If the painting you are painting right now gives you trouble, there is one thing you should check first: how well your palette is organized.

The reason is simple: poorly organized palettes are, most of the time, the primary reason for problems in the paintings (this is true not only for beginner artists but for more advanced artists, too).

What is a well-organized palette?

It’s quite the same thing as a well-organized closet. The most important feature of a nicely organized closet is that it enables you to find your stuff immediately. It should be big enough so you can put everything inside. If you look for one specific grey T-shirt, you will open the drawer with T-shirts. And if you are a fan of Marie Condo, the T_shirts will be: a) arranged by colors (so you immediately spot all your grey T-shirts in one place) b) arranged in vertical positions so that when you take out one, it doesn’t affect the rest (they stay in order).

Your palette should have enough space cause, if not, colors tend to mix even when it is not your intent to do so. The colors should be positioned in some order (by values, warmth, saturation…) so you can easily find and go back to the color you need (and don’t make any compromise).

If you are like me, this might not be intuitive for you. (I used to like a messy palette – thinking I was too passionate to have an organized one). So I’ll make you a proposition: try to paint with a well-organized palette for just one month. And then evaluate what this change did for your painting. You might be surprised!

Remember the saying: outer order, inner calm;)