Shake Up Your Standard Palette

Zoey Frank (Ep.80) has a standard palette of a warm and a cool of each color plus some secondaries.

Even with this large palette, she doesn't necessarily use every color in a painting. When she’s looking to really explore color, she’ll set up a project where she takes things in an unexpected turn.

She does this by pulling out three colors and just sees what happens when she uses them as primaries.

For example, she might use a Cadmium Green as her yellow, Alizarin for her red and black for her blue.

She'll mix them as if she'd mix standard primaries…just to see what happens.

Put it to Practice:

It's helpful to stick with a set of colors so you can really learn how they work. But even if you work with a standard palette, it doesn't mean you need to be standard in how you use them.

If you find yourself getting bored, shake things up.

Choose three colors at random and see how they work together. Even if the grass is blue or purple, your viewer will still know what's happening in your scene if you keep your value relationships true to your reference.

This way of working with color will help make color more interesting and will help you see new possibilities in your palette.