A Palette for Beginners
© 2019 Richele Baburina
Anyone getting started with—or continuing with—brush drawing sooner or later asks the question: what colors should be on my palette? In my continued research of artist and PNEU luminary Emeline Steinthal, I’ve discovered a simple 9-color palette that she recommended for beginners. Here are the original colors along with a 21st-century equivalent or swap:
| Historical | Contemporary |
| Sap Green | Sap Green |
| Yellow Ochre | Yellow Ochre |
| Chrome | Lemon Yellow |
| Cobalt | Cobalt |
| Sepia | Raw Umber |
| Vermilion | Vermilion |
| Light Red | Burnt Sienna |
| Crimson Lake | Carmine or Alizarin Lake |
| Vandyke Brown | Vandyke Brown |
These nine combine well to provide a range of colors especially good for painting from nature. For example, mix:
Cobalt + Lemon Yellow = Green
Cobalt + Carmine = Purple
Cobalt + Burnt Sienna + smidge of Yellow Ochre = Gray
Vermilion + Lemon Yellow = Orange
Vermilion + Burnt Sienna or Raw Umber = Deep Red
Sap Green + Lemon Yellow = Yellow Green
Sap Green + Burn Sienna = Autumnal Green
I share this list not as a call to throw out your current palette of colors but as a place to start or explore based on the fine artistic sense of Mrs. Steinthal.