And here it is, the 2021 12-pan palette. The squad has finally been announced. The loser in yesterday's trail of the reds was permanent rose. It was a great colour but didn't seem to do much that quinacridone magenta didn't also do. Having two very different warm reds in rose dore and Winsor red gives me more variety in the palette. It's very hard to find an all singing, all dancing warm red.
So starting top left and going down the left and then down the right, the squad, which is entirely made up of Winsor & Newton colours, is:
- Viridian. Transparent and single pigment and is a colour that would be very difficult to replicate using primaries. It's the only green that I can ever see myself buying.
- Prussian blue. My first choice cool blue. At one point Winsor blue (green shade), known as pthalo blue to other paint manufacturers, might also have made it into the squad but I've heard stories about how the tube version develops a nasty film on it when poured into pans.
- Cerulean blue. Another cool blue, semi opaque. But it's an amazing granulator, so is in there as a special effects expert.
- French ultramarine. Surely everybody's first choice warm blue?
- Burnt umber. First of my earth colours and a long standing favourite.
- Burnt sienna. During 2020, this colour ousted burnt umber as my favourite earth colour. It’s such a great mixer it's like having an extra ten colours in the palette.
- Transparent yellow. My first choice cool yellow.
- Raw sienna. Another earth colour that doubles up as another cool yellow.
- Indian yellow. My first choice warm yellow. Dual pigment but that's not caused me any mud problems to date.
- Rose dore. One of my two warm reds. Not perfect by any means, being dual pigment (the permanent rose pigment plus a yellow!) and difficult to get to an intense, non-watery level but it does add something different.
- Winsor red. My other warm red. Also not perfect, being only semi-transparent and (at the opposite extreme to rose dore) needs a lot of watering down if it's not to embarrass other colours on the painting with its intensity. Might be called pyrrol red by other manufacturers.
- Quinacridone magenta. The king of cool reds. If it ever disappeared from shop shelves, permanent rose or permanent alizarin crimson would make capable deputies.
The most notable absence from the squad is Payne's grey. I'll still keep a tube of it around and will use it from time to time but in a palette dominated by transparent (Winsor red and cerulean blue being the only two exceptions), it was looking out of place.
The final palette has a nice symmetry to it. Three reds, three blues, three yellows and three earths. Plus viridian making 13 but that's because raw sienna is double counted as a yellow and an earth colour.
I like the look of this set. It feels like I'm finding where I belong.
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