You can’t go wrong with these 4 pigments

When you first start painting, it can be an expensive task to put together your kit. You need to get brushes, pallets, easels, and canvases. In addition, you will need sketchbooks, pencils, tape, and erasers. You will also need paints. 

Paints, however, can be expensive, and there are so many different colors, it can be hard to narrow down what you do and don’t need. 

If you’re new to painting and are wondering about the four pigments that are a must-have, then you have come to the right place. That is what this article is all about. 

When you first start buying paints, it can be tempting to buy every single shade out there. However, by only working with a few shades and learning to mix colors yourself, you can make yourself a better painter. 

If you have the four colors that we have mentioned in the article, you will make every color. 

The best type of paints for artists

We often get asked by new artists, what type of paint should I be using? 

The answer to this question entirely depends on how you like to paint. 

If you like to make quick and playful paintings, you will want to purchase yourself a watercolor paints. On the other hand, if you like bold colors that dry quickly, then you will want to pick up some acrylic paints. 

However, the majority of professional painters use oil paints. Oil paints are slow drying but offer a wide range of depth, tones, and colors that you can’t get from other types of paints. If you are exploring painting for the first time, we recommend starting with oil paints and seeing how you like them and the finish they give. 

That being said, we have been on the hunt for the best oil paints for professionals for a long time now. Below, we have gathered the four most important pigments that we think all artists need in their collection. 

Black & White 

We understand that counting black and white as one color is cheating a little bit, but in our minds, they are inseparable. 

Although you should never paint with black directly onto a canvas (according to every art teacher we have ever had), it is a really useful color when it comes to mixing new colors. 

White is an infinitely useful color. We go through about three tubes of white for every other tube we finish. It can be used for mixing nearly every color, we use it to prime our canvases, and you can even use it to highlight areas of the painting. 

Golden Ochre 

If you don’t think that Golden Ochre is the best shade of yellow, then we can no longer be friends, I’m sorry. 

This pigment was originally made from clay, so it is perfect for adding an earthy naturalness to any color you are mixing. 

This may surprise you, but we include Golden Ochre in nearly every skin tone mix that we make. It makes the colors so realistic and helps the skin not to stand out so severely against the rest of the painting. 

French Ultramarine 

Where Ultramarine Blue leans slightly green, French Ultramarine has more of a red undertone. We find that French Ultramarine is a much more useful color. 

Unless you are going to be regularly painting scenes of old greek villages and deep blue seas, then you will find French Ultramarine is a touch more realistic than the other popular blues. And it is much easier to work with, especially for beginners. 

All Ultramarine pigments used to come from powdered lapis lazuli. However, the stone was rare, and buying the pigment was expensive. This is why you only really see blue in religious paintings from the Renaissance. Now the pigment is made in labs and is (thankfully) much less expensive. 

Cardinal Red

Our final pigment color is Cardinal Red. Yes, all the colors we picked are a slightly off-beat version of the primary colors. However, our choices are designed with the user in mind – they are easier to mix, and they will create a much more natural color range. 

The color got its name as it is very close to the dyes used on catholic cardinal cassocks. Many people think that the color was named after the cardinal bird, but the bird was also named after the cardinal’s cassocks.