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TimBeard — Natural Color Palette
Published: 2009-04-09 19:17:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 26961; Favourites: 294; Downloads: 8996
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Description
Okay folks. I've noticed some comments about my use of color lately. So if anyone is interested I have compiled these charts in Photoshop. This is a palette that I picked up way back in community college and have been using ever since. It's a great palette to get a nice natural look to your work. It's also pretty economical since you only need to buy 6 tubes of paint:1) Titanium White
2) French Ultramarine
3) Pthalo Green (Blue Shade)
4) Yellow Ochre
5) Cadmium Red Light
6) Burnt Sienna
Keep in mind that I paint in oils so the names might differ in other mediums.
The whole reason for this was that I wanted to make my digital art have the same color feeling as my traditional paintings. It's not perfect by any stretch but it's pretty close to what I wanted.
Feel free to download this and try it out if you want to. I really recommend trying to replicate this with real paints. I can't stress enough how valuable going through the steps of color mixing is.
If you have any questions about what you see here please feel free to ask and I will try and respond.
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Comments: 29
This is really helpful, thanks. Mixing colours has always been a struggle for me. Will definitely try recreating these colours here.
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Thank you for creating and sharing this! It helps me a lot because it opened eyes
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Thanks! I'm glad that people can get some use out of it.
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ok... i'll steal some of those for my new logo^^ hahahah no i'm serious
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this is very nice, I have all those colors so I'll try it out 
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This palette does have it's restrictions but I think that's what I like about it. Really makes you think about what you are doing before any color goes down.
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have you ever tried painting with just the primaries + white, that one makes me think a lot xD it works best with colored pencils though, as the colors dont turn as muddy since its optical blending that does the job.
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That's actually how I work when I do gouache paintings. I agree with you on that one though. You really do have to think pretty far ahead in that method.
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See; this is great. Something actually useful! Many thanks. Me,I buy every color I see and use them randomly, So there's no common scheme to anything I do. Which I get grief over from time to time from gallery owners....
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Sometimes I get a little crazy with this though. I get so fixated on having pieces match in color schemes that I stop worrying about what's actually happening on the canvas. There's a middle ground somewhere in there!
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I just grab. If it doesn't look good, I can always paint over it. Thats why I like watercolors; you can't do that. you have to know what the hell your up to when you open that can of worms...
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I think gouache is really good for keeping you in check too since it's so reactive to what you've already put down. Plus there's no matching the purity of the pigments in gouache.
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never tried gouache. I usually use acrylics. How do they compare/differ? My biggest gripe with acrylics is also their boon; the dry time.
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Gouache is like an opaque watercolor that dries pretty quick. They dry to a matte finish. The color is unmatchable though. They have the highest pigment ratio of any paint that you can buy. The only down side is, like I said before, their reactivity to what you've already put down. So you have to think ahead a lot. They aren't that cheap but a tube can last a long time. I love gouache myself. Some people struggle a lot with it.
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Sounds interesting. I think I might have used them before; everything turns brown in a hurry when your mixing yeah?
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That sounds like my first time mixing them up.
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I've tried limiting my pallet at the start of a painting, but its hard with all those pretty tubes laying around. However, the more I paint, I am using less and less variations I've noticed. I tend to stick with maybe 5 or 6 colors and mix what I need from there. I'll use a pure color that isn't anywhere else in the painting alot to pull attention where I want it to go sometimes.
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Yeah. Everybody has something that works for them.
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This is great. I plan on using this in the future. Thanks a bunch!
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No problem. I hope that people can get some use out of this.
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awesome.
color is one of my biggest flaws.
it took me ages just to know HOW to mix paints.
and I'm still not even close to being as good as I'd like.
anway. big thanks.
i like the simplicity.
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I still feel like I have a lot to learn about color too. I've painted the triangle charts on the bottom of this thing twice now. It's intense but you sure do learn a lot.
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yea definitely.
for me it's a lot about trail and error.
it's a long process but definitely worth it!
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