My revised Palette for 2026
At the end of the year, I refined my watercolour palette, and vowed not to change it for a year, to give myself a chance to really get to know the colours and their colour mixing potential.
My Watercolour Palette at the end of 2025
This is the 20 colour palette of watercolours that I settled on, after about 4-5 months of evaluation and assessment, and a lot of swatching.
But, here we are on day 11 of the new year, and I’ve already made a change!
I’m taking out the Phaltho Green (blue shade) and replacing it with a premixed green.
Liz Steel Watercolour Course
I blame Liz Steel. I’m doing another run through of her Watercolour course, and there’s a lot of exercises and tutorials designed to really get to know how your colours interact with each other. This is to help us get the most amount of versatility from our palette, based on the effects we want to create in our sketches.
My preference is as many transparent colours as I can, and optimised granulation.
Assessing the usefulness of my Phthalo Green (blue shade)
For a colour I don’t use very much (except for plants and the occasional palm tree), I’ve spent a lot of time focused on replicating the two premixed greens I removed from my palette (sap green and undersea green), out of the blues and yellows. And assessing what I’ll actually use my Phthalo Green (blue shade) for.
Do I even Like my Phthalo Green?
I experimented with mixing green variations using the Phthalo Green as a base, by adding blues and yellows into the mix.
I discovered that I’m really not enamoured with the variety of greens the Phthalo Green produces. I mixed Phthalo with the yellows and blues I have in my palette.
I realised that I’d much rather mix a more pleasing green using a blue and yellow.
Phthalos Create a Gorgeous Turquoise
What I did absolutely loved about my Phthalo Green (blue shade), was the bright turquoise it created when I mixed it with Phthalo Blue (green shade).
It’s just gorgeous. Reminiscent of a Caribbean blue, which would be good for some ocean highlights, and maybe some areas of sky, but also for clothing, eye colour, or building accents (like doors or window frames).
But I don’t want to keep this Phthalo Green in my palette just because it makes a delicious turquoise. Especially since I figured I could mix a close approximation of this turquoise using Phthalo Blue and Hansa Yellow Light, and Phthalo Blue and Hansa Yellow Medium. By varying there ratio of these I can create a lovely teal and a bright turquoise. So I don’t need Phthalo Green in my palette.
Decision made – the Phthalo Green has to go. But what should I replace it with?
What Premixed Green to Add to my Palette?
I’ve got three potential greens to add to my palette:
- Sap Green PO48, PY150, P67
- Green Gold PY3, PY150, P636
- Undersea Green PB29, PO48, PY150
All three of them have PY150 in common. Sap and Undersea Green have PO48 in common. The other pigments vary by colour, but each of these colours is made up of three pigments.
I wanted to add one premixed green into my palette, and be able to make the other two greens out of it (or out of a blue and yellow already in my palette). So using the Sap Green, I added Hansa Yellow Medium, Quin Gold, and French Ultramarine to create some variations on Sap, that would give me some lighter and darker variations to use for foliage.
Sap Green is the way to go!
My Palette Assessment
Now that I’ve settled on adding Sap Green, I updated my colour assessment chart which lists all of the colours in my palette.
On the Left in the image below, this charge indicates:
- The abbreviation of the colour
- The level of transparency/opacity
- Maker: Daniel Smith vs. Winsor Newton
- Granulating or Non-Granulating
- Staining level (1-4)
I’ve added in the Sap Green which is Transparent, Daniel Smith, Granulating, Staining Level 3.
There are three layouts on the right, laid out in the same order as my palette is set up. This is a quick glance view of whether a colour is:
- Transparent
- Non-Transparent
- Granulating
I’ve got an equal number of Transparent vs Non-Transparent colours, and more Granulating Colours than non.
I like that I’ve took out the non-granulating Phthalo Green, and added in the granulating Sap Green.
Making Note of Pigment Colours
I took my palette assessment one step further (thanks Liz!) and noted down the actual pigment colours are used to make the watercolours I have in my palette.
Sap Green is a pretty standard green in a lot of artist’s palettes, and what I found interesting is that it’s actually made up of three different pigments. Something to bear in mind when you’re mixing colours. The more pigments you have, the more chance you have of making muddy instead of vibrant mixes.
So this is it. My new, improved, watercolour palette for 2026. I plan on using Sap Green straight from the palette for a quick grab of green, in small areas.
But I’m also experimenting with mixing my own sap green variant, and other variations of green to use if I happen to have larger areas of green foliage and trees. So that I can have the maximum amount of granulation and movement in the greenery.
And now, I hope this is the last time I have to revisit my quandary over which green to have in my palette.
