Three ways to lay out the dish once you can mix and dilute inside it, and what each one can actually reach.
Where this landed. There is no well in the app. Every layout here depends on one, so none of them shipped. The palettes that did are four sets of a few paints, with their washes beside them.
Nothing on the palette is a finished colour.
Nine pigments, chosen so every other colour is two of them in the well. Warm and cool of each primary, because the bias decides whether a mix comes out bright or muddy. A green from cool blue and cool yellow is bright; the same green from warm blue and warm yellow is olive. Sumi, a burnt earth and a violet are here because none of the three can be mixed convincingly from the others. The brightest violet the reds and blues can make together is barely two thirds as saturated as the pigment itself.
Row is 341 pt wide against 345 pt of screen, so it fits.
One row: the well, then nine pigments and water. No set switching: the whole palette is always on screen.
Every colour this palette can put on paper: each pigment at eight dilutions, and every pair of pigments at seven ratios, each of those at eight dilutions. Plotted on the a*b* plane. All three plots share one frame.
1 slot the well already gives you: Taisha (ΔE 8.9 from Hanada + Shu). That is a match in colour only. A granulating earth still behaves differently on paper from the mix that matches it.
| Pigment | Hex | Diluted in the well | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 墨 Sumi | #171420 | black: cannot be mixed | |
| 群青 Gunjō | #2F4DA8 | warm blue, violet bias | |
| 縹 Hanada | #067B96 | cool blue, green bias | |
| 臙脂 Enji | #9C1B46 | cool red, violet bias | |
| 朱 Shu | #D73D24 | warm red, orange bias | |
| 藤黄 Tō-ō | #F0A81C | warm yellow | |
| 雌黄 Shiō | #E2CF4B | cool yellow, green bias | |
| 代赭 Taisha | #9C5330 | earth: cannot be mixed | |
| 紫 Murasaki | #572A72 | violet: cannot be mixed |
A small palette per subject, switched with the arrows you already have.
Five limited palettes of four pigments each, every one a combination that hangs together historically. Freeing the three dilution slots makes this possible: the well dilutes, so each slot can hold a different pigment instead of the same one three times. Colours inside a set share parents, so a painting made from one set is harmonised before you start.
Row is 303 pt wide against 345 pt of screen, so it fits.
The well plus four pigments and water, with ‹ › switching families. Fewest things on screen; a switch away from the rest.
Every colour this palette can put on paper: each pigment at eight dilutions, and every pair of pigments at seven ratios, each of those at eight dilutions. Plotted on the a*b* plane. All three plots share one frame.
3 slots the well already gives you: Taisha (ΔE 5.9 from Rokushō + Shu), Ōdo (ΔE 9 from Tō-ō + Murasaki), Ainezumi (ΔE 5.9 from Rokushō + Murasaki). That is a match in colour only. A granulating earth still behaves differently on paper from the mix that matches it.
| 山水 Landscape | 1,985 ab² | 10/12 bands | ||
| 花鳥 Flower & bird | 6,773 ab² | 12/12 bands | ||
| 夕景 Dusk | 3,461 ab² | 6/12 bands | ||
| 霧 Mist | 1,057 ab² | 6/12 bands | ||
| 紅葉 Autumn | 5,681 ab² | 9/12 bands |
| Pigment | Hex | Diluted in the well | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 墨 Sumi | #171420 | landscape · dusk · mist | |
| 藍 Ai | #1D4B7D | landscape · autumn | |
| 代赭 Taisha | #9C5330 | landscape · mist · autumn | |
| 緑青 Rokushō | #2F7A5C | landscape · flower | |
| 臙脂 Enji | #9C1B46 | flower & bird | |
| 藤黄 Tō-ō | #F0A81C | flower · autumn | |
| 白群 Byakugun | #7FA8C9 | flower · mist | |
| 朱 Shu | #D73D24 | dusk · autumn | |
| 紫 Murasaki | #572A72 | dusk | |
| 黄土 Ōdo | #B8873A | dusk | |
| 藍鼠 Ainezumi | #4A5F6B | mist |
Every colour named, one tap away; the well is for nuance.
Fifteen finished traditional inks in a single row. Here the well is not how you reach a colour. You use it to adjust one you already have, warming a green or toning down a red. The most immediate palette and the one that asks least of you, at the cost of slots that overlap and colours that were never harmonised through shared parents.
Row is 491 pt wide against 345 pt of screen: 146 pt sits off the edge and has to scroll.
The well, then fifteen pigments and water in one row. It is wider than the screen, so it scrolls.
Every colour this palette can put on paper: each pigment at eight dilutions, and every pair of pigments at seven ratios, each of those at eight dilutions. Plotted on the a*b* plane. All three plots share one frame.
6 slots the well already gives you: Ai (ΔE 6.5 from Gunjō + Rokushō), Rokushō (ΔE 6 from Asagi + Taisha), Koke (ΔE 8 from Ai + Ōdo), Ōdo (ΔE 9 from Tō-ō + Murasaki), Taisha (ΔE 5 from Koke + Shu), Enji (ΔE 7 from Gunjō + Beni). That is a match in colour only. A granulating earth still behaves differently on paper from the mix that matches it.
| Pigment | Hex | Diluted in the well | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 墨 Sumi | #171420 | ||
| 藍 Ai | #1D4B7D | ||
| 群青 Gunjō | #2F4DA8 | ||
| 白群 Byakugun | #7FA8C9 | ||
| 浅葱 Asagi | #00889D | ||
| 緑青 Rokushō | #2F7A5C | ||
| 苔 Koke | #566B2E | ||
| 藤黄 Tō-ō | #F0A81C | ||
| 黄土 Ōdo | #B8873A | ||
| 代赭 Taisha | #9C5330 | ||
| 朱 Shu | #D73D24 | ||
| 紅 Beni | #B02A45 | ||
| 臙脂 Enji | #7D1B3F | ||
| 紫 Murasaki | #572A72 | ||
| 銀鼠 Ginnezu | #B0ADAA |
| Six parents | Family sets | The cabinet | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pigments to author | 9 | 11 | 15 |
| On screen at once | 11 | 6 | 17 |
| Gamut reached | 9,594 ab² | 8,023 ab² | 9,471 ab² |
| Gamut without switching | 9,594 ab² | 3,791 ab² | 9,471 ab² |
| Per slot spent | 1,066 ab² | 729 ab² | 631 ab² |
| Brightest green | 66.1 | 56 | 66 |
| Brightest violet | 47.4 | 48.8 | 48.8 |
| Duplicated slots | 1 of 9 | 3 of 11 | 6 of 15 |
| Targets in one tap | 1 of 8 | 2 of 8 | 3 of 8 |
| Targets needing the well | 7 of 8 | 6 of 8 | 5 of 8 |
| Fits a phone row | yes | yes | scrolls |
Six parents reaches more colour than the fifteen-pigment cabinet (9,594 ab² against 9,471) out of nine pigments instead of fifteen, and it is the only one of the three where no slot duplicates a mix. Everything is harmonised, because everything shares parents. It also asks the most: seven of eight targets need the well, and nothing on screen is a finished colour.
Family sets is the only layout that fits a phone row without crowding or scrolling, and each family is pre-harmonised. But you never have more than one family in the dish: the average set reaches 3,791 ab², under half of what the other two put in front of you at once, and the 8,023 total is only available by switching.
The cabinet gives three of eight targets in a single tap and needs no mixing skill at all. The cost is six of fifteen slots that the well already duplicates, and a row 147 pt wider than the screen.
If it were mine: Six parents, at the two-row layout shown, with the well doing the work it is there to do. The measured case for it is that it beats a palette nearly twice its size on reach, and the case against it, that a beginner opens the app and sees no green, is answered by the well being visible and pre-loaded rather than by adding a green.