Tuesdays Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Chart the Colors in Your Palette

Whether you have one palette or several like me, it is a good idea to make yourself a chart of all your colors.  You can do this if you have colors dried in a palette or even if you use your colors fresh from the tube.  Count up all the colors you have and create a grid on a sheet of watercolor paper.  I drew my grid in pencil with more boxes than colors I have, because in the future I will most likely try more colors.  What size you make your grid is up to you.  My chart has 2 inch squares on Arches cold pressed watercolor paper 15" x 19".  I painted one swash for each color and then labeled each square with the name of the color written with an india ink pen.  At the top of the page, I wrote Transparent Maimeri Blu Watercolors unless otherwise noted.  WN = Winsor & Newton, H = Holbein, O = Opaque, S = Semi-Transparent.  I tried to group my colors together, first row reds, second row yellows, then blue, green, purples and neutrals.  

A color chart shows you the array of colors in your palette(s) at a glance.  It can be very helpful in choosing the colors for your next painting.  Sometimes a color appears differently dried on the palette than dried on paper.  You can also check your chart to see the full name of the color and the brand when it comes time to order more.