Should you use a limited primary colour palette? For example, the Anders Zorn palette is vermilion (red hue), ivory black (blue hue) and yellow ochre (yellow hue). As from this, you can create contrast in hue, shade and temperature. Not every hue can be made in its most vibrant form.Īll of the palettes listed in this guide use a colour that has a dominant hue of a primary, either blue, red or yellow. Limitations start to occur by using fewer than six different pigments.Įven with six primary tubes, artist will be limited by this palette choice. Therefore enabling you to make better colour contrasts than you would be able to if you were using fewer than six. This includes: blue that points towards red (warm), blue that points towards yellow (cool), red that points towards blue (cool), red that points towards yellow (warm), yellow that points towards red (warm) and yellow that points towards blue (cool).īy using six pigments, you use the fewest colours possible to create the greatest range of hues. The six colour limited palette then, is each primary colour in its warm or cool form. This is why many artists start with a limited palette, then augment it by adding colours they would not otherwise be able to mix from the primaries, such as crimson. There are many deep and vibrant colours that will be omitted from the mixing range of these three pigments.
With these three primaries, you will still only be able to achieve a limited range (gamut) of colours. The primary colours in pigment form are types of blue, red and yellow. However, if you want to create as many colour and tonal variations as possible using the fewest tubes of paint, you will need to select variations of primary colours. For example, if your aim is to create muted tones, but intense contrasts in colour temperature for use in portraiture work, you could use the Anders Zorn palette of yellow ochre, blue black and light red. The pigments you select for your palette will depend on your aims for the piece. This doesn’t include the pigments that create tints (white) and shade (black or burnt umber). Usually, no more than six different colours will be included in a limited palette. It can also mean choosing the smallest quantity of pigments that are required to create a range of colours that fit with effect you want to create in your artwork.
Painting with a limited palette can mean selecting the fewest paint tubes possible to create the widest range of tones on the spectrum. 5 Limited palette: Pin it! What is a limited palette?