Oil Painting Tips - Organizing Your Palette
by: Ralph Serpe
Having a clean organized palette is an
essential part of good painting. If you
are just starting out with oil painting,
these tips will help you get a good start.
You should have the right kind of palette
to start off with. Your palette should be
non-porous to prevent absorption of oil from
the paint. Palettes come in a variety of different
materials from glass to wood. My personal
preference is the BOB ROSS Clear Palette.
I have found this palette the easiest to clean
and best for mixing colors.
When you are first starting out, it may be
a good idea to start with a fairly limited
palette of colors. If you purchase every color
under the sun, you may find yourself mixing
too many different colors, which will result
in a muddy painting. Start off slow in the
beginning, then add more colors as you become
more experienced. Color choices for a limited
palette vary from artist to artist. Here are
the colors of my palette: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium
Yellow Pale, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Orange,
Phthalo Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Cadmium
Red Medium, Phthalo Green, Titanium White,
Ivory Black. I recommend purchasing 1.25 oz
tubes of all colors except Titanium White.
Purchase a larger tube of Titanium White,
as you will be using more of this color.
First, you should get into the habit of laying
out your colors the same way every time you
paint. This is just good practice and keeps
the painting process flowing nicely. Arrange
your colors along the edges of your palette
leaving a lot of room in the center for mixing.
Don't be afraid to squeeze out a good amount
of paint, especially your whites. You will
be more productive if you aren't continuously
stopping to squeeze out more paint.
Make certain to include all of the colors
you think you will need to complete that session
of painting as well. Again, this will make
you more productive.
When adding paint to the palette, I have
found that squeezing the paint out in long
lines, as opposed to puddles, keeps my colors
cleaner. When you have puddles of paint, they
tend to get soiled by other colors when mixing.
With a long line of paint, you can just take
paint from the end as needed and not dirty
the rest. Keep some rags or paper towels handy
for wiping your palette knife clean.
It's a good idea to continuously wipe your
palette clean during the painting process.
There is nothing more frustrating then trying
to remove dried up oil paint. Keep some alcohol
handy so that you can keep the mixing area
of your palette clean.
I hope these tips have helped. Happy Painting!
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