I've had many requests for a list of the colors I use most often in my watercolor practice and what colors I'd recommend for beginner painters. Initially, being a color-lover/collector, it was a challenge for me to narrow down my list, but looking back at my work over the past few years I can clearly see a pattern to my color choices. I'll now share my thoughts and observations with you.
All artists have their go-to basics and add a few personal favorites that might define their unique style. The classical palette is often limited to a set of double-primary hues, each color having a warm and a cool temperature aspect, plus a dark earth tone such as Burnt Umber. Using only a double-primary palette, it's possible to create limitless color variations and, in the process, learn much about color theory, too. However, without some prior knowledge and experience, there's also a good likelihood that the results would turn out to be a muddy mess! So, in addition to those, I've come to choose colors from the second list to get the results I'm looking for in a particular painting.
The colors listed below are by Daniel Smith unless otherwise noted.
| PRIMARY COLOR | WARM HUE | COOL HUE | NOTES |
| Yellow | (Cad. or Hansa) Yellow Medium | (Cad. or Hansa) Yellow Light | |
| Red | Cadmium Red Light | Permanent Red (or Cad. Red Medium) | |
| Blue | Ultramarine | Cerulean or Cobalt (I use both) | Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue Deep by Da Vinci |
| Neutral (Earth) | Burnt Umber | Raw Umber |
In addition to those nine primary colors, my palette contains the following
| COLOR NAME | WARM | COOL | NOTES |
| Yellow Ochre (Earth) | |||
| Naples Yellow | |||
| Burnt Sienna Deep (Earth)* | X | Da Vinci brand | |
| Permanent Rose (Rose Madder) | X | ||
| Alizarin Crimson | X | ||
| Hooker's Green Deep* | X | color varies by brand | |
| Sap Green* | X | color varies by brand | |
| Prussian Blue | |||
| Payne's Blue Gray* | X | by D. Smith - no granulation | |
| Imperial Purple | high granulation, Duo-Tone color by D. Smith | ||
| Pyrrol Orange | X | Cadmium Orange is similiar | |
| White (Chinese White WC or White Gouache) |
With an infinite number of colors to behold in our beautiful world, why should we limit ourselves to a dozen or two? Explore the possibilities! Play with your palette! Enjoy the process!