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

Begin your permanent palette paints. These are the paints you cannot live without, and will mix the barebone painting, should you have nothing else. In other words, you should be able to mix a wide range of colors with just those paints. Usually it consists of some sort of yellow, blue, red, brown, white and black.

These auxiliary colors you can live without and they change as you do or as your painting dictates. These paints for the most part can be mixed easily by your basic palette, but sometimes, mixing takes up too much time, or too much paint, and thus resorting to purchasing a tube of the color needed.

Warning: all of the following pigments are toxic. Which is my main reason for not using them as much. My auxiliary colors are:

Cerulean Blue Deep PB36. This is a deep green blue made of oxides of cobalt and chromium, which has a very low coverage for pigment. Many people use this color instead of the high coverage Phthalocyanine Blue. I prefer phthalo blue to Cerulean because it is greener, and works much better with Phthalocyanine green and Ultramarine blue.

Burnt Umber Light, PBr7 made of calcined natural iron oxide containing manganese. This is a pretty brown, and even though you can mix it with Red Oxide and Ultramarine Blue, sometimes, it’s nice to have around when mixing a lot of it. Plus, it makes for a nice black when mixed with Ultramarine blue.

Burnt Sienna PBr7 made of calcined natural iron oxide is a lovely deep orange, at least the true Burnt Sienna. Winsor & Newton’s brand uses PR101, which is Red Oxide, thus it is important to know the numbers more than the names of the pigment.

Yellow Ochre PY43 made of natural hydrated iron oxide is a deep yellow. If you use a lot of Yellow Ochre or another form called Yellow Oxide PY42, then perhaps you should get a tube. However, if you don’t, and want your ochres with variety, mix Hansa Yellow Opaque and Quinacridone Violet, they make very bright clean ochres.

Chromium Oxide Green PG17, best for last. This pigment is made of anhydrous chromium sesquioxide and it is a beautiful dark green. It is one of my favorite colors. I would add it to my permanent palette, but the color can be mixed with the permanent palette. So beautiful, works and looks very well with Red Oxide in it’s pure form. I don’t use it very often and it is toxic, so it has been demoted to my auxiliary palette.