All those extra tubes of paint

Ok, so you want to simplify your palette of colors but what about all those extra tubes of paint you bought?

Sorting - Get out all your tubes of paint and sort them into 7 piles. A pile for each primary color - red, yellow and blue. And a pile for each secondary color - orange, green and purple... And one pile for all the "odd" colors.

Now choose two versions (a warm and a cool, or a bright and a dull) of each of the three primary colors  - 2 reds, 2 yellows and 2 blues. This is your basic double primary palette. Six tubes of paint.

As you become familiar with this simplified palette, you can begin to expand your primary color range - example - substituting a purple or green for one of your blues, or an orange or purple for one of your reds, etc. See image above.

You can also add special colors for a special needs. But try to limit your palette to 6-8 colors, plus white.

You now have an interesting and controllable range of colors that you can adjust as needed.

(Remove that "odd" pile of colors and put them away for another use.)

After you have sorted through your tubes of paint, you might find that you have enough choices so that you won't have to buy any more paint - except maybe white - for a long time. Isn't that great!

Happy painting!        

 Celene