Advice on Colours

A basic range - hmm.  White obviously - probably Titanium, you won't want to be throwing a ton of cash at the lead whites at this juncture; black, if you like - make it Ivory or Mars Black: or mix a tonal black; Burnt Sienna; Cadmium Red Light; Quinacridone violet, or red, or magenta - this one is also known as Permanent Rose in some ranges, PV19 is the pigment name; Yellow Ochre; Raw Sienna; Cadmium Yellow Light; Lemon Yellow; Viridian; Ultramarine. Later on, you'll be wanting to add Cerulean Blue or Cobalt Blue.  (The 'Hue' versions are basically mixes of Pthalo Blue - on the whole you're better off without them, though the W&N Manganese Blue (Hue) is pretty good.) Or - and this is about as basic as I could make it, others may do better - a modified Zorn palette: White, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Black, plus a blue; probably Ultramarine, and a bright Yellow, like Cadmium Yellow.   Brands: Daler Rowney, Georgian Range and Artists' range; what little I've had from Jacksons was good; there's a range of oils on the Ken Bromley website: I can vouch for their Cadmium Yellow.  There are many more brands available, some expensive, most expensive for good reasons - eg the Michael Harding paints, the Wallace Seymour range, Rublev, Old Holland, which you'll want to graduate to as you continue to progress.  And then there's the Talens Rembrandt range, which is generally very good. This IS all going to involve a considerable outlay on your part at the outset; there's no satisfactory way around that - but you will have a product that will last for decades in the tube: I'm finishing off a tube of Winsor & Newton's Cadmium Red, which I know is at least 40 years old - suggesting to me that I ought to use Cad Red more often..... Two further notes: Alizarin Crimson has a dubious reputation - it fades in tints and glazes; and I haven't recommended Pthalo Blue or Green because - I don't like them; but they are reasonably cheap to make, and thus to buy.  And other people DO get on with them.

PS - the basic range you've suggested for yourself would work, in a very limited way - but with a bit of imagination you could do a lot with it - as you could with mixes of white, Burnt Sienna, and Ultramarine - a very limited palette, but capable of rather a lot, in work I've seen.

Back in the seventies when I first picked up acrylics I limited myself to 2 reds (alizarin crimson and Vermillion - both hues), 2 blues (ultramarine and monestral), 2 yellows (Winsor yellow and yellow ochre) along with Burnt Umber and Titanium White.  Twenty years late I did buy some Mars Black for a specific painting (portrait with black background) and found it can make interesting greens when mixed with yellow.  Monestral Blue seems to have  been replaced by Phthalocyanine Blue (both shades).  I seem to have gone crazy with yellow replacing Winsor yellow with Lemon Yellow as well as Cadmium Yellow (both light and deep shades).  None of the substitutions were because I was unhappy but names and offerings changed and I was searching for an alternative.  I have a little used tube of Dioxazine Purple (again bought for a specific purpose).  I bought a tube of Payne's Grey to experiment with and some Zinc White to try in mixes.  The Payne's Grey has been little used and the Zinc White is unopened, but that is because the muse has abandoned me for a while.  Can't say I have really wanted for more.

Well, there's been a lot of good advice here. If you follow it all, you'll have dozens of tubes and will spend a fortune, so what should you do? I think you should decide on what you wish to paint, and then think out a colour scheme using a limited number of colours (restricted palette). Include whether you want sympathetic or complementary colours, warm colours or cold ones. Then do a bit of research on the internet to identify precisely the colours you need, e.g. the colours for warm or cold greens. Use of a downloadable colour wheel app will help. I never use black from a tube as it tends to be lifeless. I mix it from burnt umber and ultramarine blue. If you are at the stage where you exhibit your work, I would recommend artists' grade colours. These contain more pigment than the students' grade such as Winton or Georgian. I also recommend Jacksons's colours which come in three grades. The top and most expensive grade is the "professional". Only worth buying if you are  top professional artist. It contains the most pigment. The next grade is effectively the artist's grade and is cheaper than, but probably as good as, other well-known makes. The cheapest grade is the student's. If you think it out, you will probably only need about six tubes, which will cost you about £50. Add a large tube of white. The best place I've found to buy canvas board or canvas is Loxley Arts, which have a good range and which is a lot cheaper than many makers'. Find them by Google. They deliver, or you can click and collect from their warehouse in Sheffield. You have to click on what you want, before the full range of sizes and prices comes up. Good luck.

Another excellent brand is the van Gogh range of oils by Royal Talens. I’ve got lots of them and can’t fault them in any way. Not everyone stocks them which is a pity, but worth sourcing as the quality is excellent and a good price. The film ‘Loving Vincent’ if you’ve seen it Bill, was painted exclusively using the very same Van Gogh oils that I am recommending, and the artwork for that film was exceptional.

As you know I don’t paint in oils but I have some Van Gogh watercolours by Royal Talons , they are excellent and rich in pigment The few colours I have had from some time despite then been small tubes as very little paint is needed , when I next need paint I will certainly buy them . But  it will be a while as I have just checked and have about twenty tubes of paint un opened that have been bought for me , at my age my kids don’t know what to but me so get paint, paper or a voucher for art supplies, suits me well.