When It Is Time to Add to a Limited Palette

'Poppies in the Morning'       5x7     oil               ©Karen Margulis  
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I finally added new colors to my limited oil palette. Can you guess from this painting which two colors I added?  If you have been following my progress with oil painting then you know that since April I have been trying to do at least 4 oils each week and I have been working with a limited palette of Ultramarine Blue, Cad Yellow Medium, Alizarin Crimson and white.  I have been working on a large 30x40 oil so that has been taking up my time (finally finished today!) and I have been very happy with my limited palette.
Did you guess which two colors?

New colors on my palette!

I needed to expand my palette because I need to paint some warm red orange flowers for my commission and I was having trouble getting the right red with the alizarin. So I added Cadmium Red Light and that did the trick.  I have also been experimenting with adding a touch of Pthalo Turquoise to my skies and to get some different greens. I used a bit of both of these colors to my palette for this new poppy painting. I was able to get just the right red I wanted for the light on the poppies.

Working with the limited palette for the last few months has really allowed me to get to know my colors and how they mix. No I didn't do color charts but painting everyday did allow me to learn about the colors. I learned the limitations of the palette as well so I knew when I needed to add a new color!

Read more about using a limited palette in my post here.