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Best Colors for Your First Watercolor Palette

12 pigments I'd pick if starting over — chosen by pigment code, not brand. Two of them are the ones most beginners skip, and skipping them is why mixing feels hard.

By Sarah Mitchell·Updated April 2026

Two colours most beginners skip

Quinacridone Rose (PV19) and Phthalo Green (PG7)are both marked below. Without PV19 you can't mix a clean violet. Without PG7 your greens sit in a narrow range. Both are cheap and available from any major brand.

Hansa Yellow Light

PY3 · M. Graham or Holbein

Cool yellow — mixes clean greens

Most student sets include a warm yellow (PY74 or PY65). That's fine for oranges but makes dull greens. A cool yellow fixes this. PY3 is transparent, lightfast, and cheap.

New Gamboge

PY153 · Daniel Smith

Warm yellow — mixes warm oranges and browns

Pairs with the cool yellow so you have both sides of yellow covered. PY153 has richer granulation than PY74 and handles wet-into-wet better.

Pyrrol Scarlet

PR255 · Daniel Smith

Warm red — the orange-leaning red

Most beginners get a generic 'red' that sits halfway between warm and cool. You can't mix a clean orange from a neutral red. PR255 is transparent, vivid, and pushes warm without going muddy.

Quinacridone Rose

PV19 · Holbein or M. Graham

Often skippedCool red — the pink-leaning red

The two beginners skip most. Without a cool red, you cannot mix a clean violet. PV19 is one of the most useful pigments on a palette — it granulates beautifully and mixes clean purples with any blue.

Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)

PB15:3 · Any brand

Cool blue — strong, transparent

The workhorse blue. High tinting strength means a little goes a long way — beginners often overuse it and muddy their mixes. Learn to use it diluted and it's invaluable. Mixes the cleanest greens of any blue.

Ultramarine Blue

PB29 · Any brand — all are nearly identical

Warm blue — granulating, good for skies and darks

The other essential blue. Ultramarine + Pyrrol Scarlet = a rich dark that beats black. Ultramarine + Burnt Sienna = a warm granulating grey. These two mixes alone justify keeping it on the palette.

Phthalo Green (Blue Shade)

PG7 · Any brand

Often skippedChromatic green base

Too intense to use straight — which is exactly why it's useful. A tiny amount shifts Burnt Sienna to a shadow colour, or pushes yellow into a natural leaf green. Beginners skip it because it's overwhelming until you learn to control the amount.

Raw Sienna

PY42 · M. Graham

Warm transparent earth

The most versatile earth on the palette. Warm washes, sand, wood, autumn light. Transparent enough to glaze over other colours without deadening them. Use M. Graham's version — it's noticeably more transparent than most.

Burnt Sienna

PR101 · Holbein or Winsor & Newton

Mid earth — skin tones, rusted metal, autumn foliage

The most-used colour on my palette, by a wide margin. It neutralises blues, warms greens, and mixes a range of skin tones I couldn't get otherwise. If I had to keep only one earth, this is it.

Burnt Umber

PBr7 · Winsor & Newton

Dark warm earth — deep shadows, wood

Burnt Umber + Ultramarine = the most useful dark on the palette. Not as neutral as a mixed grey, not as flat as Payne's Grey — it has a warmth that reads as light even in shadow areas.

Neutral Tint

PBk7 + PB15 · Winsor & Newton

Darkener — adds depth without hue shift

Not a black and not a grey. Neutral Tint darkens any colour without pushing it warm or cool. I use it for the darkest values in shadow areas where other darks would read as coloured. Optional — but once you have it you use it constantly.

Titanium White (gouache)

PW6 · M. Graham

Opaque highlights

Watercolour is transparent — highlights normally come from leaving the paper white. But for small details (stars, foam, highlights on eyes) a touch of white gouache is faster and cleaner than masking fluid. Keep a small tube, not a full palette well.

Common questions

Should I buy single pigment watercolors?+

Yes, where possible. Single-pigment colours mix predictably — two single-pigment colours make a clean secondary colour. Multi-pigment colours (you'll see 'PY74 + PR83' on the label) often make muddy mixes because you're already mixing 3 or 4 pigments by the time you combine two paints. Check the label before buying.

Do I need all 12 of these colours?+

No. Start with 6: one warm and one cool of each primary (Hansa Yellow Light, New Gamboge, Pyrrol Scarlet, Quinacridone Rose, Phthalo Blue, Ultramarine). Add Burnt Sienna. That's 7 colours that cover almost everything. Expand from there when you find a gap.

Does brand matter for pigment quality?+

Yes, but less than the pigment code. Holbein PB29 and Winsor & Newton PB29 are both Ultramarine — they'll behave similarly. The binder formula varies (M. Graham uses honey, which keeps paint workable longer), and concentration varies, but the pigment is the pigment. I note brands where I've found a real difference in the list above.

What about black? Why isn't it in the list?+

Premixed black flattens colours. Ultramarine + Burnt Sienna makes a richer dark that looks like light even in shadow. Ultramarine + Burnt Umber goes deeper. Phthalo Blue + Burnt Sienna goes near-black with a subtle hue. All of these read better in a painting than a flat black does — once you've tried it, you won't go back.

Now you need somewhere to put them

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