You might have heard me banging on about how I use a limited palette of colors and how this gives many of my paintings a tranquil feel. But a limited palette shouldn’t mean a stagnant palette, so for my latest sketching trip to Africa, I changed some of the solid half-pan colors in my Windsor & Newton field watercolor set.
I’ve noticed over the years that some of these half-pan colors can be difficult to tell apart when I’m painting outdoors, because they appear very dark in their solid form. When mixed with a little water, of course there is no problem, but I often need to get straight to the correct color when time is of the essence. So I made myself a little color chart before I left home. Here it is.
It fits nicely inside the lid of my field box set and is covered in wide cellotape back and front.

Alison Nicholls’ watercolor field kit
For all you artists out there who are interested in these things…here’s the list of colors I took with me this year (exactly as shown in the photo). Those in red were new this year.
Cadmium Red | Cerulean Blue | |||
Alizarin Crimson | Lemon Yellow | Cobalt Blue | Davy’s Gray | Titanium White |
Magenta | Cadmium Yellow | Windsor Blue | Leaf Green | Burnt Sienna |
Ultramarine Violet | Naples Yellow | Ultramarine Blue | Oxide Chrome | Burnt Umber |
Venetian Red | Yellow Ochre | Indigo | Hookers Green | Sepia |
I immediately loved the Indigo, Sepia, and Davy’s Gray – which I mixed with almost everything – notice the large hole I created in the half-pan! I had to remember which of these I was using though, because Davy’s Gray is a very subtle hue, requiring several brush-loads to make its presence known, whereas the Indigo and Sepia required just the slightest touch of water to shout their presence to the world!
So it appears that the number of colors in my field box set is increasing…but the number of colors used in each painting is still limited to 2 or 3.
Until next time…keep painting.
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com