Friday 14 February 2014

Custom made watercolour mixes - 'Jane's Grey'.

If you have a favourite mix that you use a lot, it's very easy to premix it from tubes so it is available in your palette whenever you need it. You may want to do this with a favourite green mix or a purple. It certainly cuts down on the number of tubes of paint you need to manage and the time spent mixing colours on the run. It's especially useful if it is a dark colour.

Recipe for Jane's Grey

For a small amount, just squeeze your favourite mix of colours directly in your palette, or into a half or whole pan, in the proportions of tube paint you need, and mix them thoroughly. Test the mix on paper, making a strong and a weak wash to make sure it is what you like and allow to dry naturally. Make sure you label it. :-) Also make sure you don't put too much paint in initially, as you may need space to add more of one colour or the other.




For larger quantities I make up a tube of colour. I do this all the time with my 'Jane's Grey' mix. I squeeze out the required proportions of my two paint colours using a tube wringer to get out all the paint. It takes 4x15ml tubes! I squeeze it into an egg cup and then stir it very thoroughly. It is important to make it consistent all the way to the bottom. I then test the colour full strength and in a wash and adjust and remix if necessary. Then I pour it into the empty tube.

'Jane's Grey' all mixed up to a just cool grey.

Paint poured into the tube.
I use the wringer to seal the bottom of the tube, squeezing carefully to try to remove any air but not cause the paint to squeeze out the bottom. I crimp the tube and fold the bottom up and it's nice and safely sealed.

If there is paint left over in the egg cup, which there is likely to be, I add a few drops of distilled water, mix again and pour the more liquid version into my palettes to top up my colours, and make a few half or full pans ready for use. There is basically nothing wasted, and I save a lot of time while painting having my colour available as a nice rich slightly cool dark, without the black you get with many commercial greys.

I don't use any other additives with the Daniel Smith paints, but if you find your tube colours dry out too much you can add a drop or two of Glycerine or pure honey to keep the paint from cracking. M.Graham paints are famous for staying soft due to the honey added. Their range includes Neutral Tint which is made with Phthalo Green and Quinacridone Violet, so it doesn't contain black, but that is the only commercial version that I am aware of. 2014 update - QoR watercolours by Golden also have a Neutral Tint without black. It is made from the almost CYM colours Phthalo Blue, Quinacridone Magenta and Transparent Yellow Oxide.

You can mix a beautiful rich deep black with Phthalo Green (BS) and a deep crimson such as Pyrrol Crimson, Anthraquinoid Red or Permanent Alizarin too. That's another of my favourite darks to premix myself (Jane's Black 2!) Have a look at this mix towards the top here, labelled Phthalo Green and Anthraquinoid Red. Jane's Black 1 is also in one of the charts - Phthalo Blue RS + Transparent Pyrrol Orange.

I find that Neutral Tint and Payne's Grey commercial mixes containing black tend to dull the painting so I don't choose to use them, though many do and love the way they can be used to deepen other colours. Here is the Daniel Smith version of Neutral Tint. It's a lovely hue. Very like mine :-) but mine is made without black.

Maybe one day Daniel Smith will make my Jane's grey and save me the trouble!

Paint tube crimped shut with as little air in it as possible.
My labelled 60ml tube of Jane's Grey. It's a wonderful mix
that my students and I use all the time.


Update February 2019

Well I got my wish! Delighted to see this really useful colour now readily available :-)







23 comments:

  1. Thank you Jane!! This is exactly the info I've been looking for! I love to mix Phthalo Turquoise and Quin Magenta for the most wonderful transparent, non-granulating, purple. Premixing a little of the tube paints into a half pan will save me so much time!!

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    1. It certainly does, and time can be of the essence with watercolour ;-)

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  2. Am I missing something or are the two colors you mix for your grey not contained on this page?

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    1. I have painted and labelled the tubes of Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna and DS Ultramarine in the photo but I'll add them into the text as well for clarity.

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  3. Look forward to your blog. Hope I signed up correctly.

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  4. Hi Jane, such a wonderful site I get lost here so often.. I have been experimenting making my own paint for some time now, I have only made single pigment colours so far but I am going to give you Jane's Grey a go, thanks for the recipe!

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  5. I recently splurged on all 36 of Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus watercolors and was having a hard time finding a good way to darken the colors. I saw a pin about Daniel Smith’s neutral tint and came across this post as I was searching for a mixing recipe. I tried a mix of the Phthalo Green and quinacridone violet but it was a little too green, but the mix of ultramarine and burnt sienna works beautifully. I really enjoy the hues I’ve made with your mix! Thanks so much!

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  6. UPDATE! Daniel Smith is including Jane's Gray in a special half pan set of Jane's Ultimate Mixing Palette. It comes out in October 2018.

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    1. I am really pleased about this as it will make it so much easier for people to set up in artist quality watercolours :-)

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  7. I hope the Jane's Grey will also be sold in a tube!

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    1. Yes - it is supposed to come out in February next year. I have received some samples and it looks great :-) Really excited that there will finally be a lovely grey available commercially that is liftable and doesn't contain a black pigment.

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    2. Fantastic News!!! i hope it's made widely available for sale.

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    3. My Daniel Smith Jane's Grey is arriving today! I'm excited to work with this.

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  8. Any suggestions re: empty watercolo/u/r tubes? Where to acquire? And the tube ringer--very curious about it, too. Very interesting. Thanks!

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  9. I am not sure where you live, but I have bought empty tubes from US websites - Dick Blick etc. The Tube wringer is also sold at Blick, Cheao Joes and at the Daniel Smith store in Seattle.
    In Sydney they sell the tube wringer at The Sydney Art Store.

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  10. Looks like you got your wish, congrats

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  11. I know that a neutral tint is defined as deepening other colors without changing them. DS Payne's Gray and Neutral Tint qualify as neutral tints. What other DS colors are neutral tints? Thinking of Jane's Gray, Prussian Blue, Mayan Dark Blue, in particular. Thank you. Karen

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    1. Jane's Grey certainly works as a neutral tint, as well as a shadow colour and liftable grey. It's the only one I use as a neutral tint as it doesn't contain a black pigment.

      I would have thought that the others you mentioned would be too blue. Sodalite Genuine is a blue that might be grey enough to work but I haven't tried it as a neutral tint.

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  12. Okay, thanks, Jane. One more question. On your blog you mentioned in several places that you don't like Prussian Blue as a darker blue. Why is that? Would Indanthrone Blue or Mayan Deep Blue work better. I'm starting a new class where Hobein Royal Blue (PB60) is one of the highly suggested colors, but I want to stick with DS. What would you suggest? I think that's the same pigment as Indanthrone Blue, which seems pretty "purpley." I prefer either Prussian Blue or Mayan Deep Blue.

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    1. Prussian Blue as a hue is easy to mix using Phthalo Blue GS with a little warm red (such as Pyrrol Scarlet). I don't see the need to have it as an additional blue when I can create so easily. It also failed my lightfast tests, fading in a matter of weeks.
      Indanthrone Blue is gorgeous. In some ranges it is warmer (more purple) and in others it is cooler (more green) but it is easy to cool it down by adding a touch of yellow or phthalo green. It is also a mixable hue, but does give a rich dark. Just be aware it has a strong drying shift so you may have to apply it in a couple of washes for real depth, or go stronger than you need.

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  13. Thanks, Jane. This was really helpful.

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  14. Is that ratio just 1:1? Like if I buy two equally sized tubes of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue and mix them up am I all set?

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    1. No it isn't quite that simple - it is almost 1:1 using the Daniel Smith tubes, but I use more of the ultramarine, so you start with about an even amount but save paint and room in the mixing bowl or dish for adjustments. Mix really really thoroughly and test, adjust and mix again.

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