Fresh Palette

In with the new: my fresh watercolor palette.

In the cold, rainy months when I do all my sketching indoors, I’m happy making relatively monochrome sketches with pen and ink washes. But when the weather gets warmer, and I sketch more outdoors, I need a broader stroke for wide-open skies and the brighter hues of watercolors.

For the better part of a year, with a few colors occasionally swapped out, I’ve been using mostly the same palette: Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Sienna, Cobalt, French Ultramarine, Indigo, Nickel Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Gold and Sap Green. Recently I took out Sap Green (I finally felt secure enough mixing my own greens) and put in Perylene Violet, but I didn’t get much out of it.

Now that the sun is out, I decided it was time for a fresh palette. Here’s what I just put into my Trader Joe’s mint tin (see above):

Alizarin Crimson

Cadmium Red

Aureolin

* New Gamboge

* Indantherene Blue

French Ultramarine

* Cadmium Orange

Sap Green

The paints marked with * are those that I’m not familiar with and that are on Shari Blaukopf’s list of recommended paints for her watercolor workshop that I’ll be taking next month, so it’s a good time to get acquainted with them. She didn’t require them, but I was due for a change, so I’m looking forward to trying something new. 

(I’m not sure why I put Sap Green back in now that I’m finally feeling comfortable without it, but it was on Shari’s list, too.)

Out with the old.