Paint

What’s in my palette? (April 2024)

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I’ve already shared different palettes in January and February of this year, but this time I’m serious! (I think.) I’m reducing my tube collection, not just what’s dry on my palette, because I am moving cross-continent next month and trying to get down to a “suitcases” level of stuff! That’s right, you heard it here first folks: after spending the last year touring various Canadian cities to find my favourite, I am officially moving to Vancouver.

So which paints are making the cut to come with me?

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Spring Triad Variations

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In Seasonal Triads, I landed on a triad of Quinacridone Magenta (PR122), Imidazolone Lemon (PY175), and Cobalt Turquoise (PG50) for my spring triad. But this isn’t the only one I tried. Here are my spring triad outtakes. Because I changed the colors one-at-a-time, they provide an object lesson in how subtly one color change can change the triad.

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All About Color Index Codes

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I began writing an explanation of color index codes in another post, but it became too long so I’m putting it in its own post!

The short explanation is that watercolor paints have “ingredients” labels that can be read to identify which pigments are in them. For example, Ultramarine Blue has the code PB29 (Pigment Blue #29). If you see PB29 on a paint label – for example, in Daniel Smith’s Undersea Green, which is PB29, PY150, PO48 – you generally know you can mix a similar color with Ultramarine Blue as one of the ingredients.

The long explanation? You can learn to decode these seemingly arbitrary color codes, and here’s how!

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Artist Palette Profiles: Mike Daikubara

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Mike Daikubara is an urban sketcher based in Charlotte, NC and the author of Sketch First, Think Later and Color First, Ink Later. Sketch First, Think Later encourages you to get out and sketch quickly with a minimal kit; Color First describes a slightly more involved, wild style where you put down layers of dripping color to capture light and shadow and color interplay, then draw ink lines and details after it dries. I enjoyed both books, though the Color First method seems a bit advanced for me!

Today, I’m going to talk about Mike’s palette as described in Color First.

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