What's up with Limited Color Palettes?

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In the internet art sphere, limited palettes have been pretty popular for quite a while. Limited color palettes are exactly what they sound like. When painting or drawing, instead of using a large amount  of colors (12-24), a limited palette only relies on a small amount of colors (2-5). Because limited color palettes are so 'limited' (obviously) they rely heavily on improvisation and color mixing. Both limited and non-limited color palettes have their pros and cons, this article aims to explain some of them.

If you've never used a limited color palette, you may be wondering to yourself, why would someone want to use less colors when they could use more colors. While painting with less colors may seem like and unnecessary handicap, I promise it does have its benefits. 

For one, when you use less colors, you begin to get very comfortable with how those specific colors interact. And, if you chose a yellow, red and a blue, you will learn everything you need to know about how to mix a color. A lot of the reason people have issues with making skin tones or mixing specific grays is because they don't have much experience working with limited color palettes and mixing colors. 

Some of the most beautiful movie scenes, are so aesthetic because of the palettes that were consciously chosen. Whether that be the greenish fog of Taxi Driver (1976) or the black and orange of The Batman (2022), a concise and interesting color palette is a great way to make your art memorable. And this isn't only with movies and film, it also directly applies to painting. If you were to paint with just lemon yellow, vermillion, and burnt umber, your painting will have a much different mood and look than if you painted with yellow ochre, cadmium red and raw umber. 

I think it is important to mention that certain mediums lend themselves more to limited palettes than other mediums. For example, artists that work with alcohol markers often have to collect hundred of colors because while you can blend them, mixing isn't quite as easy. That's one of the reasons that when I first started getting back into art, I began with watercolor and tempera. 

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