My Watercolor Palettes

I love color. I love opening the palette, looking at all the beautiful paints, dipping my brush in water and loading it with juicy color. Taking the brush and touching it slowly to the paper and just watching the color spread makes me forget everything else even just for a moment.

My first watercolor palette after I decided to get serious with watercolors was Winsor and Newton’s Cotman 46 color palette. I bought it as it was recommended by fellow students for my first online course. The funny thing is, at the time I thought it was expensive. 🙂 I mean, it’s not cheap, but I’ve since spent far more for fewer colors. It is a plastic palette with lots of mixing space. The paints are student grade but still beautiful colors and were perfect for my needs at the time.

*swatches with names of the colors*

It is commonly advised to start with artist grade watercolors from the beginning. I guess it depends on how serious you are about taking up watercolor painting as a hobby and what exactly you’ll be painting. I started with watercolor and pen sketches, so I found the palette worked fine for me. Also, being a complete beginner, having that many colors meant I didn’t have to think about color mixing too much yet.

*some sketches I did with this palette*

The palette has some free spots, and later on, I added a few half-pans from Winsor & Newton’s professional line. Some are still there, seen on the lower right on the picture, some I took over in my smaller palette.

After I started painting regularly, my love for watercolors grew more and more, and naturally, my interest and curiosity for different brands became stronger. The teacher of the online course I was taking used Schmincke Horadam paints, so I decided I wanted to try this brand next. We also had a short trip coming, so I had the perfect excuse – I needed a smaller and more compact palette to take with me when on the go. I was still a bit adamant about spending too much money, so I just bought the student version – Schmincke Akademie.

It is a nice standard metal palette, which can actually accommodate a few more pans. I’ve even read that people remove the metal trays and are able to fit even more colors. I’ve just added a few of my favorite colors from the W&N palette. There is no big “color mixing theory” rationale behind my choice. These are simply colors I like and were suitable for the kind of sketches I wanted to do at the time.

*Schmincke Sketches*

Next up is my Sennelier tube set with a porcelain palette by Billy Showell. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help myself from constantly reading about and wondering what are the “best” paints, as if they alone would make me a master painter. By googling watercolor, checking online forums and watching videos on YouTube, I somehow stumbled across Billy Showell and was mesmerized by her masterful wet-in-wet botanical painting.

I never thought of myself as someone who would be interested in botanical painting. Despite that, shortly after discovering Billy Showell I became a subscriber for her online tutorials and ordered her brush set and paints. I got the porcelain palette Billy recommends from our local art store.

I love using the same paints as the teacher – it makes it much easier for me to follow. I was also excited to try this French brand as the colors in Billy’s paintings are so vibrant. I have added a few other Sennelier colors that are not in the palette, as well as Opera Rose by Winsor and Newton and Bright Violet by Shin Hahn (all recommended by Billy).

Here are some of the paintings I’ve done following Billy’s tutorials with Sennelier watercolors:

*Billy tutorial paintings*

Winsor & Newton in a Mijello Fusion 18 – I bought these paints again for an online course and I’ve been loving them so far. The colors are beautiful and rich and vivid. Some say that W&N’s paints tend to get quite dry when left in the palette, but I haven’t yet experienced such a problem thus far. It may be that I haven’t had them on my palette long enough, or maybe the Mijello palette is truly airtight.

I’ve added five M. Graham colors in the palette for testing purposes, even though they are (almost) the same as some of the Winsor and Newton colors I have.

I also love using this small porcelain mixing trays, because they have a bit more room for a bigger mix. That way they also stay cleaner, and I don’t have to remix as often. They are a bit concave, which allows for a bit watery and less watery mix. I like to have a bit of each color in its pure form on the upper ends, so that I can vary the color I’m painting with, taking more from the one or the other each time I load the brush.

They are easy to store as they stack neatly one on top of the other, with one acting like a “cap”.

So, which one is my favorite? I use all depending on what I’m painting. I guess I haven’t used all long enough to be able to choose only one. At the moment I really enjoy using my Winsor and Newton’s.

I’ve decided to replace my student grade paints with artist’s ones once they’re empty, but can’t tell yet which brand it will be. I enjoy experimenting at the moment, and can’t wait to try Daniel Smith – they are next on my list.

How many watercolors do you have and which one is your favorite?