Mix Your Color Palette First...It Changes Everything!

Denise Cerro
Jan 11
3 min read

Denise Cerro artwork in finding your color palette

Mixing your painting color palette before you start can completely change the way your artwork comes together. I like to pre-mix my colors before painting because that helps create color harmony and flow from the very beginning.

This approach is especially helpful for acrylic painters, mixed media artists, abstract artists, and intuitive painters who want their work to feel cohesive without overthinking every brushstroke. By working with a limited palette and mixing color variations ahead of time, you can stay present in the process and let the painting evolve naturally.

Whether you work in acrylics, mixed media, or whatever your medium...this simple habit can help your painting feel more cohesive and intentional from the very beginning. Not to mention its's more enjoyable to paint when you aren't creating mud, searching for a color that will work in your painting...and having to stop what your doing to figure it out. If you plan it out before you get started, you get to set that project behind you and carry on!

Here's a few things to think about...

• starting with a limited palette and finding the colors you can make with just those few. It will help you learn about what goes into colors, and saves you money and space to not buy, store, drag around all the colors offered in an art store! You can make soooo many colors from three tubes of paint + a light and a dark.

• pre-mixing your color palette saves time once you take the time and mix your chosen colors together to see where they can take you...it will open up an whole new way of painting, knowing your colors are working together.

• mixing color variations without overthinking. Once you get comfortable with how your three colors mix together, you stop overthinking. You don’t need to chase new colors...they’re already there. Every mix carries the same three colors within it, so the harmony is built in. When everything comes from the same place, it naturally works together.

• creating color harmony is very simple to do if you use the chart below and watch the video to show you how to make a harmonious color chart. Once you've done it you'll understand why knowing how to mix your colors and why they harmonize makes creating art even more enjoyable...and adds another layer to your painting knowledge (you know how much I love layers)?

Print out the form below • click the button above • create your own harmonious palette

Blank Color Chart: https://www.denisecerro.com/post/exploring-color-charts

Once again...

With all three colors present on your palette, you know where they can take you, how far they can stretch, and how they’ll speak to one another. When everything comes from the same family, how could it not harmonize?

Another bonus...

When you're traveling back and forth to a studio, classroom or outdoors to paint...you don't need to take all of your paints and studio with you! If you know your palette you can take only those colors, papers and supplies that work with your palette (if you are a mixed media artist). It makes for a more efficient, free painting experience and leaves you without alot of clutter around when you are in your creative mode.