I thought I would give a little more detailed list here of what is in my new 18 colour palette. It’s definitely more than I need, but it’s still small enough to travel places, and gives me all the colours I want to have — not just what I need.
For my process in deciding which colours I wanted to include in my palette, you can watch a youtube video I made on the topic, covering my journey.
Before I actually arranged the colours in my palette, I went through this colour wheel tool by Bruce McEvoy, laying out a lot of Daniel Smith paints. This really helped visualize where the colours landed in relation to each other and validate my own experiences with the different pigments. It was also helpful to see them laid out from high chroma to low chroma, and to see the colours that landed further in the circle.
When I laid out my palette, I decided to split the wheel right between Quinacridone Rose and Ultramarine Blue, leaving all the blues on the top row (which fit perfectly into my seven pans, and everything else in the row below.
I also decided to put my earth tones (which I normally keep separate) in with the other colours in their places on the cool/warm spectrum.
Here are the colours I decide to put in my palette:
Blues:
Ultramarine Blue (PB 29) – I use this all the time. Definitely my most used colour
Cobalt Blue (PB 28) – Fairly new addition. I like the different, slightly cooler feel it has
Phthalo Blue (PB 15) – Great for mixing greens, turquoises etc. I rarely use it raw. I often mix it with Payne’s Gray for nice windshield reflections on cars.
Cerulean Blue Chromium (PB 36) – My go to colour for early morning skies, bright flags and any light bright blues.
Prussian Blue (PB 27) – Deep, rich and moody. I love the amount of tones you can get from it, and it’s one of my favourites for monochrome paintings
Cobalt Turquoise (PB 36) – A new addition. Beautiful colour that I plan to use more
Reds:
Quinacridone Rose (PV 19) – Great mixer for any purple you need. I also use it for lots of skin tones
Pyrrol Scarlet (PR 255) – Don’t use it a lot, but I want to – more for mixing. Great when you need a bright red accent.
Carmine (PR 176) – A nice deep red. I don’t use it a lot, but pairs nicely with Pyrrol Scarlet to act as shady areas
Burnt Sienna (PBr 7) – Probably my second most used colour. Skin tones, earth colours, rust, or mix with Ultramarine for shadows… so many uses for this one.
Yellows:
Azo Yellow (PY 151) – New addition. Cooler yellow, good for mixing greens
Hansa Yellow Deep (PY 65) – Fairly new to me. Beautiful warm yellow.
Cadmium Orange Hue (PY 53, PO 73, PY 83) – Also new to me. Nice convenience orange
Yellow Ochre (PY 43) – I use this a lot. Sand, skin, dust, buildings, etc etc. Great colour.
Greens:
Phthalo Green BS (PG 7) –New to me. Much like Viridian. Very powerful green. Mostly for mixing. I can’t imagine I’ll ever use this raw.
Sap Green (PO 48, PY 150, PG 7) – Great convenience green. Add yellows, browns and blues to push it in different directions (sun, shadows, etc)
Others
Raw Umber (PBr 7) – Great earth colour. It finds its way into rocks, buildings, trees and the ground for me
Neutral Tint (PBk 6, PV 19, PB 15) – Fairly new to me, but a great mixer for easy shadows or use alone for monochrome paintings
Note: All my paints are Daniel Smith at this point, and all of them I bought in 15 ml tubes.