This list of paints can be used to mix to hit nearly all  colors found in nature. I should say that no range of paint will hit what we see in the world around us. Values and chromas, at least at the extremes, are compressed and that compression must be taken into account as the painting develops. Since many objects are in the low to mid chroma range, umbers, blacks, and whites will be used most often. This is quite nice, for two reasons. First, even the best quality paint of these are the least expensive paints. Second, knowing that this group is the starting point for mixing most colors speeds my mixing. You might think that how long it takes to mix some paint is unimportant, but I often need to mix 10–20 colors during one session. If each of those mixes took 5 minutes I would lose an hour of painting time, something I can’t afford to have happen.

BASIC LOW-MID CHROMA PAINTS:

Ivory Black
Titanium White
Cremnitz White
Permanent Alizarin Crimson (Winsor Newton)
Burnt Umber (Old Holland)

Quinacridone Red (Graham)
Perylene Red
Napthol Red
Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Lemon
Phthalo Green Yellow Shade
Phthalo Green
Phthalo Blue
Cobalt Turquoise Bright (Vasari)
Ultramarine Blue
Dioxazine Purple
Cobalt Violet Pale (Vasari)
Quinacridone Rose