The Magic Palette Color Mixing Guide

Visual Color Memory
Before I discuss the chart below, let's discuss visual color memory. Being able to create the exact color you want for a painting is a wonderful challenge and good skill to have. The first step is to know what colors you already have. And by "knowing" your color, I am saying can you see them in your mind without looking at them physically? You can probably see in your mind the difference between blue and red. But can you envision the more subtle difference between Cadmium Red Medium and Cadmium Red Light? When you look at the colors on your pallet, look at them with the intention of remembering what they look like. There's nothing special you have to do, just give the colors your attention for a moment and you will be committing them to your visual memory.

Make Your Own Color Chart
It can be helpful to make your own chart that has the colors you own. Next to each square of color, have the same color with some white added. That way you will see the pure color plus each color as a tint. Do this with each new color you buy to increase your visual vocabulary, and soon you will easily see in your mind, for example, the difference between Ultramarine Blue and Phthalo Blue. Or between Quinacridone Red and Quinacridone Magenta.

The Color Mixing Guide
The chart below (brought to my attention by one of the painters in my program) can help you, if you are new to color mixing. It shows all of the basic colors and what they look like mixed with each other. I found this chart to be very useful for my students. However, I must add one caveat. While the color mixtures are accurate on the chart, what the chart does not tell you is that there is a little bit of white added into each mixture of color. Nevertheless, I am recommending this chart as a very useful color matching aid. I believe it will help you on your journey to master full color matching.

Where to Buy
I found this chart on Blick Materials website for around $14. There are other cheaper charts that look similar, but they don’t have the same level of detail as this one.