A three-pigment triad that actually mixes cleanly
Most palette advice lists twelve colours and calls it a limited palette. This is a genuinely limited one: three tubes, twenty-five tested mixtures, and a rule for knowing when a mix is about to turn muddy before it does.
Ultramarine — Deep, warm-leaning blue. Granulates visibly.
| Pigment | Parts | Hex |
|---|---|---|
| French Ultramarine | 3 : 9 (33%) | #2E4A7D |
| Winsor Yellow Deep | 3 : 9 (33%) | #D9A02B |
| Permanent Alizarin Crimson | 3 : 9 (33%) | #9B2E44 |
Mixing notes
| Warm grey The workhorse neutral. At full strength it reads as stone; diluted to 20% it is a sky grey. | 4 blue + 1 yellow + 1 crimson | #8A8074 |
| Deep violet Keeps its transparency because both pigments are transparent; add yellow and it dies within one minute. | 3 blue + 2 crimson | #4B3268 |
| Olive green The crimson is what stops this reading as a bright grass green; leave it out and the mix turns acid. | 3 yellow + 2 blue + 1 crimson | #6E7238 |
| Burnt orange Push past 5 : 1 crimson to yellow and the mix greys out — the crimson is a cool red, not a warm one. | 4 yellow + 2 crimson + 1 blue | #B5642A |
| Mid neutral The classic test of a triad. If this swatch looks muddy, one of your three pigments is a convenience mixture. | equal parts of all three | #736E67 |
| Sky passage A trace of crimson in a weak blue is what makes a sky look lit rather than painted flat. | blue at 15% + a trace of crimson | #7C9CC4 |
- Draw a grid of 5 x 5 squares, 25 mm each, on 300 gsm cold press. Label the rows by the yellow-to-blue ratio and the columns by the crimson addition.
- Mix six puddles in a porcelain well tray: 1:0, 4:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:4 of yellow to blue. Do not vary the water content between them.
- Fill the middle row first. Consistency across the row matters more than the exact ratios.
- Now add crimson at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 5 parts per twelve parts of the yellow-blue mix, working down the columns.
- Paint each square with one flat wash and let it dry before judging. Ultramarine lightens by a full value step as it dries.
- Write the actual ratio on the back of the sheet, not the front — pencil on the front will show through a later glaze.
- Mask the six recipe swatches and keep them as a physical reference card. Photographs do not capture the granulation.
Why these three and not the obvious ones
French ultramarine is a warm-leaning blue with visible granulation; Winsor yellow deep is a warm, semi-opaque yellow that does not turn green when diluted; permanent alizarin crimson is a cool, transparent red. Together they span the wheel unevenly — which is the point. A perfectly even triad produces flat, uninteresting neutrals.
The pairing matters more than the individual pigments. Ultramarine and alizarin are both transparent and both lean cool, so their violet is luminous and deep. Swap ultramarine for phthalo blue and the violet becomes a staining, cold purple that cannot be lifted.
The muddy-mix test
A mix turns muddy when three things happen at once: the value drops below about 40%, the chroma collapses toward neutral, and the pigment load goes up because you keep adding more to 'fix' the colour. The test is the third one. If you have added paint twice without changing the water, stop and start a fresh puddle.
In practice this means never mixing more than three pigments in one puddle. The 5 x 5 grid exercises that limit: every square uses at most three.
Reading the grid once it is dry
Ultramarine granulates visibly in every square where it is the dominant pigment, which creates a faint speckle that reads as an atmospheric haze. Where yellow dominates, the granulation disappears entirely because the yellow particles are finer and fill the paper's tooth.
The most useful squares are the ones you did not expect to like. In a yellow-blue-crimson triad the green column almost always contains one ratio that reads as a usable foliage colour — usually 3 : 2 : 1 — and it is usually a ratio nobody would have chosen by eye.
What matters
- Three tubes only: warm ultramarine, warm semi-opaque yellow, cool transparent crimson.
- Never mix more than three pigments in one puddle — that is the actual rule that prevents mud.
- If you have added paint twice without changing the water, start a fresh puddle.
- Judge the grid dry: ultramarine lightens by a full value step as it dries.
Handling note — Technique notes only. Pigment handling, ventilation and disposal requirements vary by product — follow the manufacturer's safety data sheet.