Kevin MacPherson's Limited Palette

If you are looking for a smaller palette to take on location, try Kevin MacPherson's:

cadmium yellow light (CYL)

cadmium red light (CRL)

alizarin crimson (AC)

ultramarine blue (UB)

phthalo green (PhG)

titanium white (TW)

While limited to five colors, this palette is very flexible.  You can mix high chroma and toned versions of the secondary colors because it includes both a warm and cool red. Phthalo green adds the ability to mix high chroma greens and ultra darks and blacks.  Phthalo green also makes mauves and violets when mixed with AC.

Another limited palette is the one we used for the color block exercises:

cadmium yellow lemon (CYLe)

cadmium orange (CO)

cadmium red light (CRL)

alizarin crimson (AC)

ultramarine blue (UB)

phthalo blue (PhB)

titanium white (TW)

CYLe adds the ability to mix very cool greens; PhB adds the ability to mix high chroma greens and blue greens - because red bias has been eliminated. You have to mix warm yellows, however, because CYL has been eliminated from the palette.

You will develop your own system for working on location.  Last week June used a pill box to carry a limited palette, putting one color in each compartment. Look for a pill box that has a separate lid for each compartment.  Jo-Ann's carries them in the craft container section.  The pill box moved around while painting, so attach it to the palette with several Velcro dots.  Between painting sessions put the pill box in a Ziplock bag and store it in the freezer.  The paint will keep indefinitely.  The pill box eliminates having to bring the palette seal and paint tubes.  Tape a piece of palette paper or freezer paper to a smaller board for a palette, open the pill box and you are ready to paint.  

Remember, we are looking for color notes and painting color comps, not large paintings, on location.