The Ultimate Mixing Set

The Ultimate Mixing Set, Daniel Smith half pan palette.

The new Daniel Smith 15 half pan Ultimate Mixing Set is due to be launched in mid October 2018.

I thought I'd put together some of the many mixing diagrams, charts and wheels that I've created over the years I was developing this set. Some have been posted up before, others are new. Note that in my charts I've used Pyrrol Crimson while, for technical reasons,  the pan set contains Permanent Alizarin Crimson - they mix in almost exactly the same manner.



Here is the full DS half pan set painted out.

The Daniel Smith Ultimate Mixing Set painted out.

I love Buff Titanium. It is a fabulous pigment for landscape and buildings, marble and some botanicals. It's a unique colour and I love the way it mixes with Goethite to make wonderful sandstone and beach effects.

Mixing with Buff Titanium. Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

You can find more on buff titanium here.

Next is Burnt Sienna, which is shown mixed with nearly all the other colours. This version of Burnt Sienna, made with PBr7, is also useful for many skin tones. Find more on mixing with burnt sienna here

Mixing with Burnt Sienna. Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

Indian red, the most opaque watercolour in the set, is lovely in portraits and landscapes. I'd rarely use it full strength but I love the granulation and the soft dusty rose hues you can create when you dilute it. 

Here is is mixed with most of the other colours. 

Mixing with Indian Red. Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

Phthalo green is best mixed rather than used alone. Here are some of the many colours it can create. While it is wonderful for mixing a range of greens with the yellows, it is also worth exploring the colours you can create mixing it with the other earth colours and reds.

Mixing with Phthalo Green. Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

One of my favourite mixes with Phthalo Green is with its opposite, Pyrrol Crimson/Permanent Alizarin Crimson. You can see the wonderful range of deep greens, aubergine, greys, maroons and a rich black that I often premix, called Jane's Black. The deep green mix can be created with the palette colours, or you could add Perylene Green. 

Fabulous mixing pairs - Pyrrol Crimson/Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Phthalo Green BS. Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

Another great mix shown here is Phthalo Green and Quinacridone Gold. This makes a really useful range of realistic foliage greens, including the DS Sap Green hue. Mix it yourself or add this great colour to save time as you paint.

Useful realistic greens using Phthalo Green and Quinacridone Gold. Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

Raw Umber is a deep cool brown - great for shadows of trees and figures, leaf litter and deepening other colours. In some brands it is a rather insipid colour but the DS version is very dark. 

Mixing with Raw Umber. Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

Another of my favourite or most used mixes is Ultramarine and Quinacridone Gold. This is available as a premixed Daniel Smith colour called Undersea Green - one of my favourite premixed greens, or it can be created as needed from the palette colours. I love this range of olive greens, which are especially useful for the colours of gum trees or distant trees in a landscape.

Quinacridone Gold mixed with Ultramarine, Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

Jane's Grey, the new Daniel Smith colour, can be used as a a shadow or sky colour, or as a neutral tint to deepen other colours, as well as being a beautiful granulating and non-staining grey on it's own. As it is made from burnt sienna and ultramarine is contains no black pigments, is transparent and granulating. It won't stain so you can lift it off or soften shadows. Here it is mixed with most of the other colours in the set. See more on this here.

Mixing each colour with Jane's Grey. Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

Within the set there are also many great primary triads to explore.

The first is a great basic triad - Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Rose and Ultramarine. You can mix lovely oranges and red, purples and realistic greens with ease just by mixing two together.

But it gets really interesting once you mix all three in various ratios. Here are just some of the possible three-colour mixes you can create with this triad.

If you start with the above triad and change Ultramarine to Phthalo Blue (green shade) you'll have a staining triad with no granulation.

Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Rose and Phthalo Blue GS
Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

Change the Hansa Yellow Medium to Quinacridone Gold for another lovely triad with more neutralised greens, and oranges.


I love the earth triad made from Goethite, Indian Red and Cerulean Chromium. You could change the blue to Ultramarine for another variation. I enjoy using a triad like this when painting the southern Californian landscape.

Goethite, Cerulean Chromium and Indian Red Earth triad.
Daniel Smith Watercolours The Ultimate Mixing Set.

My 'Aussie Triad' is Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Gold and Ultramarine - this creates perfect neutralised greens, oranges and purples for the Australian bush, though it also works very well for many landscapes, including the colours of Oregon and Washington State.

There are many other triads you could explore for wonderful colour harmony.

You can paint anything with this set. But feel free to add your own favourites :-)

For more information about mixing the colours I've created a reference book which includes all 105 two-colour mixing combinations and the most useful three-colour mixes. It is available as an eBook, Kindle, hard cover and paperback. For more information see here.

The Ultimate Mixing Palette: a World of Colours - available in paperback or hardcover.

Happy painting!

Rosemary and Co Brushes

I've been posting a series of chats about different brushes and here is another favourite range - Rosemary and Co, made in the UK and shipped directly to artists. These are lovely brushes that are available directly to artists so the prices are really worth a look. While I have updated the information shown here, you can see the full range of travel brushes in this post

I've included a Raphael 8404 and a Lamy Joy pen for scale. Links below are affiliate links.

Rosemary &Co Pocket/Travel/Reversible brushes and a few others.

8404
R0

R1
R2
R3


R4
R5

R7

R8
R9


R12

R13
R14
R15
Small eradicator

1/2" Dagger

SP


Lamy Joy

Rosemary R0 - about a size 2 sable
Rosemary R1- about a size 4 - this is a lovely second travel brush for those who like to add more detail.
Rosemary R2 - about a size 8 - this is a fabulous first sable brush for travel. It works beautifully for A5 to A4 sketchbooks.
Rosemary R3 - about a size 10 sable pointed. This is now available in a larger casing.
Rosemary R4 - 1/4 inch flat sable One Stroke. I use this for doors and windows, and making colour charts of course :-) It is now made from a synthetic sable fibre called Red Dot
Rosemary R5 - Sable Rigger
(Rosemary R6 is not shown but is a Kolinsky Filbert brush.)
Rosemary R7 1/4" sable comber
Rosemary R8 - sable mop about the same size as the R2 and a lovely brush. I love mops.
Rosemary R9 - squirrel mop - this (or the R2) is the brush I generally recommend as a first travel brush. Being squirrel, it is softer than the R2 sable, but also has a lovely point. the quill version has been replaced with a ferrule version.
(Rosemary R10 - not shown - is a synthetic pointed brush.)
(Rosemary R11 - not shown - a red sable synthetic mix size 10 pointed round)
Rosemary R12 - sable and synthetic mix 1/4" dagger - the brush I requested Rosemary to create and   another excellent choice for a single travel brush. Daggers can be used in so many ways for different   effects - the tip for fine detail and drawing and the full width of the diagonal for for larger washes.
Rosemary R13 - extra pointed sable mix size 8
Rosemary R14 - small squirrel mop
Rosemary R15 - 1/4" oval squirrel wash brush
Rosemary Eradicator (small) also available in medium and large. This is a precision correcting brush that is also perfect for lifting out veins in leaves or windows in urban sketching. One of my key brushes. It is also available as a travel brush - the R24.
Rosemary 1/2" dagger sable and synthetic mix. I really like this in the 3/8" size (now available as a travel brush - the R16) and of course the R12 pocket brush.
Roger Jones Brush - Massive size 12 SP sable extra pointed tip - suitable for large washes and fine detail.

Lamy Joy (for scale)

There are also some new brushes that have been added to the travel range - smaller squirrel quills and others. I've added labels to my brushes but R&Co are adding more labels to their range for easier identification. I also tend to add my name label to my tools too!

Rosemary has a massive catalogue of brushes for all mediums and the hard copy is available with true to life photos for perfect size comparisons. I've focussed on the travel/pocket/reversible range but the other brushes I've tried have been lovely too.

Here are some more studio brushes.

Rosemary and Co studio watercolour brushes.

From left

Lamy Joy for scale

Rosemary & Co Series 769 Sable nylon blend 1"

Rosemary & Co Series 769 Sable nylon blend 1/2"

Rosemary & Co Series 79 Pure Sable Round size 10

Rosemary & Co Series 32 Tree & Texture 1/2"

Rosemary & Co Series 32 Tree & Texture 3/8"

Rosemary & Co Series 32 Tree & Texture 1/4"

Rosemary & Co Series 779 Sable Blend Sword 1/4" 

Rosemary & Co Series 22 Kolinsky Sable size 8

Rosemary & Co Series 22 Kolinsky Sable size 7

Rosemary & Co Series 22 Kolinsky Sable size 6

Rosemary & Co Series 22 Kolinsky Sable size 4

Rosemary & Co Series 22 Kolinsky Sable size 2

Raphael Series 8404 Kolinsky Sable size 4 for scale

Next, here are some of the Rosemary & Co special effect brushes I have tried. The three combers on the left create different effects - grasses etc. I don't use these a lot but I am always curious about different brush shapes and what they can do :-) The first is a Series 2240 Filbert Comber 1/2", then a series 2250 comber 1/2" and then a series 2230 Spiky Comber 1/2".

As mentioned above, I really like the eradicators, and use the small one all the time. It is shown on the right (as well as in the first picture of this post). The others are the Large and Medium Eradicators.

Here is the type of machine I use to make labels. I lend out my tools all the time so usually make sure I name them, but I also add labels where helpful. This is the Brother P-Touch. There are many models but mine looks something like this. It is battery operated. You can get a range of different tapes - transparent, coloured and various widths. There are also numerous font sizes and styles.

Brother P-Touch 2300 label maker

Happy painting!