Watercolor Painting with a limited palette

I painted the Rum River Bridge painting after taking a class on mixing colors in watercolor. The course taught me about using a limited palette of the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue to create all the colors in the painting.   The advantage of this method is that all of your colors are unified and you have greater control in color mixing. To start using a limited palette, first you must experiment with your paints.

Rum River Bridge Poster at Zazzle

Rum River Bridge Poster by rosiesworkshop

Discover which three primary colors mixed together will create a true grey or a shade of brown.

Begin by selecting your truest red, yellow and blue. Then, start making a color mixing chart, labeling each color as you mix. Mix red with yellow to create varieties of orange, yellow and blue to create varieties of green and blue and red to create varieties of violet.

Then start mixing the compliments to create varieties of Grey, which are used for the shadow colors in your paintings. Mix orange with blue to creates shades of orange and blue, mix green with red to create shades of red and green and mix violet with yellow to create shades of violet and yellow.

Below is my limited palette color mixing chart that I created using three different reds, Cadmium Red, Brilliant Red & Crimson, three different blues, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue and Phalo Blue, and three different yellows, Medium Yellow, Lemon Yellow and Yellow Ochre. As you can see, each has their own strengths and weaknesses, it is up to you to decide what colors to add to your palette.

When you have discovered your limited palette choices, you are ready to get started.

Rum River Bridge by rosiesworkshop

Rum River Bridge Poster at Zazzle

Rum River Bridge Poster by rosiesworkshop
Browse other River Posters

Rum River Bridge Postage

Rum River Bridge by rosiesworkshop
Create custom postage using Zazzle