How to Organize Your Palette

An organized palette will make your life SO much easier. I'm going to show you the most efficient way to set your palette up, but first I’m going to show you how NOT to organize your palette.

 Sometimes I see people just plopping paint in the middle of their palettes in random piles.

This DOES NOT WORK because: 

1. Those paint blobs are blocking your prime mixing area.  

2. There’s no logic to where you put those colors. Color isn’t random, so your palette shouldn’t be either.

3. If you don’t have a system, you can’t develop an instinctual sense of where your colors are.

Heres’s what to do instead:

 1.Put ALL your fresh paint blobs on the edge of your palette. This leaves plenty of room in the center for mixing colors.

2. Put your paints in spectral order – Arrange your paint based on the rainbow or color wheel.   All artists create their own slightly different arrangement – it’s impossible to make one that’s 100% spectral. Just do your best.

3. Put your paint in this EXACT arrangement EVERY time you put your paint out and on EVERY palette you have. This way you can instantly find the color you want without having to look for it.

There you have it – how to organize your palette in a functional way. Works for any media!

 Happy painting!