I use a limited palette, using the typical warm/cool palette. You might want to look at my list of Oil Painting Supplies for Beginning Painters. The colors on my palette are cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red light, alizarine crimson, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue and titanium white.
Each of those colors has another color in it. Once you can identify the additional color, you will be able to mix the colors better. Following is a list of each of the paint colors with the additional color or if it is cool or warm.
Cadmium yellow light–a cool yellow, tends to appear as if it has blue in it (at least in relationship to cad yellow med)
Cadmium yellow medium–a warm yellow, has some red in it, which makes it appear more orange
Cadmium red light–a warm red, has some yellow in it.
Alizarine Crimson–a cool red, has some blue in it.
Cerulean Blue–a warm blue, has some yellow in it.
Ultramarine Blue–a cool blue, has some red in it.
Now some schools of thought claim that a blue with yellow in it would be considered cool, while a blue with red in it would be warm. The warm/cool theory really doesn’t matter in mixing. It is the second color in the paint that we are concerned about.
Look at the color wheel. To get the most vibrant colors when mixing, I will mix colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.
Once I introduce a third color into the mix I will neutralize the color. Whenever the three primaries are mixed together, you get a grayed color to some degree.
Now keep that in mind as I give an example. We all know that if we mix red and blue we get purple. But how vibrant do we want the purple to be. The closer we keep our mixture to just blue and red the more vibrant it will be. If we introduce a yellow (which is the complement to purple) into the mix, the purple will be grayed.
The choices we have with the limited palette are two reds, one with blue in it and one with yellow in it. The choices in the blues are one with yellow and one with red. So, to make the more vibrant purple, use the red and the blue that have only red and blue in them. That would be alizarine crimson and ultramarine blue.
If I wanted a grayed purple, I have 3 choices:
Cad red light/ultramarine blue—some yellow in the cad red light
alizarine crimson/cerulean blue–some yellow in the cerulean
cad red light/cerulean blue–yellow in both the red and blue, thus this color would be the grayest
Now, following this same pattern, if I want a vibrant green, I will use only blue and yellow. If red (the complement of green) is used the green color will be grayed. To get the most vibrant pure green, I will mix cerulean blue and cadmium yellow light.
If I wanted a grayed green, I again have 3 choices:
Cadmium yellow light/ultramarine blue–ultramarine has some red in it.
Cadmium yellow medium/cerulean blue–cadmium yellow medium has some re in it.
Cadmium yellow medium/ultramarine blue–Both have red in them, thus the color would be the grayest.
OK, following this same logic, I now come to the secondary color of orange using red and yellow. My brightest orange that I can mix would be cadmium red light and cadmium yellow medium. Both colors have only red and yellow in them.
If I wanted a grayed orange, I have three choices:
Cadmium yellow medium/alizarine crimson–some blue in the alizarine crimson
Cadmium yellow light/cad red light– a little blue in the cad yellow light (not much)
Cad yellow light/alizarine crimson–a little blue in both colors, making it the grayest orange.
Now following this logic, every paint color that you use, you need to learn to identify the properties. Does the color tend to learn toward another color. If so, what is that color? And remember, that every time you mix all three primaries together, you will gray the color.
Learn to mix these primaries together and understand their properties, then you will be able to mix any color or any brand to get what you want.
This same topic is covered in my video, Tips & Techniques for Mixing Paint Colors
Related posts: Getting the Brightest Color Where You Want It, Learning to See Color When Painting