From trial and error I found a palette that works time and time again. I recommend these colors to anyone who is just starting to paint. For other colors like Chromium Oxide Green and Yellow Ochre, please see the Auxiliary palette post.
Note: My palette colors are Golden Acrylics, Winsor & Newton Artist Oils, and Winsor & Newton Watercolors and sometimes Gamblin OIls.
Titanium White PW6 is pigment Titanium Dioxide Rutile which gives great solid covering power, which gets used often to cover up mistakes more than color mixing, so get a big tube, tee hee.
• Mars Black PBk11 made of synthetic black iron oxide. This is the least used color on my palette, but it is nice to have around. It can be either go either way with permanent or auxiliary palettes, but leaned for permanent as I think a black is needed like a dash of pepper is needed in mashed potatoes.
• Red Oxide PR101 is a deep red made of synthetic red iron oxide. I use this instead of Burnt Umber, because you can mix a Burnt Umber with red oxide and Ultramarine blue, as well as a Burnt Sienna with a bit of Hansa Yellow.
• Hansa Yellow Opaque PY74 is made with Arylide Yellow 5GX, which is a warm yellow, or yellow that leans towards orange. This is a nontoxic pigment that replaces Cadmium Yellow Light. This color will produce duller earthy greens when mixed with blues. It will create vibrant oranges, ochres and other orange earth colors when mixed with red and violet. Yellow and Pyrrole Red Light can produce normal to vibrant reds and oranges.
• Hansa Yellow Light PY3 is made with Arylide Yellow. This pigment is a yellow green, which mixed with phthalo green will produce very bright cheery greens. This pigment is used to lighten up Hansa Yellow Opaque without the use of Titanium White to make a classic yellow.
• Pyrrole Red Light PR255 is Dipyrrolopyrrol. This is a nontoxic pigment that replaces Cadmium Red Light. This is the second least used color on my palette. This is a brilliant red that can be tamed and turned to a very dark brown with a touch of Phthalocyanine Green. When mixed with Hansa Yellow Opaque, this red will produce vibrant oranges. A classic lipstick red is produced when mixed with Quinacridone Violet.
• Quinacridone Violet PV19 is a beautiful cool red that produces brilliant violets when mixed with Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. It’s warmers are Hansa Yellow Opaque and Pyrrole Red Light.
• Ultramarine Blue PB29 is one of the most used colors on the palette. It is a blue that leans towards red, so it makes brilliant violets when mixed with Quinacridone Violet and produces dull greens and grays when mixed with Phthalo green.
• Phthalocyanine Blue PB15:4 (also called pthalo blue) is a beautiful rich blue that leans towards green, created with copper phthalocyanine. It has a high pigment load, thus will dominate the other colors, so treat it as you would a black or dark gray when mixing.
• Phthalocyanine Green PG7 is the only green you cannot mix with any other color. It is created with chlorinated copper phthalocyanine. This produces bright greens when mixed with a bit of yellow and sea greens when mixed with white. Also called pthalo green, it can be darkened with Cadmium Red or Quinacridone Violet to produce dark greens, grays and blacks.
• Be sure to get the correct numbers, as names of colors differ from brand to brand.
Blue, red and violet produces a variety of shades of purple, violet and magenta.
Mixtures of green, yellow, blue and burnt umber produce a variety of greens. Burnt umber darkens the greens as well as red.
The yellow leans more toward red, so it mixes great oranges and ochres when mixed with red and violet. If you use white with mix, expect shades of pinks and peaches.
To produce a beautiful sky blue use blue, a touch of green and a plethora of white.
Blacks and dark grays can be mixed by mixing any opposite colors. My favorite black mixtures are brown and blue or green, and red or violet and green.
If you simply can’t afford or have room for the above palette, but want a nice range of colors to mix some reds, oranges, greens, violets, dark browns, get these:
Titanium White
Hansa Yellow Light
Pyrrole Red Light
Quinacridone Violet
Ultramarine Blue
Phthalocyanine Blue

What is the color of flesh? What is the color of an apple? What is the color of grass? What is the color of the sky? The answer is simple: variations of red, yellow, blue and white. (If you use the cool/warm method, just add a cool and warm of each color: cool red leans towards violet and a warm red that leans towards orange; warm blue leans towards red, cool blue leans towards green; warm yellow leans towards orange, cool yellow leans towards green.)
Nothing is just one color, due to shapes, texture, background, lighting and shadows. Everything you see is variations of white, red, blue and yellow. And yes many times you will need some sort of black. However pigment black changes the color properties of many colors, especially yellow, so it is best to tone a color down by using it’s opposite color or analogous color instead of using black. You can create blacks by mixing a dark brown and a dark blue, red or green (depending on what shade the black color is).
Mix flesh colors by making color portrait sketches in a notebook. You will notice a person’s colors vary each time you paint them, whether it is from a sun tan, different lighting or different color clothing or background. This applies to almost every subject you can imagine. Play around with your pigments! The more you teach yourself how to mix colors by memorization of basic formulas, the less time it takes to paint. I know oil painters who will sit there for hours just premixing colors for each object in their paintings. They will first mix the lightest light, then the darkest dark, then mix the mid tone, then mix the in between colors (usually totaling nine tonal mixtures). It’s a waste of time and paint!
If you know your palette well, you will not have to premix all those colors, you can just look at the subject and know exactly what colors you need to do the job and do it! You never need an elaborate road map to any destination if you already know the address, where you are, and which streets to take by memory and experience! You just drive there. I can teach you how to drive and show you the streets of every destination you wish, and to take the scenic, side streets and quickest routes. I can’t warn you about bad squirrel decisions, detours, emergency vehicles or predict the weather. But I can tell you how to deal with it when those situations arise. In the end, it is up to you to memorize and apply the information given to you.
Please read the color mixing exercise journal entry.