I started curating my custom watercolor palette with professional pigments a couple of years ago. I used a student set for many years and it really helped learn about color theory and mixing colors.
After many years using that set and being close to finish all the pans, I decided to curate my own palette according to the subjects I like to paint (mainly urban and natural landscapes) and the style I've developed through the years.
I also wanted to switch to professional pigments just for my own personal choice not because it's necessary. This of course means a larger investment, so my approach was to curate a palette of 12-20 pigments that allowed me to mix any other color that I would need.
So, I investigated a lot and watch too many pigments reviews and finally put this palette together:
I got a couple of these pigments out of curiosity like "Lavender", or because I used them for something specific like "Gold" to paint my Inktober collection.
I left a blank space for a blue pigment to have more options to mix greens, but I'm still not sure which one, maybe a Cerulean or Prussian, so if you have any suggestions please let me know.
You can see the process of painting this swatch card in the following video:
