Reference
Most palette advice tells you the idea and leaves out the tubes. These are the seven worth knowing, with the paints named.
A palette is a decision about what you are willing to give up. Every colour you add widens what you can reach and makes your mixtures a little muddier, because more pigments in a mix means more light absorbed. The palettes below are the ones worth knowing, with the actual paints in each, not just the idea of them.
The palette used in all Studio tutorials.
Anders Zorn's legendary 4-color palette. Perfect for portraits with limited means.
There is a longer piece on this one: the Zorn palette, and what it can and cannot do.
A warm-leaning limited palette. Great for portraits and warm-lit scenes.
A cool-leaning limited palette for landscapes, overcast light, and cool-toned work.
A well-rounded palette for portrait and figure work with good skin tone coverage.
A field palette tuned for landscape work - greens, sky blues, and warm earth accents.
The most commonly recommended starter palette. Covers virtually any subject.
Ask what you actually paint. A landscape palette needs greens and sky blues you will never reach convincingly by mixing from a portrait set. A portrait palette needs earths and a red that sits in skin, and can do without a phthalo anything.
Then ask what you keep failing at. If your paintings go chalky, you probably have too much white and not enough dark. If they go muddy, you are mixing too many pigments at once and a smaller palette will fix it faster than better technique. If your shadows are dead, you are likely missing a cool that is not black.
Palettes list colours as if they are equal. They are not. A speck of Phthalo Blue will take over a mixture that a knifeful of Yellow Ochre would barely move. When you add a new tube to your palette, find out which kind it is before you commit a painting to it: put a small amount into a pile of white and see how far it carries.
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Try it free for 7 daysWritten by Soren Ulsig. Last updated 2026-08-29.