A fresh colour palette I'm loving right now

Beautiful, soft & earthy acrylic gouache colours

This week I discovered a new colour palette while using my acrylic gouache paints. I had to share it with you because I think it’s the perfect combination of fresh pastel colours, earth tones, plus one brighter colour, Coral Red. I’ve been trying to gently steer my work in a new direction over the past few months - if you’re interested in hearing about the struggles and victories along the way, I’ve documented the journey on Patreon, and also my YouTube channel. One of the elements I’m tackling is the colour palettes I use. I’ve long been a lover of dark, muted, moody colours, and I still love these and will continue to use them in my work. What I’d like to do, however, is to introduce some slightly lighter, brighter colours, whilst retaining the original style and feel of my work. I think I’m now managing to do that, and this palette is the perfect example!

Earlier this week, I worked on the small painting below in acrylic gouache. I used the Holbein Acryla and the Turner Acryl brands, and I love both of them. Generally, I always think of the Holbein acrylic gouache colours as being slightly lighter, brighter and pastel-ish, while Turner has a better range of muted, moodier colours. But within each range there’s a huge variety of colours to choose from, whatever your style or preference.

Treetops 1 © Natasha Newton 2024

I’m going to list all of the colours I used below, for those of you who are inspired to try this colour palette too.

I always want to frame my used palettes! This ceramic palette is by Sugarhouse Ceramic Co. It’s one of my favourites.

The colours

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Primary Black

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Titanium White (I have a large tube of white because I use it all the time for mixing and details/highlights)

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Viridian (I mixed this with the Primary Black to make a very dark green for the row of pine trees in the background)

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Misty Green

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Ash Blue (I mixed a tiny bit of this with Misty Green for the hill, but it would work well in this palette used straight from the tube as well)

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Misty Blue

• Turner Acryl Gouache - Ivory Yellow

• Turner Acryl Gouache - J.Beige (from their Japanesque range)

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Yellow Ochre

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Raw Sienna

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Burnt Sienna

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Light Apricot

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Coral Red

• Holbein Acryla Gouache - Jaune Brillant

Please feel free to leave your current favourite colour palettes or colour combinations below, as I’m sure that other members of the Cosy Creative community would love to hear them - I know I would!

See you soon!

Natasha x