I enjoy assembling autumn palettes the most of any season. Here is the palette I put together for plein air and sketching this fall. As I write this, we’re already mostly over the foliage season, but there were two glorious weeks!
The Palette
Top Row:
- SH Aureolin Modern (PY151) – bold yellow for yellow leaves.
- DS Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65) – warm yellow for mixing oranges
- DS Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255) – bold scarlet for scarlet leaves
- DV Quin Red (PR209) – orange mixer
- DS Quin Red (PV19) – transparent, deep red mixer
- HO Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15) – all purpose blue
- DS Green Gold (PY150, PY3, PG7) – green mixer
Bottom Row:
- WN Gold Ochre (PY42) – very autumnal earthy gold
- DS Quinacridone Burnt Orange (PO48) – glowy orange glazer
- DS Transparent Red Oxide (PR101) – granulating brown mixer
- HO Pyrrole Rubin (PR264) – deep candy apple red
- DV Perylene Violet (PV29) – dark shadowy red
- DS Indanthrone Blue (PB60) – dark shadowy blue
- DV Cobalt Blue (PB28) – bright blue, shadow mixer
Past Autumn Palettes
Here are some previous Autumn Palettes I’ve made:
Each of these palettes has had some elements in common, which I can use to suggest a sort of template.
Yellows
There is always a bold middle yellow; e.g. PY154, PY97, PY151. This is deal for bold yellow foliage.
I also like to have an earth yellow, for shadowed and distant versions of yellow. I’ve been in love with Gold Ochre for fall since 2023, so that is what I put in this year. But MANS, Raw Sienna, or Yellow Ochre also work, maybe even Naples Yellow Deep.
Orange Mixers
To mix bold orange leaves, there is always a warm/deep orange-yellow; e.g. PY65, PY110, New Gamboge. This does a much better job than a middle yellow.
I have also always had Quin Coral (PR209) in my fall palette because in my opinion it makes the boldest oranges you can make without resorting to fugitive fluorescents; it is even more bold than oranges mixed from, well, orange. I have generally found single-pigment or commercially mixed oranges to be somewhat disappointing compared to self-mixed oranges, for whatever reason.
There is always an earth orange; my favorite is Transparent Red Oxide (PR101). I also like Quin Burnt Orange for deep piney mixes and pretty glazes. Other earth oranges, like Burnt Sienna and Terra Cotta, also work.
Blues
For shadows, it’s nice to have a dark blue. I tend to gravitate toward Indanthrone Blue (PB60), but Ultramarine Blue (PB29) is most people’s choice.
Skies in autumn are often very crisp and true blue. I currently like to include Phthalo Blue RS or Cobalt Blue (or both), but in the past I have opted for Cerulean Blue.
Greens
There needs to be a way to mix deep, rich greens. Green is still an important color in fall. Not all foliage turns colors, not all turns colors at the same time, there are still evergreens, etc.
I often use a combination of Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150) and a blue such as Phthalo Blue (GS, RS, Turquoise, etc.) or Prussian Blue. This year, my Nickel Azo Yellow equivalent is a mixed yellow-green which adds a bit of phthalo green to this yellow to make it a little more convenient to use for greens.
Reds
There are always lots of reds, and these vary the most!
This year I may have gone overboard with too many.
Here are the red “slots” I favor:
Scarlet(s): Sometimes I opt to mix scarlet from Quin Coral and sometimes I like to have another one. I’m having a bit of a Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255) renaissance since discovering how great it looks in dilute in sunsets.
Transparent red(s): Colors that are transparent can glaze over each other to mix an intense depth of color. I like DS or Holbein Quin Red (PV19) quite a bit because it has the mixing range of a Quin Rose but is a bit warmer/redder.
Middle red(s): Red’s reds, a red that really makes you say, “Wow, that’s really red.” The closest I currently have is the deep, lusciously candy-apple-red Pyrrol Rubin (PR264), which is borderline a dark red. In the past I’ve tested Pyrrol Red (PR254) and Perylene Red (PR178). My choice is entirely subjective: I just like the crimson of Pyrrol Rubin. I also like to mix middle red hues with my other choices, such as PV19 and PR255.
Dark red(s): It’s nice to have dark red(s), maroons, magentas, or purples to mix deeper red colors. I initially opted for Deep Scarlet (PR175) but over time came to find it somewhat awkward. Last year I tried Quin Fuchsia (PR202), and Quin Violet (PV19) has also been a contender, at least when mixed with other reds. This year, I’m going with the classically dark Perylene Violet (PV29) because it is the perfect color for some very dark red leaves I saw in the field.
Pinks/Purples
One possible liability of my autumn palette is that it’s low on pinks and purples – I can kind of mix them from PV19 quin red, and Perylene Violet is technically a violet (though I think it’s more of a dark red). I don’t normally think of autumn as a pinky time, but even now there are some pink flowers for which PR122 wouldn’t go amiss…
The “Inverted” Autumn Palette
I’ve filled a second Pocket Palette with colors not in the autumn palette. These are my “non autumn” colors that I like to have around.
Many of these simply don’t go in the autumn palette because they’re too similar to colors already there; there’s sort of excuses to have the same color available in both palettes while technically not duplicating.
Top Row:
- DV Arylide Yellow (PY97) – honestly interchangeable with PY151
- DS New Gamboge (PY97, PY110) – honestly interchangeably with PY65
- HO Pyrrol Red (PR254) – a possibility for the autumn palette, would probably have included it with one more slot, but it’s a little reduplicative with PR255 and/or PR264.
- DV Red Rose Deep (PV19) – more or less identical to Quin Red
- DV Magenta Rose (PR122) – a key mixer for my commitment to more purple
- DS Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3) – I can never decide between PBGS and PBRS
- DV Phthalo Green (PG7) – more crucial in summer, when bright greens are needed
Bottom Row:
- WN Naples Yellow Deep (PBr24) – a color I use quite frequently for sunsets, probably the more useful one if I could only have one of the earth yellows.
- DS Quin Gold (PO48, PY150) – a color I have an emotional attachment to although its component, Nickel Azo Yellow, is a more versatile mixer.
- DV Terra Cotta (PR102) – a good earth orange
- WN Venetian Red (PR101) – also a fun earth orange/red
- DV Thioindigo Violet (PR88, PV19) – essentially Quin Violet, also was a possible contender for the autumn palette because it mixes dark/deep reds especially with pyrrols, and part of my purple renaissance
- DV Ultramarine Blue (PB29) – a classic
- SH Cobalt Turquoise (PG50) – one of my favorite ways to mix pastels; not so seasonal for autumn exactly, but a nice sky color
Have you been painting autumnal scenes? What colors are you enjoying?