not need to be air tight.
- Clean your yellows regularly to ensure that the colors stay bright.
- Leave areas of your mixing palette dirty to have on hand custom mixes.
Creating your own custom watercolor palette may seem overwhelming at first, but it’s a great way to personalize your art supplies and enhance your painting experience. I often buy palettes from companies I love even if they come with watetcolor just for the palettes. You keep your palettes for years to come so it’s never a bad investment if you love a watercolor brand. Buying in sets can be cost efficient to try out new colors you don’t have.
Remember to consider your painting goals, choose your colors wisely, and have fun with it!
I’m a watercolor collector so for me, every watercolor is a great investment. I paint every day and it’s my most valuable resource so that’s where my budget goes.
Happy Painting.
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