How To Start Watercolor Painting (10 Starter Colors!)

The essentials set contains: Hansa Yellow, Dairylide Yellow, Phthalo Blue (green shade), French Ultramarine, Permanent Rose, Pyrrole Red, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Payne's Grey

0:00 Introduction and about Primary Colors
4:43 Hansa Yellow
5:29 Diarylide Yellow
7:18 Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)
8:19 French Ultramarine
10:38 Permanent Rose
11:58 Pyrrole Red
12:48 Yellow Ochre
14:22 Raw Umber15:18 Burnt Sienna
16:32 Payne's Grey

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[nxagen]

Most usefull course on watercolor basics concerning color. Thank you! Now I am able to build up my own palette with confidance!

[bobjuniel]

I think you have recommended a good starter kit Michele. I hope my comments don't confuse your viewers.
White paper reflects all colours. when we apply red wave length coloured paint, what happens is the surface absorbs green and blue-violet, so we see only red. As only red is reflected green and blue/violet are subtracted. Therefore paint mixing is called subtractive mixing. The more colours we mix, the more colours are absorbed until we get muddy darks, greyed colours and finally black.
The more that the hue is neutralised the more the colour becomes chromatically impure.
Chromatically pure colours include Red, Magenta, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue and Blue Violet the colours of the rainbow. These colours are pure hues, primary and secondary colours. Hue is the quality of colour that allows us to distinguish between colours of the rainbow. They are single unmixed hues or a mixture of just two primaries.
Chromatically impure colours are tertiary colours, a mixture of all three primary colours. They include earth colours ochres, siennas, umbers, madders, greys, blacks and olive greens and army greens. Although they can be mixed they are often included as convenience colours to save time and make mixing easier.
Next step is to arrange the pure hues on a colour mixing wheel to avoid making mud all of the time. I create a six point star of David. Using a compass draw a circle. Keeping the compass at the same radius, place the compass point at top dead centre and scribe a light arch to make marks on the circumference of the circle. Repeat this procedure from each mark on the circumference. One ends up wth six points on the circle. Paint a circle of colour over each point in the following order: Hansa Yellow top dead centre, next and to the right, place Pyrrole Red (I personally use Winsor red) Next point down on right Permanent Rose, (an impure replacement for unavailable pure Magenta), bottom place French Ultramarine Blue (Ultramarine Blue is a good substitute) directly opposite yellow, lower left side phthalocyanine blue Green Shade an impure cyan) then I mix green because Phthalo Blue mixed with Hansa Yellow to make good pure greens. I need them in Thailand but they are rarely needed in Australia. I like having Olive Green, Schmincke Hookers Green and Winsor Green in my paint box.
I recommend mixing the intermediate colours between each of these main mixing colours:
Hansa Yellow + Pyrrole Red ➡️ Yellow Orange/ Orange/ Vermillion Hues
Pyrrole Red + Permanent Rose ➡️ Carmine Red
Permanent Rose + French Ultramarine Blue➡️ Violet (Dioxazine violet hue and/or Quinacridone Violet hue)
French Ultramarine + Phtahlo Blue
I use Ultramarine Blue and Cobalt Blue as blues between French Ultramarine and Phthalo Blue as Pthalo Blue is copper based and contains some green. I use Winsor Blue Red Shade and Winsor Blue Green Shade as a personal preference here but I use Phthalo Blues in other brands.
Phthalocyanine Blue Green Shade + Hansa Yellow ➡️ dark green, green and yellow green.
I like to also have Manganese Blue to mix with Hansa Yellow for even brighter greens, but it is not an alternative for Phthalo. Blue

Then one understands to keep the colours pure do not mix Cyan, magenta and yellow together or Red, Yellow and Blue together. No more than two primaries for pure hues.
The colour wheel can be used to approximately identify opposite colours, to enable one deliberately mix tertiary colours, that is, three Primaries in varying quantities and combinations.
Add a small amount of French Ultramarine Blue to Yellow, then some more Blue to see the change. Do the same to Yellow Orange. Add a small amount of Phthalo Blue Green Shade to Orange Red then to red and to Permanent Rose. Add Permanent Rose to Greens.
This way colours similar to Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Olive Green can be discovered.
An alternative is to gradually add black to make shades of each pure hue, add greys to make pastel colours, or white to make tints. That is a good mixing exercise but understand most artists prefer to avoid white in watercolours and black in general as allowing the eye to mix different pigments in such fine close translucent arrangement on the surface of the paper makes brighter richer colours in the painting.
I like to have a few Darks Paynes Grey, Dioxazine Violet, Indigo Blue, and Vandyke Brown W&N.
My preference for Winsor & Newton comes from starting my Diploma in 1959. W&N was the only good brand we had at that time where I lived. I now use several different brands, they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

[rosieleat]

“This channel is cat approved” lol lol my three cats and dog will be happy about that 😂 love your channel! You don’t faff about and I find you original - I am loving learning about colour theory here :) xxx

[susanbaker]

Thank you so much, Michele, for discussing the terms "warm blues" and "cool blues". Even with a strong art background (from years ago) I have been struggling to see any blues, except maybe turquoise, as a warm blue!
The terms "red or green-leaning" blues are easier for me to see, understand, & identify.
I love all colors and art mediums, so thank you for restoring my visual reality and peace with the paint/pigment world and so much more!! Best wishes from Southern California ❤️ 🪻💙💐🌞🎨🖼💚

[carlabumstead]

such extremely useful information, and I am glad I’m watching it now because I was just about to splurge and buy some tube watercolors

[tabbi]

My husband is a offset printer who worked on 5 colour and 10 colour presses, yes cymk can mix any colour. As to pantone colours they are just ready made convenience cymk colours he had to mix pantone colours himself to colour match pantone colours and although they are custom colours they still only convenience colours able to be mixed and use cymk at the base level. Within the printing world it may not have the same characteristics such as granulation of a single pigment but it can be colour matched exactly. They use a spectrometer to achieve this which measures the specific gravity which indicates the density of the colours within a sample so the exact weights to be added can be precise. It becomes an exact copy of the original colour, just like synthetic drugs for example have the exact same structure as the original organic chemicals so too are they exact mimics of the original single pigment colours. Single pigment are useful for other qualities specific to each, especially regarding the way it behaves that makes them special. I still have a variety of each primary on my palette for the sake of ease of mixing as we don't have the same equipment to measure exactly as printers do. And I also have some special single pigments mainly for their unique characteristics such as granulation. There are many reasons why people don't just use cymk, but mixing technically isn't the reason it's just easier.

[michaelklein]

I'll have to make more use of the Permanent Rose I have after watching this--thanks, all very helpful. I'm not quite certain about Payne's Grey in the usual watercolor sets, however. I remember scoping through what Amazon had in the way of beginners sets and never could find Payne's Grey. You might remember asking you about this color some months ago. I've a big tube of it now, and it's been invaluable so far!

[dorothykern]

This was very helpful! I'm a kid, so I don't have a lot of money but have been wanting to get a quality watercolor set. This has definitely been a useful resource when researching.

[rosieleat]

I just love that your supplies are vegan xxx

[lyndamitton]

How did you know I didn’t know where to start? Thank you a million times over!

[txna]

I’m so glad I found you. I’ve been dabbling with watercolors and the pencils. I love watching your classes, I’m going to have a 3 lumbar fusion in 2 weeks and am so happy I found this class. I’ve got my recovery area all set up and ready for rehab with watercolor, L o L, I’ll be separated from the rest of the household so I’m happy to have you with me. Thank you for everything!

[louiseostman]

Thank for your video! I can not English so well so I didn't underställd which colors you morgon, because you just say bit didn't show.
Thankyou so much for Good videos.

[kyliemartin]

thanak you Michelle, this is brilliant. Ive finally bought myself some windsor and newton paints and they have a lot of the colours you are suggesting...plus black and white. so Ill take them out and replace them with what you are suggesting. Ill be doing the patreon thing as soon as Im up and running. I love your interactions, you are my favorite teacher xx

[heidicook]

Thank you for the clear explanation of the reasoning behind your choices. I'm a fairly beginner watercolors with the added twist of being blind. Like 80% of blind people I have some sight, is just not reliable or always trustworthy. I look forward to watching more of your videos. I found you on the Uptrex website. Another YT watercolor artist I watch I'd having a trip to France. I was intrigued with the server and s started looking at other trips. You're was interesting so I came to YT to see some of your work. I'm very glad I did!

[waltereaton]

Essential viewing for anyone using watercolour paints! For my part, I am like using Payne's gray. I think it is much underestimated.

[splendiforusme]

Thank you for this video 💜
Your explanations are easy to follow and take notes I appreciate your content immensely!

[kathleensmith]

Wish I’d seen this video before I bought my paints. I learned a lot for my next trip to the art store!

[dawnesmith-sliming]

I own 7 of these colours! I have experience mixing acrylic paints so I've been thinking about things like warm yellows vs cool yellows. As I start with watercolour I find the mixing part so fun and relaxing. It's a trickier medium to work with IMO but also fun and challenging. thank you for offering substitute colour suggestions. That's a real money saver for those of us just starting to collect supplies. I would rather have good brushes than 4 yellows that behave very similarly.

[narutoab]

I have recently started watercolour painting and I'm thinking of making my first custom palette. This video is a god send as I have been confused about what colours to put in the palette, thank you, this video has helped me so much.

[susanspurr]

The best split pallet on YouTube. Thanks!