Dirty Blue hand-made watercolours

Dirty Blue watercolours are 'handmulled with lots of passion and even more pigment' in The Netherlands. They are available via Etsy. These are mostly single pigment colours, with lots of special rare or hard to find colours. I enjoy watching all the explorations on Instagram and YouTube.

The pan labels are hand-painted and the pans themselves have been 3D printed with the pigment number on them - as you can see below. Now that is dedication! There are also tiny pans available with just a dot of some colours. If you look closely you can see that the YInMn Blue and Manganese Blue pans below are specially 3D printed pans. These are just filled in the top half (¼ pans) to make these expensive pigments more affordable. If you want a palette set, there is a great mixing set of 14 half pans available too.

You an even buy pigment jewellery and custom pans in a range of fun shapes, and a swatch stencil. Lots to explore.

I received a mixture of half pans, quarter pans and mini pans of the following colours and have colour-matched them as closely as I can. 

PY153 is a discontinued pigment so it's lovely to see this available. Pyrrol Scarlet is my recommended warm red in a palette. This is a rich and deep version of YInMn Blue. Phthalo Cyan is a gorgeous blue, and a rarely seen pigment. Manganese Blue is hardly available anywhere any more, and this is a terrific and rich example of this cool granulating blue.

Dirty Blue Watercolours: Indian yellow, Pyrrol Scarlet, Ultramarine Pink, YInMn Blue, Phthalo Cyan, Manganese Blue.

These colours are more standard, but nice versions of each.

Dirty Blue Watercolours: Turquoise Cobalt, Green Earth, Oxide Green, Green Gold, Yellow Ochre

Genuine Quinacridone Gold is no longer available from any of the big manufacturers. This version is more orange than the previous genuine PO49 but is a lovely colour. The Burnt Sienna has some wonderful granulation, as does Potter's Pink. The Dirty Blue signature colour is a fascinating greenish bluish grey.

Dirty Blue Watercolours: Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna, Potter's Pink,
Green Umber, Dirty Blue Signature colour.

You may like to watch the demonstration of the process of creating a gorgeous blue pigment from Lapis Lazuli on the YouTube Chanel - just as it was done hundreds of years ago.

These swatches have been added to my website by colour and pigment.

Happy new year for 2023. I hope it is full of colour and creation :-)