Beginners Oil Painting Palette
Which Colours? I’m a beginner. What should I have on my oil paint palette? Let’s talk about it…
Starting oil painting can be overwhelming, especially with the number of paint brands and colours and mediums… The list goes on… But what exactly should you have on your palette?
Lets Talk About about Colour
For a beginner I would keep it simple to find out whether Oils will work for you… Once your paint brand, quality etc has been chosen and you have decided what you would like to try. I recommend a simple limited palette as a more cost effective way to enter oil painting.
The colours below are the colours I would purchase, I actually have this set (but in a mix of different brands) of paints they are capable of mixing a wide range of colours and because they are from the same base of colours they will harmonise.
Indian Yellow
Ultramarine (Blue)
Alizarin Crimson (Red would also recommend the light fast version of this which will be a different pigment)
Titanium White
“Black” is created by mixing Indian Yellow, Ultramarine and Alizarin Crimson together. This makes a more harmonious black that will work well within the painting.
The colours will create a cohesive colours painting due to the use of limited palette with a mix of warm colours and cold colours*
Expanding your Colour Palette
If you would like to expand your palette a bit further you can incorporate some other colours. Such as:
Cadmium Red
Cadmium Yellow Light
Phthalo Blue
This will give you a full compliment of cold and warm, yellows, blues and reds.
Beyond this I would explore paints that fit the painting you would like to paint or colours that you want to explore.
But what paints should you use? Artist Oils or Student Oils? See the following article Artist Oils vs Student Oils
* Colours on the colour wheel are either warm (have red in them) or cold (have blue in them). Indian yellow is warm, Ultramarine Blue is warm and Alizarin Crimson is cold, Cadmium Red is warm, Cadmium Yellow is cold and Phthalo Blue is cold.
