Building a Selective Oil Palette:

The Essentials for Confident Colour Mixing

When starting out in oils, it’s easy to assume that more colours mean more creative freedom. But in reality, a carefully considered palette — with fewer, higher-quality colours — offers far more control, clarity, and confidence.

At the Martin Kinnear Studio, our teaching, particularly in The Oils Program (TOP), focuses on building a palette that’s not just functional, but intelligent. One that gives you flexibility, teaches you colour mixing discipline, and supports a personal, expressive painting style.

This isn’t about having every colour — it’s about having the right ones, and knowing how and when to use them.

The Selective Palette: A Foundation in 8 Colours

Here’s a balanced, foundational oil palette designed for both versatility and simplicity. It includes three primaries, three secondaries, and two achromatics — enough to create a full spectrum, while encouraging focused, purposeful colour choices.

Primaries

• Cadmium Red Medium (or equivalent warm red)

• Ultramarine Blue

• Cadmium Yellow Light (or Hansa Yellow Light)

Secondaries

• Viridian or Phthalo Green

• Dioxazine Violet (or mix your own from Ultramarine + Quinacridone)

• Cadmium Orange (or mix your own from Cadmium Red + Cadmium Yellow)

Achromatics

• Titanium White

• Ivory Black (or Payne’s Grey)

This palette supports a huge range of mixing options while helping you build the skill of selective colour use — a vital step in becoming a confident, expressive painter.

Beware of Misleading Palette Advice

It’s easy to be influenced by what you see on YouTube or social media, but not all palettes are created with student painters in mind. The popular Zorn palette, for example — often promoted for its simplicity — is in fact highly specific to a narrow, pseudo-classical style of painting. It’s not a general-purpose palette and can actively hold back your development if you’re trying to explore broader colour relationships or contemporary approaches.

On the other end of the spectrum, highly extended palettes, where dozens of pre-mixed colours are laid out in advance, might look impressive — but they’re expensive, impractical for most painters, and deeply confusing for those still learning colour theory and control.

At Martin Kinnear Studio, we don’t just teach painting — we teach effective skill-building and strong habits. Our approach gives you the tools to make smart decisions about your materials, and the understanding to adapt as your practice grows.

Using Colour with Purpose in The Oils Program

In The Oils Program, you won’t just be told which colours to use. You’ll learn why they’re used, how to combine them, and when to modify your palette for specific effects. Martin Kinnear demonstrates real-world use of selective palettes in studio practice, helping you connect your materials to your intent — whether you’re working tonally, chromatically, or exploring mood through temperature.

This isn't about copying someone else’s palette — it’s about developing your own, based on structured learning, historical context, and informed experimentation.

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