Written by Sarah Resnick, founder of Zollie

Spring is here, and with it every bright new color I've been longing for during the gray New England winter. The world is full of colorful inspiration waiting to be explored and created with, but bringing those colors to life through color mixing can be a bit more challenging.

So on a recent Friday morning, I took an artists field trip to the Providence Botanical Gardens with my Palette Scout deck and watercolor paints. I came on a creative mission with one question—could the Palette Scout deck help me, a color lover but watercolor novice, figure out how to mix paint to match the inspirational colors around me? Come along with me as I figure it out. 

First, I matched colors I saw to Palette Scout cards. Here are a few of my matches:

Once I'd selected my goal colors, I set out my watercolors. I had just six colors with me—a warm and a cool version of red, yellow, and blue.

Palette Scout helped me easily identify whether each color I was matching was a pure intensity or a tone (if you're not sure what that means, check out this helpful blog).

Using our handy dandy color wheel (*more on this below!*) I could analyze each of my colors, place it on the color wheel, and identify exactly which primaries to mix together. 

Following a simple, step-by-step process took the guess work out of my mixing experiment. Instead of feeling frustration at the sight of muddy color mixes, I was able to focus on the joy of making art and bringing my inspiration colors to life.

After I finished painting my swatches, I cut them up and laid them out in the gardens to check how close my matches were to their original inspiration. I was quite pleased with the results! 

We want to equip every artist with the skills they need to create with confidence—so we're developing a new interactive color course, Infinite Palette: Color Mixing 101! Students will learn how to mix every color in the Palette Scout deck, using any art supply of their choice. If you're curious about our color wheel, the magic of double primaries, or mastering color mixing, stay tuned! We can't wait to share this with you.