Limited Palettes

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm more of a writer than an artist, and I came across the interesting idea of limited palettes while researching artistic characters. It's a terrific concept if you're into plein air painting, because then you don't have to lug a suitcase worth of supplies. It's also well worth trying if art supply costs make you cringe. A similar concept comes up in scrapbooking, which is a type of art I do -- most pages use just a few colors, and monochrome pages aren't rare. So I'd like to list some resources for art with limited palettes.


Painting

https://www.swintonsart.com/post/7-benefits-of-painting-with-a-limited-palette

https://finearttutorials.com/guide/painting-with-a-limited-palette-a-guide/

https://www.liveabout.com/limited-color-palettes-for-plein-air-painting-4078002

https://www.outdoorpainter.com/color-palette-plein-air/

https://colors.dopely.top/inside-colors/the-joy-of-painting-with-bob-ross-colors/

https://gamblincolors.com/exploring-color-palettes/

https://willkempartschool.com/how-to-choose-a-basic-portrait-painting-palette-for-oils/

https://www.watercoloraffair.com/why-use-a-limited-watercolor-palette-and-which-colors-to-choose/

https://www.greenleafblueberry.com/pages/3-color-palettes

http://kemstudios.blogspot.com/2012/11/tips-for-using-limited-pastel-palette.html

https://www.instructables.com/Movable-Pallet-Altoid-Tin-Watercolor-Set/

http://www.lifeneedsart.com/blog/sketching-supplies-that-i-took-to-the-urban-sketchers-symposium-and-what-i-actually-used/

https://www.instructables.com/Altoids-Tin-Art-Kit/


Scrapbooking

https://getitscrapped.com/2016/12/scrapbook-page-color-pattern-mixing-gallon-quart-pint-proportions/

https://getitscrapped.com/2017/11/scrapbook-color-scheme-black-white-pastels/

https://ideas.demco.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/color_wheel.jpg

https://scrapbookcampus.com/2011/07/6-ways-to-choose-colors-for-your-scrapbook-page/

https://www.papergluefun.com/2019/08/scrapbook-layouts-by-color.html

https://blog.creativememories.com/2016/03/14/fun-with-one-monochromatic-scrapbook-layouts/

Comments

[mekare]

Wow I only saw this today, thank you for sharing those links!

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad you found this useful.

Limited palettes are handy if you want to see whether student-grade supplies are fine for your current skill level, or if you'd rather save up for artist-grade instead. Get 2-5 of each (e.g. black/white, red/yellow/blue, Zorn palette, red/yellow/blue/black/white) and do the same type of painting so you can compare the results. Then decide what you want to buy more of.