Libra-Brain: Choosing a holiday colour palette.

Decisions! Decisions!

Do you find packing difficult? I certainly do! I confess… I’m a planner. I make lists for everything, and I don’t feel quite at ease until the list is complete. So, when I’m holiday packing with limited space, weight and a whole lot of new rules about what can and can’t be done, my decision-making process slows down to glacial melt speed.

However, I’ve finally created my new, for me… limited, holiday colour palette.

Which colours do I need?

Of course, as an artist, you really only need 8 colours for a full range of colour. If you’re happy to mix on the go, and I’m always full of admiration for those artists I see painting on location with the tiniest of palettes, then 8 would be enough (some might argue, excessive).

For this kind of minimalism, you need a warm and cool blue, yellow and red; and a white and black/grey. You could also, of course, set yourself the challenge to use a very limited palette of just 2, 3 or 4 colours.

Unfortunately, my use of colour leans towards abundance and so my very ‘limited’ palette has 39 colours. I have the afore mentioned warm and cool blues, yellows and reds; and black, but I don’t have a white. Instead, I have a white Posca paint pen, or I just let the white of the paper shine through.

My advice?

1. Choose a palette tin to suit your size and weight requirements. (I always create my own 300gsm palette colour chart to fit inside the lid)

2. Consider how many wells, and therefore colours, you have in the palette.

3. Choose colours you can’t live without – right now! The ones that make your heart sing!

4. Make sure you have at least one from each of the blue, yellow and red families.

OR… if you have some flexibility in size and weight, do that whole process in reverse!

If you want to know exactly what is in my holiday watercolour colour palette, I have included a full list below for you.

Happy joy chasing!

Monique x