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Choosing Your Basic Oil Painting Colors

What basic oil painting colors should you choose when you start?

That will depend on who you're asking, as opinion differ from artist to artist, and from art teacher to art teacher.

For instance, in Oil Painting for the Beginner (Watson-Guptill), Frederic Taubes suggests the following basic list of colors as a starter:

White Lead (Flake White)
Prussian Blue
Ultramarine Blu
Viridian Green (Chro-moxide Green
Transparent)
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Yellow
Venetian Red
Cadmium Red
Alizarin Crimso
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber and
Ivory Black

As additional colors, he recommends Naples Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Indian Red and Cerulean Blue.

On the other hand, Jerry Farnsworth's Learning to Paint in Oil (Watson-Guptill) contains the following list of essential colors for the oil painter:

Zinc White
Cadmium Yellow Pale
Cadmium Yellow Mediu
Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light
Cadmium Red Deep
Yellow Ochr
Raw Sienna
Venetian Red
Burnt Sienna
Raw Umber
Alizarin Crimson
Viridian
Ultramarine Blu
Cobalt Blue
Cerulean Blue
Ivory Black

Other colors which he likes to use at times are Oxide of Chromium, Mars Violet, Payne's Gray, and the Manganese Blues and Greens.

But, if you are just beginning to paint, you will do well to start with a oil painting color range of a reputable brand.

Most color manufacturers make a line of student colors along with their professional grades.

These colors are appreciably less expensive and the selection is nearly as wide as in the professional line. As you progress, you can replace the student brand with colors of professional quality, which have far greater covering quality, particularly in the Cadmiums and Blues.

I recommend the following oil painting colors for basic use: