My Palette

by Lauren Seger
(Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A)

I learned my choice of palette from a teacher who is primarily classically trained. I have these many colors for many years. I have some brown colors, like raw/burnt umber, burnt sienna, indian red and van dyke brown. I gravitate toward brighter , more vivid colors in the past years. I still keep my browns as they come handy. They are great for making darks, especially warm dark colors. I have ivory black but I rarely use it. I would make my darks combing one brown and one blue family since the browns are like complementary colors to blue. Recently I have added prussian blues to my palette. It is a very dark blue. It can almost passes as black from a distance. It gives the painting a punch that a pure black will not provide.