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Choosing the right color palette

November 4th, 2007 | by Art Supplies |

Before 19^th century the artists did not have, a huge selection of colors to choose from therefore they did not have a need for palettes. Recently, a completely new array of colors has been introduced. These colors are not only contributing greatly towards the paintings produced by an artist, but also to their art. The greatest asset of any artist is their art supplies and the integral part of this is the colors. Each artist has a unique set of colors that act as their trademark. However, the colors and the art materials are incomplete without a palette.

As the 20^th century rolled in, number of different colors were introduced and with it the need for a palette. Previously, the artists did not have much option to choose from. The only colors that were available to them were black, white, red, blue, yellow, green, violet, orange and other earth tones. However, this shortage of colors never hindered the progress of the artists. They combined these colors to produce some of the unique paintings of all times.

Experienced artist will tell you that they do not need to look towards their palettes when they are painting. The reason is that they know where a color lies on the palette. They have arranged the colors in a way that they are comfortable with them. This is the main purpose of a palette. Mostly the artist arranges the colors on their palettes in two ways.

• In the first type of arrangement the artist arranges all the colors according to his convenience and in the frequency in which they are used. Once the artist gets used to the arrangement of the colors, he will not need to look towards his palette to know where the colors are.
• The other style that most of the artists prefer is the arrangement of colors according to spectrum. In this type of arrangement the colors are arranged with as reds then oranges followed by yellows, greens, blues and violets and then finally browns, blacks and white.
• The last style observed by artists is the arrangement of cooler colors on one side and warmer colors on the other.

But the bottom line of all this discussion is that no matter what combination of colors the artist is willing to adopt he must take his convenience into consideration. The colors on the palette are not arranged for style rather the arrangement is for the convenience of the artist. Some of the artists refer to the palette as the keyboard of a piano or a computer. This is due the characteristic of the keys on the keyboard to be arranged in a particular order. When a pianist or a typist uses the keyboards they do not need to look where the keys lie, rather their fingers fall on the right key automatically. Same is the case with an artist and their palette. Once the artist gets accustomed to the arrangement of the colors on the palette, they can increase their speed of painting.