I haven’t been painting long, just a few months, but early on I decided that I would have a relatively limited palette and learn to mix colours to achieve the ones I needed. I had seen many youtube videos by various watercolour artists, some with a very specific range colours by a named brand, others with a paint box of what looked like 50 or more pans of different colours. I took my advice from the artists I liked the most and opted for a limited range:

ultramarine

cobalt blue

light red

alizarin crimson

Raw sienna

burnt umber

paynes grey

lemon yellow

From these I wanted to make the full range of colours I needed and so far I have managed a good range of greens, reds and greys. I saw it a an intellectual exercise to learn how to mix these colours but also felt that in my palette, by mixing colours I would probably have a wider range than even the paint boxes of 50 or more, simply by chance, and probably therefore closer to what is our there in the natural world. My palette is disgracefully chaotic and undisciplined but it works for me.

Mostly!

My question is this; Is my palette too limited – I can’t seem to get turquoise however much I try! What range - limited or broad do others have? All comments / advice welcome.