How to Set Up a Palette for Oil Painting

A well organized palette makes the painting process easier and less frustrating.

If you've never tried painting before, you're probably not aware of how difficult it can be to pick the right colors for your painting, and how frustrating it can be if you arrange the paints on the palette incorrectly. Choosing the right colors will come with time, as you become a more experienced painter, but arranging the colors on the palette, but you can learn to arrange paints on the palette formulaically.

Instructions

1. Select the paints you'd like to start painting with initially. You can always add paint to your palette later, as you decide to paint with more colors. Your initial palette should consist of the primary colors, which are red, yellow and blue, plus a neutral-like white and, perhaps, a light and a dark brown. You may decide that you wish to have black--but, beware of using too much black in your oil paintings. It tends to get mixed with other colors to make the painting look murky and muddy.

2. Place the primary colors in a triangle on the palette, with at least two or three inches between each color. Squirt approximately a nickel-sized application of paint onto the palette.

3. Squirt white onto the palette somewhere off to the side. Most painters use a lot of white and there should be approximately twice as much white on the palette as the other colors. If you do not feel you will use that much white, you don't need to put as much on the palette. Remember that oil paints dry very slowly, so whatever you do not use to begin with, you can save for later by covering up your palette.

4. Place other colors that aren't primary elsewhere around the perimeter of your palette.

References

• Learn to Draw And Paint: More Oil Painting Palette Tips and Tricks
• How To Draw And Paint: Oil Painting Techniques Section