On social media I often post how I make my paintings, at least telling people what colors I used to make them. Usually I list only three colors and a neutral. And, as a result, I get inquiries that ask do I ever use more than three colors ever, or three colors at a time. To answer that, yes, I sometimes use more than one color or shade from the spectrum that is published by the color manufacturers but I generally get the results that I want from just a few colors. Most of the time I use three primary hued colors plus a neutral usually something like burnt umber or burnt sienna or some kind of brown from the from the paints that are available. However there are times that I wish to expand my pallet to incorporate other shades and hues in the painting. When this time occurs in my thinking I go to a more expended range of tubes of color which involve tertiaries and secondaries and mixes that fit what I intend to paint as my subject. 

 

Other color schemes I use:

•  Selecting colors — one or two — off the primary RYB colors (Reds, Yellows, Blues) on the secondary and tertiary colors and their complementary color opposites on the color wheel. This goes both ways on the wheel - clockwise and counter—clockwise. I then add a neutral, e.g., Paynes Gray, an earth brown tone, and sometimes an earth yellow.
•  Similar to the schema just above, and adding the primary RYB’s, including another earth brown, and another neutral e.g. Neutral Tint or perhaps an actual gray paint.
•  I sometimes add a black and a green shade to the basic RYB set’
•  Then there is the variation of using odd combinations such as Alizarin Crimson for the Red, Spectrum Violet for the Blue, and Cadmium Yellow Deep for the yellow. Sometimes spicing it up by adding a green shade or Prussian Blue Green Shade, plus raw Sienna, or Naples yellow to vary the mixes and get differing neutrals from color mixes.

Counting up the tubes of color, I vary between 3 primary-like colors for the whole thing up to 10 colors and neutrals at the most. All depends on how I want to paint the subject or abstract the subject.

 

Black - sometimes for adding a deeper depth to a shadow, usually mixed with a shadow neutral. Occasionally I outline something with black. Otherwise all the depth of darker color is done with creating dark neutrals without black.

 

White - Rarely used in watercolor except to place a small white dot somewhere to highlight some tiny detail. In gouache painting, I mix whites in to lighten or change the hue/tone of a color.