Starting with a limited palette is the best advice a beginner gets, and it usually stops there. Which one? The four below are the ones teachers actually recommend, and instead of describing them I have measured them. Halftint computes the set of colours a palette can physically mix, so each one below has a number: the share of the colour wheel it reaches at three lightness levels.
The four, measured
| Palette | Tubes | Dark (35%) | Mid (55%) | Light (75%) | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zorn | 4 | 11.8% | 6.9% | 14.8% | lowest: four tubes, only one of them a cadmium |
| Earth | 7 | 9.7% | 5.3% | 12.3% | low: earths are cheap; the black is cheap |
| Split-primary | 7 | 21.4% | 27.1% | 38.8% | highest: two cadmium yellows and a cadmium red |
| Impressionist (no black) | 6 | 43.3% | 32.4% | 45.9% | high: two cadmiums and viridian |
Percentages are the share of the hue and saturation disc within a small distance of a mixable colour, on the same engine and threshold the app uses. They are not a score. A palette with 7% at mid value can be the right palette if the 7% is where your subject lives.
What each one is for
Zorn: portraits and interiors
- Titanium White
- Yellow Ochre
- Cadmium Red Light
- Ivory Black
Yellow ochre, cadmium red light, ivory black, titanium white. The smallest territory of the four at mid value, and almost all of it is flesh, hair, wood and shadow. If you are learning to paint people, this is the one. Everything harmonises because everything shares parentage, and the black teaches value discipline whether you like it or not. Its first missing colour is a proper blue: no sky, no violet, no clean green.
Earth: tonal work and underpainting
- Titanium White
- Yellow Ochre
- Raw Sienna
- Burnt Sienna
- Raw Umber
- Burnt Umber
- Ivory Black
Ochre, the siennas, the umbers, black and white. Cheap, forgiving, and the traditional palette for a first year. Nothing in it can clash. It reaches even less of the wheel than the Zorn set at mid value and gives up every saturated colour, which is the point: you learn value and temperature without chroma distracting you. Add one cadmium and one blue later and it becomes a full palette.
Split-primary: the general answer
- Titanium White
- Cadmium Yellow Light
- Cadmium Yellow Deep
- Cadmium Red Light
- Alizarin Crimson
- Ultramarine Blue
- Phthalo Blue (GS)
A warm and a cool of each primary plus white. This is what most beginner books mean by a limited palette, and the numbers explain why: it reaches the widest territory of the four in the darks and mids, because any secondary can be mixed from the pair that leans towards it. It is also the most expensive, and the phthalo blue needs handling with care. Its gaps are the saturated cyan-turquoise arc and the electric violets, which almost nobody needs in a first year.
Impressionist: colourful shadows, no black
- Titanium White
- Cadmium Yellow Light
- Cadmium Red Light
- Alizarin Crimson
- Ultramarine Blue
- Viridian
Cadmium yellow light, cadmium red light, alizarin, ultramarine, viridian, white. The largest mid-value territory of the four and the only one that reaches the teals and sea greens, thanks to viridian. Leaving black out forces you to mix your darks from colour, which is either a lesson or a frustration depending on temperament. Its gaps are the hot magentas and cyans.
A recommendation
- Painting people: Zorn, then add ultramarine when you want a sky behind them.
- Painting landscape: split-primary if the budget allows, otherwise Impressionist minus the alizarin. Both reach the greens the earth and Zorn sets cannot.
- Not sure yet, or on a tight budget: earth palette plus one cadmium yellow and one ultramarine. Seven tubes, most of them cheap, and a territory close to the split-primary set.
Whichever you choose, the useful habit is to know its shape before you paint. Each of the four palette pages lists the saturated colours that palette cannot reach and the single tube that would fix each. For the tubes you actually buy, the app draws the territory on the wheel as you add them.