My Palette

(C) 2014 Dale DiMauro

This is my well used watercolor palette. It is relatively small as far as modern palettes go even though it has 24 paint wells. It is convenient because it folds up to half its size for transport yet has multiple, large mixing areas. I only clean it if mold forms in a well which is the only place it has occurred. With water based wells it is bound to happen if you do not let it dry out periodically. With the heat on in the winter it is really not an issue. I like to leave the remnants of previous mixes because they provide memories of past paintings and can be used in the future to contribute to richer combinations.

I more or less arrange warm colors on the left with the cool colors on the right. I have learned by painting in watercolor that a cool color or combination can not only give you 'temperature' but can make an object or scene recede into the distance. Conversely, adding a warm color or combination can bring an object or landscape come forward which is important to know. 

I use many blues in my my paintings, however, I prefer ultramarine and cobalt blue. I also use cerulean, prussian and phthalo blue. Recently, I have bugun almost exclusively mixing my greens instead of using them out of the tube. Lately, my favorite green is a rich mixture of aureolin and prussian blue.

I started off by mixing darks from paynes gray and then used sepia but have evolved to mixing cadmium red with ultramarine blue which seems to offer a greater range of darks.

I put brushes in the above photograph to give a sense of scale to my palette.