u/brushray

The short answer is: three pairs of opposite monopigment colors. Scarlet - Sap Green, Yellow Lemon - Violet, Ultramarine - Ocher, + White, + any other auxiliary pigments. In many aspects this information is aimed for beginners.

I know that set of colors is very individual matter for artists, so I'm not going to open a new world here.

This is a solution for a set of problems I faced working with real pigments. This information lays on the surface but took few years of experiments for me to see a very obvious thing. So I just want to say it out loud to save someone's time who thinks about their palette options.

Making step from digital to oil paints I faced one big problem, color tools in digital doesn't work with real paints.

The principles all the same but where for a needed color you pull a bar, in real life I have to mix exact substances with their own capricious

properties.

With a practical approach painting is a set of solutions for composition, values, colors and details. In ideal, you want to have solid control over each of them. Value temperature and color (saturation and shade) is a particular problem with real life pigments.

From my experience conventional palettes and starter sets in most cases is a trade off. Either they are too limited or specialized, either to abundant embracing just too many colors. Both make me very uncertain what to pick to have stable and predictable control over temperature, shade and saturation.

So what I needed was a starting point easy to wield, understand and good to cover all genres. Main feature of this palette is that it's neutral in many aspects. It's not oversaturated, not too cold or too warm, not too dark or too light. Doesn't take time to mix the essential colors from scratch, doesn't overload with multiple choices. Pairs give easy control over saturation by compensating each other to gray or muddy green when mixed in equal proportions. Monopigments always give predictable results which is easy to learn and memorise.

Then from this starting point I can make controlled dashes toward experiments and extremes by adding any other pigments. But if something goes wrong I can always return to well known base.

Given pigments is not a solid rock choice, there maybe better pigments for the pairs. I still consider for the green - red pair. It's the principle of color theory they reflect in practical use with real paint for a predictable and understandable result.

I hope this information would help with developing a personal palette as a starting step.

I had this goofy idea of an ad mech climbing high tree, trying to catch or transmit a signal to its fleet.

idea: inst: the.godemperors.new.groove