Sunday 23 August 2015

Colour mixing with a single pigment green

I recently wrote a post about mixing with Phthalo Green BS - a basic palette colour for me and one of my recommended Ultimate Mixing Palette colours. 

I love the strength of this pigment, but I thought I would add some other wheels I have done showing this pigment as well as some of the alternative single pigment greens, and demonstrating how they mix with some basic colours.


Here is another colour wheel created using Phthalo Green while I was exploring different palette colours to find the most useful basic set. Here I was experimenting with Transparent Red Oxide as a burnt sienna option, and with lovely DS Permanent Alizarin though I later switched to the very similar but single pigment Pyrrol Crimson as my crimson choice. I also decided on Quinacridone Rose rather than a magenta or violet.
Phthalo Green in a colour wheel, mixed with a range of palette colours. Moleskine watercolour sketchbook A5

Green Apatite Genuine is a little like the two great Daniel Smith convenience mixes Sap Green and Undersea Green - a remarkable paint. This is another colour I love as an 'extra' for when I want a more granulating effect in a painting or sketch.
Green Apatite Genuine Daniel Smith Primatek watercolour mixed with other possible palette colours.
Moleskine watercolour sketchbook A5

Below is wheel showing the Daniel Smith primatek watercolour Jadeite Genuine. It is a gorgeous granulating green that is similar in mixes to the phthalo green, though with granulation. In masstone it can be very dark, rather like a Perylene green. In this chart I was exploring mixes with a custom mixed Quinacridone Magenta that I made by mixing DS Quinacridone Rose with  DS Quinacridone Violet, both PV19. I was also exploring the very granulating Transparent Red Oxide as a burnt sienna option. I love Transparent Red Oxide and use it a lot in my paintings but it is an 'extra' as there are many times when I want the more sedately behaved Burnt Sienna (see that in mixes here.) Mixed with a crimson, in this case Permanent Alizarin, Jadeite will also create a rich black. I love the granulating turquoise hues Jadeite makes with Cerulean and Ultramarine.

Jadeite Genuine mixed with other possible palette colours. Moleskine watercolour sketchbook A5

Viridian is a much softer, granulating and less staining alternative to Phthalo Green BS. Made with PG18, here is Da Vinci Viridian mixed with a number of other possible palette colours. Once again I was exploring the granulating Transparent Red Oxide with the granulating Viridian.
Viridian, Da Vinci watercolour, mixed with a number of possible palette colours. Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

I have created many charts and wheels in my colour explorations. You can see more here and by searching Sketchbook Pages in my Blog.

7 comments:

  1. What a lovely range of greens! I am really enjoying these posts. I am intrigued by your page arrangements. How do you get such nice circles and such orderly arrangements of swatches?

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    1. Nancy I have a few plastic templates with a whole bunch of different shapes in them. I draw out the planned layout and use the templates to draw the circles or other shapes. It takes a bit of time but I enjoy the geometry of these sketchbook pages. If I plan to repeat a layout over and over I make my own stencil and cut it out but these are individually drawn each time.

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    2. The reason I started doing charts this was was so I didn't have to wait for a colour to dry as you do in the more standard mixing charts where one colour touches another. The drawing up takes a while but the painting is faster :-)

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  2. I love Jadeite genuine! Especially when used along with serpentine genuine and green apatite.

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  3. Those green Primateks are really wonderful. I use less of the Jadeite since I have phthalo green in my palette though it is in one of my travel palettes as it is so versatile. Serpentine is a bank of grass in a single wash and Green Apatite Genuine is fabulous for foliage. I have those as extras with me all the time. The other Primatek I love is Piemontite for capturing the look of rust, along with Transparent Red Oxide. Specific pigments for specific purposes :-)

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  4. Hi Jane, just discovered these blog pages after purchasing you two ebooks. What a fantastic supplemental resource! I have been getting acquainted with the ultimate mixing palette and have found your logic and thoughtfulness in putting it together just excellent.

    A quick question, in the article, your remark that viridian is an alternative to Phthalo Blue GS, is that correct or is it a substitute for Phthalo Green BS? :-)

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