How do I organize my paints?
I lay out my paint in a Plano 578 fishing box with four drawers. I arrange my lighter value/warmer colors on the left. In the middle of each drawer/row, I place the medium value and medium temperature colors.
Organizing My Paints: Colors
On the right side, I place my darker value and cooler temperature colors. This layout reflects what Monet showed us about what color does.
Cadmium yellow pale, cadmium orange, and cadmium scarlet are my light side colors.
Cadmium red is my medium, which I use as a transitional color. The darker value cooler colors, such as alizarin crimson and ultramarine violet, are my darks.
My green row of colors starts with cadmium lemon or Windsor yellow on the left. In the middle is sap green and Prussian green, leading to the cooler color, Winsor green, on the right.
I can mix any colors on the left row with all the other colors. The browns row can be mixed with the greens and the blues that are directly above and below each color.
And I can mix any medium color in the reds with the medium browns, the medium greens, and the medium blues. I can also mix any of the darker reds with the medium browns and the medium reds. I use a feeding box because I can go from warm to cool with every color and know what to do.
Every dot tells me it’s transparent, and a transparent color gets one chance to get right. That’s where the value scale and classical foundational drawing come into play.