Beginner's Palette

I suggest purchasing the following colors when starting to oil paint:

Ivory Black
Titanium White
Burnt Sienna
Raw Umber
Cobalt Bue
Ultramarine Blue
Cadmium Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Alizarin Crimson
Cadmium Red Light
Sap Green
Viridian (Phthalocyanine Green)

Liquid White- a base oil paint sold in larger containers such as small, metal cans

If you are able to buy more oil paint, but don't know which colors to buy, I suggest:

Raw Sienna
Burnt Umber
Phthylo Blue


Don't feel like you have to have every possible color. It is quite possible to do very nice paintings with only 3 or 4 colors! One mistake that beginning artists make is to add many, unrelated colors to a painting thinking that a lot of color will make the painting good. Quantity of colors does not influence the quality of the painting. Some of my favorite paintings that I have done have only 3 colors: Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, and Ultramarine Blue, along with Titanium White.