Apelles Palette Essentials

Confident Color Mixing In Just 14 Days

A timeless, four-color system to mix any hue, create harmony, and simplify your painting process — without ever getting stuck in the mud. 

You’re not alone. Most painters:

• Get stuck in endless mixing loops — too much of one color, not enough of another.
• Struggle to mix accurate, believable colors.
• End up with mud instead of harmony.

Why This Happens

Most color mixing advice overwhelms you with dozens of pigments, confusing charts, and theories that are hard to apply in real life. Instead of simplifying painting, it makes your palette chaotic and your results unpredictable.

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The truth? More colors = more problems.

When your palette gets out of control:

• Your portraits end up flat or lifeless.
• Hours of effort get buried under muddy paint.
• You lose confidence and begin to hesitate (making the problem even worse).
• Worst of all, painting stops being joyful and instead becomes frustrating.

If this feels familiar, you’re not the problem. Your palette system is.

The Apelles Palette is a proven, four-color system — inspired by the masters of antiquity and still used today by Odd Nerdrum. 

Parallel limited palettes have guided painters for centuries: Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Zorn all relied on similar approaches to create harmony and control.

In this structured 14-day program, you’ll learn how to:

✅ Organize the palette into a strategic system. 
✅ Create natural harmony with timeless principles. 
✅ Gain confidence by knowing exactly where to start to mix any color you want. 
✅ Finally put an end to “muddy mixes.” 

Instead of fighting your paints, you’ll be free to focus on storytelling, expression, and the joy of painting.

In just 14 days, you’ll know how to:

• Mix a harmonious palette in just 10 minutes (even if you're a beginner).
• Simplify colors into clear, manageable zones using core principles.
• Stop second-guessing your values and mixtures.
• Build a reliable system to mix any color you want — without ending up with mud.

Understanding Color Structure: Master the essential foundation of mixes and learn how to simplify your palette into a set of “anchor” colors.

Four Colors as Building Blocks: Unlock the full rainbow from the four colors of the Apelles Palette.

Color Mapping: Develop a repeatable, step-by-step method so you always know what to add next (no more endless loops).

Complementary Contrast: Use opposites to achieve harmony, vibrancy, and luminosity in your work.

Complex Color Schemes Simplified: Break down advanced palettes into basic components for effortless harmony.

Magic Mud: Learn how to use grays intentionally to enhance atmosphere and avoid dull mixtures.

Sanding and Scraping: Explore transparency and layering techniques that enrich harmony and depth.

Broken Color: Apply strategic layering to create lively, painterly effects that look natural without heavy blending.