3 - Mixing with Buff Titanium

Here is part 3 of my series on mixing with my Ultimate Mixing Palette colours, this time with Daniel Smith Buff Titanium. The granulating nature of this ecru colour adds a wonderful dimension to a number of watercolour mixes and creates pastel colours otherwise not possible. I especially like it for skin tones, and for the lovely sandy beach and sandstone rock effects it creates with Goethite.

All the possible mixes with buff titanium and my other 14 ultimate mixing colours are painted out in my book and eBook, but this gives a nice summary look :-)

Daniel Smith Buff Titanium mixed with other Ultimate Mixing Palette colours. Moleskine watercolour sketchbook A5.

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.

Sketching from Georges Head Arts Precinct with the Sydney Sketch Club.

Another cliff view, quite different from the Blue Mountains, but the rain came in so I moved under cover to paint some leaves and an empty coffee cup!

North Head, in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

Another leaf, in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook

Leaf, in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

An empty coffee cup, in Stillman & Birn Beta book.

Painting in the Blue Mountains for a weekend.

I had a lovely weekend away in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. It's very challenging trying to capture these massive cliffs but a lot of fun. In the evenings I painted flowers from the garden.

View from Govott's Lookout, first afternoon, in Stillman & Birn Beta square sketchbook.

View from Evan's Lookout, in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook

Painting in the evening - a Rhododendron we found on the way home.

View from Govott's Leap, Moleskine watercolour sketchbook

Some stones laying around at Govott's leaf lookout, Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Another flower painted in the evening, Moleskine watercolour sketchbook

Another evening study - Waratah leaf, in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook

More leaves

I have always enjoyed painting leaves. Whether large or small, colourful or rather dull, they provide an excellent subject to paint.

Painted in a beautiful bound leather sketch book.

Painted in Vanuatu in an A5 landscape Moelskine watercolour sketchbook.

Painted in  Moleskine pocket sektchbook.

A leave in Indonesia.

Some local leaves.

Gum leaf study

Gum leaf study

Plein air sketch at the Old Coal Loader, Balls Head Bay

I had never heard about this place until the Sydney Sketch Club decided to go there. I'll go back to read about its history some time, but this is a study of a wonderful tunnel built out of sand stone. It's hard to see the scale in the sketch, but it is very large!

Tunnel at the Old Coal Loader. Watercolour in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Plein air in the snow

A snow gum in Thredbo village. Handbook sketchbook.

I spent the week at the Snowy Mountains and only skied a couple of days, leaving time for some reading and sketching. My fingers got a bit cold but really the weather was stunning.


I took a few sketchbooks with me, including one I have had for a long time but not used so much made by Global art and bought in New York in 2007! It's the A5 landscape format that I love the paper is a little cream rather than white. It worked nicely though for the tree on the left.

I did a few sketches in my newish Stillman & Birn Alpha pocket sketchbook - at about A6 it is the smallest in their range. It takes pen, pencil and washes very well so is lovely as a take everywhere sketch/note book.

I also had my favourite A5 Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook with me, in the lovely landscape format that is so versatile for plein air sketching.

Friday Flats, Snowy Mountains. Stillman&Birn alpha pocket sketch book.

View from a cafe. Alpha&Birn pocket sketch book.

A gorgeous snowgum on the property where we stayed, painted in my favourite A5 landscape Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

I'd like to see a Stillman & Birn Beta in that format. The Beta is great paper for watercolour - just a bit thicker and more textured than the alpha. I wonder if they make it?

Sydney Sketch Group

I joined the Sydney Sketch Group for the first time today, sketching at the Strand Arcade. That and the QVB are two of my favourite buildings in the city and it was a really nice way to spend a rainy Saturday.

We had a good turn up and it's lovely to see the very different way each person approaches such a massive challenge. I chose two small details rather than the whole building.

Both were painted in my favourite Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with a water-soluble graphite pencil and watercolours.