The Case for 2 Palettes

Tips and Tricks 2022 No. 1 Separate WARM & COOL Pigments

Finding the levers of CONTROL in painting is not so easy. For me, my guiding principle for control is: slow down, let the work inform your next step. Easier said than done. It has been incredibly useful for me, as a dedicated watercolourist to separate my blue or COOL Palette, from my WARMs, the reds, yellows and browns.

Having two palettes of pigment, forces me to make key colour decisions at the outset-the beginning of a piece. Sometimes, I will stick my favourite no. 8 round brush in a mixed pool in the COOL palette, and then do the same for the warm palette: two palettes and two brushes on the go. This all sound tedious and ‘beginnerish’. However, it has helped me sustain the highly coveted “transparency”, most of the time. This habit is really useful in the wet-in-wet time crunches, we create for ourselves. It also slows me down, as I must mindfully dive between two large palettes.

Hope this is helpful-BLCB Jan. 2022

PS /my palettes are labelled at each well. With 24 blue colours, I have intentionally separated the cool blues like Windsor Blue, from the warm ones: Antwerp, Turquoise.