Color Charts - Really?

Study of Greens

 I can't wait to do some color charts with this new palette. I've painted a few paintings with it now but I haven't sat down and explored the possibilities. I want to see what kind of blues - particularly toward cerulean and what kind of purples - toward periwinkle (is that a technical artist term?)

The very idea of color charts used to elicit immediate yawns and mind wanderings from me. But I've discovered that color charts are a good means of exploring combinations of paint I don't naturally tend to. So far I've found that grey and lemon make a wonderful green, and grey and red make some sort of purpley red. But there are oh so many more possibilities!

I used to disdain color charts. I thought they were a flat waste of time, until an instructor "made" me do them, barring me from my go-to mixes for green and purple. That would be Ultramarine Blue with Cad Yellow Pale and then Ultramarine Blue with Alizarin Crimson. Much to my surprise, and delight, many richer colors were discovered by avoiding these 2 mixes.

Purples and greys made with my old palette - and no mix of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson

Greens - about 144 - without using the mix of Ultramarine Blue and Cad Yellow Pale!

As you can see from the photos of my old color charts, I'm not real fussy and I found a lot of colors I wouldn't have otherwise. I have pulled these out a time or two to find a different mix to add some variety to a painting. I'll post pics of the new color charts when I get them done. It will be interesting to compare them. 

How about you? Have you done some color charts?