What colour next? (with an update)

I am setting myself a challenge. I made a palette that will have serious limitations, so that painting exactly the colour I see is not an option....like this range. There is not a bright yellow to make greens, or a true red, or pink to make purples. It will force some interpretation. It is also full of granulating and some non-transparent colours.

I mixed Quinacridone Gold with Goethite to create a brighter mixing granulating earth yellow. (Jane's Granulating Gold); I mixed Burnt Sienna with Transparent Red Oxide to create a brighter Burnt Sienna. (Jane's Sienna). I initially chose Sodalite Genuine rather than Jane's Grey (burnt sienna + Ultramarine) as a dark to add even more granulation. It was also good for colour harmony since I didn't include ultramarine in the palette (!) I'll probably switch it back to Jane's Grey though...

It is based around a primary triad of Indian red, Cerulean chromium and the earthy gold so it's a very earthy palette. Without Ultramarine, my basic blue, it'll be really interesting to paint with, especially wet into wet with a large brush.

Buff Titanium, Jane's Golden Earth, Jane's Sienna, Indian Red, Cerulean Chromium and a space for ?

But my little palette has room for one more colour. I considered adding Green Apatite Genuine or Serpentine for a granulating green, but chose one from below that I think will fit in best to keep harmony with the set. What would you add?

Quinacridone gold and Goethite make Jane's Gold, burnt sienna and ultramarine make Jane's grey, transparent red oxide and burnt sienna make Jane's sienna. 

Update 2017. 

Thank you for the suggestions :-)

I did end up adding Cobalt blue - it was the best fit for a softer blue with the other palette colours, and then switching to my Jane's Grey instead of Sodilite. The cobalt blue will probably switch to ultramarine when it runs out - I'll have to think about that one. Ultramarine and cerulean chromium are such a lovely pair for skies, but Cobalt fits in very nicely with this more subdued palette.

The other change I made was to switch the Indian Red for Jane's Earth Rose - another custom colour made from Indian Red and Potter's Pink. It combines the gorgeous granulating pink of the PR233 with the strength of the PR101. It's a strong granulating dusty rose colour - very nice :-)

Potter's Pink and Indian Red make Jane's Earth Rose

I am not deliberately naming a whole range after myself but it really is the clearest way to explain that it is a colour I've created, not a commercial mix.

So here is the final palette painted out, with a 'mixed black' using the primary triad and a quick colour wheel. I like the balance of strength with this now :-)

Earth palette with Buff Titanium (DS), Jane's Golden Earth, Jane's Sienna, Jane's Earth Rose, Cerulean Chromium (DS), Jane's Grey and Cobalt Blue (DS)

Here is the palette and some of the mixes. The purples made with Cobalt Blue and Jane's Earth Rose are just lovely.

Mixing earthy greens, purples and neutrals with the earthy palette colours.

A limited palette with 6 QoR watercolours. Another with 6 Daniel Smith colours.

I tested quite a few QoR colours when they first came out in 2014 - 6 from tubes I was sent as samples and others from small dried out sample dot cards. You can see them all here.

They are all on my website in the Painted Watercolour Swatches section, which is creeping to almost 800 different painted samples now. If you have some more watercolours and would like to send me a sample to paint out, please get in touch :-)

I've been asked about adding some mixing information about these paints.

They are made with a new type of synthetic binder rather than the traditional gum arabic. It makes them feel and behave differently from traditional watercolours - a bit like painting with liquid acrylic, I felt. Golden make wonderful acrylics but I'm afraid I don't find these to be wonderful watercolours - I guess they are just not what I am used to. However, for those who are starting out they may work well. There are certainly some excellent colours but also some that are simply.... weird.

Anyway, I'll include a paintout I did using the palette of 6 that I chose. I decided to go with a balanced full gamut palette of nickel azo yellow PY150, transparent pyrrol orange PO71, quinacridone magenta PR122, ultramarine violet PV15, ultramarine blue PB29 and viridian PG18. No earth colours, and all transparent with three normally granulating pigments. Viridian and ultramarine violet are often quite weak colours so I thought these would be good to test the QoR claim of stronger colours. They are pretty powerful if you pre-wet them well before use, but not very granulating and quite difficult to lift.

QoR exploration - 6 colour full gamut palette.

I was intending having three neutralising pairs in this little palette. As you can see each pair doesn't quite make a grey but there's a lot they could do.

QoR have a much more powerful purple than this - Dioxazine purple, and a much more powerful green - Phthalo green. So this palette could be made up with stronger colours. Bismuth Vandate yellow could be used instead of Nickel Azo yellow. They also have a strong crimson which is the mixing opposite to Phthalo green, which could be used rather than the magenta. So this palette is not intended as a recommended palette, just an exploratory one.


That's the limit of my exploration of these paints. Partly, I guess, since I would actually very rarely set up a palette without burnt sienna, cerulean and a good warm yellow. Also, though it's a pretty colour, and a great mixer, I don't like painting with quinacridone magenta. While I love exploring what limited palettes can do but I don't actually choose to paint with them :-)

I don't know how well this brand would mix with traditional watercolours as I haven't tested them further. If anyone else has, please comment below.

Here is a similar full gamut palette made up with Daniel Smith paints - a powerful crimson (Pyrrol crimson), and the very strong Carbazole violet (the same pigment as Dioxazine violet) and phthalo green. There is more about this palette here. Once again it isn't a palette I would necessarily choose to paint with though even though they are so much fun to explore! My smallest palette contains lots of earthy pigments including burnt sienna and is shown here though I do have a full gamut palette in a silver locket ;-)

Daniel Smith 6-colour full gamut palette exploration 

My smallest palette - great for urban sketching

I have posted all sorts of interesting limited palette ideas, but I thought I'd share the limited palette I actually use at times. These are set up in a miniature keyring palette - shown here about life-size - that I made from a lip balm tin. You can see a photo of it here. I sprayed the lid with enamel to act as a mixing area. If I had room for one more colour it would probably be Cerulean as I tend to use Ultramarine + Cerulean Chromium for skies. In this little plein air palette I could probably use cerulean instead of Quinacridone Rose as I use so little red of any form in landscape/urban sketching, but that is too limiting for me. I always like to keep my options open, and want to be able to paint an orange or purple flower if the occasion arises :-)

Here are the colours painted out in a couple of colour wheels. There are so many earthy colours that can be mixed with this palette, along with lovely purples, oranges and greens. I really like the slightly neutral greens that are created with Quinacridone Gold and Ultramarine. Hansa yellow medium is a more pure mixing yellow, and was my original yellow in this palette, but I use Quin Gold more when I am urban sketching and the earthy greens can be mixed very quickly from just two colours. 

So many building materials can be painted with the earthy Buff Titanium, Goethite and Burnt Sienna colours mixed with some Jane's Grey.               These are less than half the colours from my Ultimate Mixing Palette set, but they generally represent the colours I actually use up fastest in my palettes when urban sketching, apart from Quin Rose which is only occasionally used. I was out with the San Francisco Urban Sketchers in September and one of the group arrived with a huge bunch of purple orchids. I painted one of them. I couldn't have done that without Quinacridone Rose in my palette. Creating a limited palette without limiting your subject choices is the key I think.

Zorn Palette exploration.

I remember coming across a reference to the Zorn palette some time ago. I looked up what it was - a palette of just 4 colours used at times by Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860 - 1920). It's an oil painting palette, but the gorgeous flesh tones many have created using this palette for figure and portrait work intrigued me. I made a note to test them out some time and finally did, using gouache.

Zorn is said to have used ivory black, titanium white, cadmium red and yellow ochre. His paintings often have other colours as well, but it is this quartet that is named after him.

I chose to use Schmincke Ivory black, Titanium white and Vermilion tone gouache, and Winsor & Newton Yellow ochre. Not identical but similar.

In the oil paintings, the ivory black mixed with white created a slightly blued grey. I tested the Schmincke black and white and there was a slight hint of blue in the mix. I then tried Winsor & Newton Ivory black but that didn't look blue. I tried mixing with M.Graham Titanium white and still not really blue. But I also have Schmincke's Neutral Grey, made from a red (PR 255), orange (PO62) and blue (PB60) mix so I tried that - quite nice blue undertones and I escaped the dreaded black pigments :-)

Using the Neutral Grey rather than black, I mixed up a range of colours with the yellow ochre and vermilion tone. Lots of interesting flesh tones.

I then wanted to see whether I could actually get some greens with this mix, so I made a colour wheel with the yellow, red and grey. Purples wouldn't be possible but very neutralised greens were. I explored some random mixes using these three with white.




Translating these colours into watercolour, I switched to DS Yellow Ochre, DS Cadmium Red Scarlet (discontinued but I still have some) and my Jane's Grey to keep away from black.
In watercolour the white of the paper is usually the white and adding water rather than adding white creates the tints, though with this palette I would probably add white watercolour if I were actually using it for flesh tones. It makes some interesting mixes and might be fun to paint with but since there is indanthrone blue in the gouache mixed grey and ultramarine in my mixed grey, I'd rather add a blue than a grey and be able to make an even greater range of colours.

Fun to explore - maybe more later if I try painting with this palette :-)

Just 6 colours - bright, transparent and non-granulating full gamut palette

I previously posted about limited palettes containing just 6 bright colours here. While I don't use such limited palettes myself, I really enjoy the challenge of working through them. It is also very helpful when those on a limited budget are trying to get started in artist quality watercolour - they can start with just a few but still mix an amazing range of colours.

This palette of six colours is transparent and non-granulating. It contains the full gamut of yellow, orange, red, purple, blue and green with no earth colours so you have to mix them yourself. It is made up of three neutralising pairs of single pigment colours. 

Phthalo Blue Red Shade DS + Transparent Pyrrol Orange DS 

Hansa Yellow Medium DS + Carbazole Violet DS

Pyrrol Crimson DS + Phthalo Green BS DS

Pyrrol Crimson won't make the bright purples that a magenta or more rose-red colour would, but as there is a purple in this palette, the powerful crimson can be included to create deep black hues with Phthalo Green. (see 10)

Transparent Pyrrol Orange and Phthalo Blue RS completely neutralise each other creating another deep black, as well as a gorgeous range of earthy burnt sienna and burnt umber hues (11)

Carbazole Violet and Hansa Yellow Medium will create yellow earth hues and, with a touch of orange, raw umber hues (15)

You need a pretty good understanding of colour to work with these palettes if you are going to successfully create all your earth hues as well. You also need a decent mixing space. They are great fun to explore.

Other explorations you might find interesting.

Just 3 colours - exploring primary triads

Just 4 colours - an amazing bright quartet

Just 5 colours - why it's not for me :-)

Just 6 colours - lovely limited palette

Just 6 colours - bright transparent non-granulating

Ultimate Mixing Palette - palette of 14 paints, 15 colours.

Designing my palette

My palette

Single pigment wheel - 24 colour wheel

Colour exploration - Super bright 6 colour palettes - updated.

Once again I have been exploring palettes with no earth colours but this time using neutralising pairs. Here are a couple of gorgeous bright palettes to consider. 

The first is based on my gorgeous bright quartet, posted here, that contains DS Hansa Yellow Medium, DS Transparent Pyrrol Orange,  S Purple Magenta (or use DS Quinacridone Lilac) and DS Phthalo Blue RS. The Red Shade of Phthalo Blue neutralises completely with Transparent Pyrrol Orange to create a black. (2020 update - Transparent Pyrrol Orange is now mid orange rather than a red-orange.)

Here in this set I have switched to Phthalo Blue GS. I have added Phthalo Green YS PG36 which neutralises purple magenta to a grey, though not a black. I have also added  Carbazole Violet which neutralises Hansa Yellow Medium to create yellow earth hues and raw umber hues. So the palette contains one of each primary and one of each secondary in neutralising pairs. They are quite neatly arranged around the colour wheel, though not completely evenly. All are Daniel Smith watercolours except the Schmincke Purple Magenta.

Super bright 6 colour palettes

The second set switches Purple magenta to Carmine (or better yet a crimson such as Pyrrol Crimson or Permanent Alizarin). This will neutralise with phthalo green BS to a black and a whole range of lovely aubergine and plum colours. That combination is why I tend to have a crimson in my palette. Ultramarine is my favourite blue for painting and is completely neutralised by the orange as seen here. The yellow and purple neutralise each other as noted above. (see these and other neutralising pairs here.) Notice how evenly the colours fit around the colour wheel. I think this would be the brightest, most balanced 6 colour set I could find. See this star set of colours on the full colour wheel here. All are Daniel Smith watercolours except the Benzimida Orange Deep, which is Da Vinci (sorry it is actually PO36 not PO71 as labelled). (W&N and QoR also make gorgeous transparent/translucent oranges of a similar hue using PO71, or DS Transparent Pyrrol Orange could be used as it is now (2020) a mid orange.)

Colour exploration - 4 bright, non-granulating watercolours - an amazing quartet. (updated)

I have been exploring limited palette options again and came up with this set. This is an unusual palette of watercolours for me as it doesn't contain Ultramarine, my favourite blue, or Burnt Sienna, my favourite earth orange, and it does contain Quinacridone Magenta though that is not a favourite! Note this is called Purple Magenta in Schmincke or Quinacridone Lilac in Daniel Smith - who added this pigment to their range in 2017. I find it a difficult 'real world' colour and would generally rather use a rose or crimson. However, PR122 is an amazing mixing colour which, like phthalo green, can transform other colours beautifully and mixes very cleanly but in my opinion is best not used alone.

This quartet of colours is designed to be transparent, bright and non granulating - a bit like working with inks - and works beautifully!

It is based around a fabulous pair of transparent watercolours - Transparent Pyrrol Orange DS and Phthalo Blue RS DS. These neutralise each other completely to create a fantastic range of greys, black, warm browns and burnt oranges. See the first colour mixing row 1.

Other manufacturers make Phthalo blue RS (or Winsor Blue RS) but I have not found an alternative brand for this orange. Schmincke make Translucent Orange with the same pigment but it is not as red. (see separate post on oranges and blues) QoR also make a transparent pyrrol orange but it is not the same hue. As mentioned in the comments below, I'd recommend using Daniel Smith with or without Schmincke for this set, but I find W&N colours can fight with DS colours so I don't suggest mixing those brands.

Hansa Yellow Medium PY97 Daniel Smith, Purple Magenta PR122 Schmincke (or use the new DS Quinacridone Lilac), Phthalo Blue R.S. PB15 Daniel Smith and Transparent Pyrrol Orange PO71 Daniel Smith.

To make oranges and greens a mid yellow is added - Hansa Yellow Medium PY97 DS, though it could be Schmincke Pure Yellow or W&N Winsor Yellow or DV Hansa/Arylide Yellow Medium. This is a lovely bright yellow. for even more transparency it could also be a PY150 yellow such as DS Nickel Azo Yellow but I like the purity of Hansa Yellow Medium.

2 -  Hansa Yellow Medium mixed with Transparent Pyrrol Orange PO71 DS 

4 - Hansa Yellow Medium mixed with Phthalo Blue RS PB15 DS to make bright greens. 

To make purples and reds and crimsons the very bright Magenta PR122 is required. This was not made by Daniel Smith when I created this post (I often wondered why not) but was added to the range in 2017 and is called Quinacridone Lilac. Is also available as Purple Magenta by Schmincke or Quinacridone Magenta in many other brands including W&N, Daler Rowney,  Old Holland, and QoR. It is often used as a primary red pigment. I prefer the Schmincke version or the new DS version. The advantage of this pigment over my usual preferred PV19 Quinacridone Rose is that it will create a rich crimson when mixed with Transparent Pyrrol Orange.

3 - Mixed with the DS Transparent Pyrrol Orange it creates gorgeous reds and crimsons 

5 - Mixed with Phthalo Blue RS it makes amazing purples  

6 - I mixed Purple Magenta with Yellow as they also make wonderful oranges, reds and crimsons. 

You can see how easy it is to create bright mixes of oranges, greens and purples. 

7 - I then added a little magenta to the Phthalo Blue RS to create a warmer blue, which made more neutral greens when yellow was added 

8 - I did the same thing adding some Transparent Pyrrol Orange to the yellow to made it warmer, then adding the blue to make more mossy greens 

9 - The last row is all three primaries mixed together to create a range of darks and neutral earth hues.

Another very bright transparent and non-granulating pigment is Phthalo Green PG7. I use this for many mixes, especially to make a rich black with a crimson. I mixed it with the Purple Magenta (1 below) to see if it would neutralise to black. Like Quinacridone Rose, it makes great purples but not black. 

Mixes with my amazing quartet along with Phthalo Green PR7.

2 -  I mixed a crimson hue by mixing Transparent Pyrrol Orange with Purple Magenta, then mixed that crimson with Phthalo Green and yes - blacks and aubergines are possible. 

3 - back to my bright quartet colours, I tested the yellow to see what earth yellows I could create just with my initial 4 colours. Alone mixed with a purple made from the blue and magenta, hansa yellow medium creates some interesting cool earth colours. 

4 - With a little orange added Hansa Yellow Medium creates yellow ochre and raw sienna hues and some raw umber options.

5 - I tried mixing a crimson from the magenta and orange then creating a phthalo green hue to try to create the same aubergine and black options. It comes close, though required all four pigments. I try to steer away from 4 pigment mixes but it is possible. 

So I think a phthalo green is a useful addition if you want to limit yourself to three pigment mixes but increase to 5 bright transparent colours. Phthalo Green yellow shade would be the best option as it neutralises magenta to a grey. And if you want a 6th? A purple is the obvious choice for a balanced palette. Such lovely sets of 6 can be seen here, but as purple is very easy to mix, I'd rather add Quinacridone Gold DS :-)

My next tests will be with Ultramarine instead of Phthalo Blue RS to see if I can find a completely neutralising bright orange........ see here.

Happy painting!

Just 6 Colours - a lovely limited palette.

I recently put together a set of 6 colours to get someone started in watercolour. 

This page shows just some of the possible two colour mixes you can make with this set.

Amazing mixes with just 6 colours.

Add a third colour to each mix and increase the possibilities further.

There are many possible 'just 6' combinations. I have chosen a mid yellow and a primary red that will each mix clean secondary colours, added a warm blue as this will make cleaner purples and more realistic greens. I have then added a phthalo green as this increases the green mixes but also makes black with crimson and turquoise with Ultramarine. Burnt Sienna makes wonderful dark browns, deep blues and greys with Ultramarine and deep earthy greens with phthalo green. The final colour could be an earth yellow such as yellow Ochre or raw sienna but I have chosen Quinacridone Gold as this warm and slightly neutral yellow makes wonderful realistic greens and will  mix with Burnt sienna to make other yellow earths. There isn't much this palette can't do. 

These are all Daniel Smith colours but Da Vinci's Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone or W&N Permanent Alizarin or Carmin make alternative primary crimson reds; Ultramarine in most brands is an option, Phthalo Green BS is also available in most brands (called Winsor Green by W&N); Schmincke make a Pure Yellow that is a lovely primary yellow as is Winsor Yellow. Burnt Sienna is available in most brands but I prefer the versions made with PBr7. Quinacridone Gold genuine is only available from Daniel Smith but Yellow Ochre is an alternative, or use a Hansa Yellow Deep or New Gamboge.

The next page shows my suggested next 6 colour additions to increase the colour range. These are Pyrrol crimson - a warm red, a Quinacridone Rose, an opaque Cerulean, a phthalo blue, a granulating earth yellow and a lovely deep raw Umber. With this set of 12 colours I would switch from Carmine to Pyrrol Crimson as the Quinacridone Rose covers the making purples role, or leave out Quinacridone Rose and keep Carmine.

I would then add Indian Red, so I can use an earth triad, and then perhaps a lovely light Buff Titanium and a dark.

Next are a whole lot of other wonderful Daniel Smith colours that are available to increase the palette. They are convenience mixtures to save time or special granulating colours that add and extra dimension to your work. I like to have some convenience colours so I don't spend all my time mixing while painting. Also I like to use only two or a maximum of three pigments in a mix if I can. Using a single pigment green, purple or orange can help with this. The mixtures are marked with an asterisk. All the others are single pigment colours.

 For more mixing charts see my website here.

More Colour wheels and templates - mixing opposites to create neutrals

Colour wheels take a bit of drawing up, especially as they get more complicated. I use a compass with an ink ruling pen adapter to draw them, and I like to leave a bit of space between each section so the paint doesn't run together.

Here are a couple you may like to choose from to try doing yourself. Each has 18 spaces around the outside. There is no need to have 18 tubes of paint to create these outside colours - it can be done with 8 or less placed carefully at the appropriate place around the circle and then mixed together in different ratios to create the secondary colours in between.

There is a link to the jpeg on my website here so you can download and print it onto watercolour paper and paint is with your own paints.

This one was painted using a small palette of two yellows (Quinacridone Gold and Hansa Yellow Medium), Phthalo Green, Two blues (Phthalo Blue GS and Ultramarine) and three reds (Quinacridone Rose, Pyrrol Crimson and Pyrrol Scarlet. The other reds, oranges, purples, green and turquoise around the outside were all painted with these pigments, then the opposite colours mixed together to create the tertiaries through the middle.

18 colour wheel with 8 mixed opposites creating dozens of neutrals.

Template for 18 colour wheel with 8 mixed opposites

Here is the template for the wheel above - it has 18 colours around the outside and space to mix 8 tertiaries  through the middle section.

Click here to see more about it in my website, or here to link to a jpeg that you can print.

Template for 18 colour wheel with 6 mixed opposites

This version is a little simpler as it has less spaces for the opposite mixtures through the middle.

To print this one click here.

Watercolour Comparisons 6 - Reds

I have previously written about choosing a primary red - one that can stand alone in a primary triad of red, yellow and blue. In a limited palette of up to 7 colours I would choose Carmine, by Daniel Smith, as it will mix to make oranges and purples.

But I like to have a few different reds in my palette. I have added all these red swatches, and more, to my website here.

If I had two reds in a larger palette of perhaps 12 colours I would use Pyrrol Scarlet as a warm and Carmine as a cool. The Pyrrol Scarlet could mix with a blue to create an indian red hue.

If I had three reds in a palette of 15 or 16 colours, I would add Indian Red, and I would switch the warm red to Transparent Pyrrol Orange, though Pyrrol Scarlet is a wonderful colour, and is my recommended warm red option.

My four reds in a 20 colour palette would be Pyrrol Crimson and Quinacridone Rose instead of Carmine, along with Transparent Pyrrol Orange and Indian red. So the reds I choose depend on how many colours I have and how much each individual colour has to do in the palette.

So how do you choose your reds?  Generally, one warm and one cool red are useful in the palette, though some like to have a mid 'fire engine' red as well. The warm red will mix to make wonderful bright oranges. The cool red will mix to create purples. If you choose to have an orange in your palette you may choose a mid red to spread your colours over the spectrum further. All the colours in your palette need to work together, so if you make a choice about one colour, it dictates other choices to a large degree. I generally like to have a warm red (or orange red), a crimson AND a rose red for mixing purples. With those 3 reds I can intermix with yellows and blues to make a huge range of oranges, mid reds and purples.

Now I'd like to look a little more at reds in general and show some comparisons.

Warm and mid reds

Here is a comparison of a range of warm (or orange-biased) reds and mid reds. Sadly it is difficult to reproduce reds and oranges accurately so a more useful idea of the actual colour might be found on individual manufacturer's websites. Most of the samples are single pigment colours, which is my preference, but some are a mixture. There are a huge number to choose from, and generally the key is do you want a transparent or opaque red? Do you want warm with a definite orange bias or mid red? Do you want a particular brand? do you want a staining red?

I don't have a problem mixing one brand with another, it's really about what brand you can get hold of most easily and most affordably. Make sure you look at the tube size when buying to compare the price per gram or ounce, but keep in mind that artist quality watercolour lasts a very long time so while a colour you love may cost a bit when you buy it, you may still be using the same tube 15 years later! Unless you are doing a lot of flower painting, you may find you get through your warm reds fairly slowly too, so a smaller tube is fine.

I tend to favour the Pyrrol reds for transparent colours and have Pyrrol Scarlet DS or Transparent Pyrrol Orange DS as my warm red options. If I want a true bright mid red I have a pan of Pyrrol Red in my studio, but I could equally mix this as a hue. MG Naphthol red and DV Naphthol red, though made from different pigments, also both work well as a mid red that mixes beautiful oranges. If I want an opaque red I'd go with Cadmium Scarlet or Cadmium Medium and most brands are fine. Cadmiums are expensive though, so only buy them if you really want the creamy opaque characteristics. Do note that Cadmiums are more toxic than many other pigments so don't let your cat drink your paint water!

You can see some degree of granulation in some of the samples below and they all painted out fairly well except the Mayan Orange, which I didn't like. I painted it from a very small dry sample, but as I always squeeze out my paints into a palette and let them dry, it didn't work for me. (Winsor Red is another popular option if you are looking at W&N watercolours - pictured in the cool reds section below, along with the lovely DS Permanent Red. Whoops!)

Spectrum Red AS, Cadmium Red Pale DR, Cadmium Red W&N, Mayan Orange DS, Vermilion Extra OH, Flesh Ochre, OH, Anthraquinoid Scarlet DS, Coral AS
Permanent Red RR, Golden Barok Red OH, Transparent Pyrrol Orange DS, Perylene Scarlet DS, Cadmium Red Hue DS, Scheveningen Red Medium OH, Cadmium Red Hue DR, Cadmium Red Light MG.

Pyrrol Red DS, Naphthol Red DV, Pyrrol Scarlet DS, Cadmium Red Scarlet DS, Naphthol Red MG, Organic Vermilion DS, Bright Red OH, Scheveningen Red Light OH.

Cool Reds

The many cool reds, or purple biased reds, are often variations of an Alizarin Crimson hue, since Alizarin Crimson PR83 is fugitive and certainly not recommended. Carmine by DS, mentioned above, is one of my favourites for a primary or single pigment red. W&N Permanent Alizarin also works well for this purpose. I also like the DS Permanent Alizarin as a deeper crimson but it is a mixture of three pigments, so I use DS Pyrrol Crimson.

The deep Perylene Maroons are an interesting and popular option too. Some use Perylene maroon + Quin Rose to create a more permanent alizarin crimson hue of their own. I tend to add a touch of phthalo green PG7 to my Pyrrol crimson to create these deeper maroons but they can be convenient for shadow colours.

While the traditional purpose of a cool red is to make purples, I generally find a rose or magenta makes clearer and more beautiful purples so I use crimson as a convenience colour and add a rose to my palette for making purples and pinks.

These painted out very well so the thing to watch is how many pigments are in the colour and how permanent they are. I love the colour of DS Permanent Red Deep but closer inspection of the pigment eliminated it from my palette as the light-fast of that specific version of PR170 is not good enough. It's a shame as it is another great primary red colour, but only if it is in a sketchbook or for reproduction, not for framing or sale.

Permanent Alizarin DS, Carmine DS, Anthraquinoid Red DS, Pyrrol Crimson DS, Perylene Red DS, Winsor Red W&N (a warm red), Permanent Red DS (a mid red)
Permanent Alizarin Crimson W&N, Alizarine Crimson (Quinacridone) DV, Permanent Red Deep DS, Alizarin Crimson DS, Alizarin Crimson W&N, Perylene Red DR, Napthalmide Maroon DS, Perylene Maroon DS.

Pinks and Roses

If you are adding a pink or rose to your palette there are a number of options. I'd steer clear of the fugitive Rose Madder and Opera Rose/Pink though. I'd also keep away from DS Rhodonite as it changed colour in my light fastness tests.

For general use is it hard to go past PV19 - Quinacridone Rose/Permanent Rose. This pigment is ASTM II rated and makes lovely purples with almost any blue. PV19 seems to be a very versatile pigment. It comes in a rose version and a violet version and will be found in Alizarin Crimson hues, permanent rose, quinacridone rose, quinacridone red (not to be confused with the W&N Quinacridone Red made with PR209), quinacridone violet, red rose deep and so on. It covers a range from a gorgeous rose pink to a rose crimson to a violet. Choose one that you like on its own first, and then make sure you also like the way it mixes. A rose colour is lovely in florals and sunsets and is useful for portraiture as well.

I like DS Quinacridone Rose, DV Permanent Rose Quinacridone, DV Red Rose Deep Quinacridone (which I have as a huge 37ml tube) and the MG Quinacridone Rose, except that this colour, like all in the MG range, is best for the studio as it doesn't 'set' or dry.

Potter's Pink PR233 is an interesting granulating dusty pink - lovely but of limited use. I have this as an occasional use pan just in case, but wouldn't recommend it as a 'must have' colour.

The other lovely option for a cool red for mixing purples is a magenta, which will be covered in a later post - Watercolour Comparisons 13 - Purples. Most of the samples painted out well except the Mayan Red. I tend to avoid the multi-pigment Holbein colours too - this one has white in the mix.

Quinacridone Red W&N, Quinacridone Coral DS, Mayan Red DS, Rose Dore W&N, Shell Pink Holbein, Rhodonite Genuine DS, Potter's Pink DS, Rose Madder Genuine DS
Quinacridone Red DS, Permanent Rose W&N, Permanent Rose (Quinacridone) DV, Quinacridone Rose MG, Quinacridone Pink DS, Rose Red Deep (Quinacridone), Opera Pink DS, Opera Rose W&N.

So there is a vast range of reds to consider. You can probably manage very well with 2, 3 or 4 of them depending on the size of your palette and what you paint, and perhaps a fun one for special effects. Remember to check the light fast rating of all you buy, and make sure your colours interact and mix nicely together.

I will compare earth reds in a separate post - Watercolour Comparisons 11 Earth Reds.

Watercolour Comparisons 1 - Ultramarine Blue here
Watercolour Comparisons 2 - mid yellows here
Watercolour Comparisons 3 - Primary Red here
Watercolour Comparisons 4 - Burnt Sienna here
Watercolour Comparisons 5 - Greens (Single Pigment, convenience mixes and special effect) here
Watercolour Comparisons 6 - Reds (Cool, mid and warm) here
Watercolour Comparisons 7 - Yellows (cool mid and warm) here
Watercolour Comparisons 8 - Blues here

Just 5 colours? why it's not really for me...

I am often a little envious of the artists who decide to use only 5 colours. It is so simple to arrange and work with 5 colours and you can achieve wonderful colour harmony without even thinking about it if the colours are chosen carefully. Consider:

1. Quinacridone Gold PO49 (Daniel Smith) or Raw Sienna PBr7
2. Hansa Yellow Medium (Daniel Smith)
3. Burnt Sienna PBr7 (Daniel Smith or Da Vinci)
4. Carmine (Daniel Smith) or Magenta PR122 (Schmincke or W&N)
5. Ultramarine PB29

You can make a huge range of oranges, reds, yellows, greens and purples, browns and greys, but not quite the exact hue you may be looking at. You would need a cool blue or a phthalo or viridian green as well to create brighter greens, and I'd add Buff Titanium to be able to create cerulean, and a deep cool brown would take over three colours to mix...and so on.

My smallest palette, a tiny keyring sized one I made from a lip balm container, has 7 colours, one of them a mixture. Hansa Yellow Medium, Carmine, Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Goethite, Jane's Grey and Buff Titanium. I can do a lot with it but feel as though I waste a lot of time mixing. I prefer my 16 colour travel palette!

Why? I am a realist. I want my colours to match what I see as precisely as possible. I am also a passionate water colourist and one of the joys of watercolour is that you can see the pigment and its characteristics - they are not hidden in an acrylic or oil binder. I don't want to be limited to the characteristics of just 5 pigments.

Furthermore, I enjoy studying pigments and seeing how they react with each other, which means trying many colours!

In all, I am not committed to a minimal palette for my own watercolour work, though I admire it in others and continue to explore options :-)

2014 update
Here is a lovely bright triad 
Here is an amazing bright quartet
Here is a lovely 6 colour set 

Happy Painting!

Watercolour Comparisons 3 - primary red

Primary Red (and excellent Cool Red option)

I use four reds in my regular palette - a warm, a cool, an earth and a crimson for convenience. You can see all these colours and many other reds in my website here.

In a limited palette what you need is a red that will make oranges mixed with yellow AND purples mixed with blue. It's rather hard to find but the best options I have come across are either Quinacridone Rose (PV19, also called Permanent Rose and available in most brands), Quinacridone Red (also made with PV19), Quinacridone Magenta (PR122 available in a range of brands) or some of the crimsons, though they tend to make slightly more neutralised purples and oranges than the quinacridones. 

I'm going to focus on the Quinacridones first. To be really useful, you want to be able to wash the colour out to a pink, and both PV19 and PR122 will do that. Both will mix to make stunning purples, and both will mix to make lovely oranges and reds and even crimsons. So if you are looking for a primary triad, either Quin rose or Quin magenta will work fine along with the previously posted ultramarine and mid yellow. They will both also act as a cool red in an expanded palette, so a great starting colour if you are building up a palette of Artist grade colours.

One of my quinacridones pages - Rose, Pink and Magenta in a range of brands, painted in a Moleskine Watercolour book.

Rose Colours painted in a Stillman & Birn Beta book.

I tested a number of brands of PV19 and PR122 paints, as well as a couple of other cool red quinacridones. Quinacridone Red (DS) paints out beautifully, Schmincke Purple Magenta was my favourite of the PR122 version. Quinacridone Rose is lovely in most brands. Da Vinci also makes two versions - a Red Rose Deep (Quinacridone) and Permanent Rose (Quinacridone) using PV19 that are both very nice. (See left)

Quinacridone Rose, Red, Pink, Fuchsia and Magenta pigment swatches.

My favourite of the PR122 range was Purple Magenta, Schmincke, as it was nice and strong and painted out well. Below is the same pigment in Winsor and Newton. It's a great colour. The only downside for me is that I find the magenta colour less useful unmixed than a rose, which is why I ended up using Quin rose in my palette.

Notice how PR122 it makes lovely purples, strong crimsons and reds as well as gorgeous oranges. PV19 is very similar in use, the only difference being its strength making a crimson. If you have a crimson in your palette as well, as I do in an expanded palette, you can use either. Notice that the range of purples and oranges created are rather similar, so in a limited palette you only need the mid yellow and the Ultramarine, or you might go with a CYM palette and use a mid yellow, Quinacridone Magenta PR122 and Phthalo Blue GS.

Quinacridone Magenta PR122 mixed with Hansa Yellow Medium, New Gamboge, Quinacridone Gold, Ultramarine, Phthalo blue RS and Cerulean, painted in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Finally I would like to look at some Crimsons that can be used as a primary Red. I think of crimson as a convenience colour since it can be created by mixing a warm red or yellow with magenta, but it is a useful colour as well and as stated above, some versions are useful as a single red in a limited palette. Of all the ones I tested the best of these were Carmine by DS, Alizarin Crimson (Quinacridone) by Da Vinci and Permanent Alizarin by Winsor and Newton. I like these colours as they all wash out to a pink so will make clear purples. Not as clear as the PV19 or PR122, but pretty good! If you want a powerful crimson that is not used for making bright purples Pyrrol Crimson (DS) and Anthraquinoid Red (DS) are lovely. And for a mixed pigment version of a permanent Alizarin, the DS version is also lovely.

Crimson watercolour swatches.

And here is Carmine in a limited palette paint-out compared with Quinacridone Magenta.

Daniel Smith Hansa Yellow Light, Carmine and Ultramarine 

Notice the strength of the crimson colour in the top version, and the very strong reds and oranges. In the Schmincke triad with PR122 the purples are even more beautiful.

If you start with a mid yellow, Ultramarine Blue and a Quinacridone Rose/magenta/crimson, you can mix an amazing array of colours.

Add to these a warm red, a warm yellow and a cool blue and you expand the range tremendously, though I'd add Burnt Sienna first! That will be my next watercolour comparisons post...

Schmincke Pure Yellow, Purple Magenta and Ultramarine Finest

Next up - Burnt Sienna options

Watercolour Comparisons 1 - Ultramarine Blue here

Watercolour Comparisons 2 - mid yellows here

Watercolour Comparisons 3 - Primary Red here

Watercolour Comparisons 4 - Burnt Sienna here

Watercolour Comparisons 5 - Greens (Single Pigment, convenience mixes and special effect) here

Watercolour Comparisons 6 - Reds (Cool, mid and warm) here

Watercolour Comparisons 7 - Yellows (cool mid and warm) here

Watercolour Comparisons 8 - Blues here

Watercolour Comparisons 1 Ultramarine Blue PB29.

Ultramarine Blue

In the large Moleskine watercolour sketchbook I did a comparison of every Daniel Smith watercolour, with pigment notes, reviews from other sources, mixing charts, colour wheels and so on. I also added comparisons with other brands of the same colour or the same pigment.

Here's my page on Ultramarine blue - my favourite blue. There is more information on my website here. You can also see a huge range of different blues painted out here.

Watercolour Notebook page on Ultramarine Blue showing Daniel Smith, M. Graham, Old Holland, Da Vinci and Schmincke finest.

Ultramarine Blue is my fist choice for a blue in any medium. It is a warm blue, i.e. it has a purple bias rather than a green bias, so will mix to make lovely purples. It will also make great greens, though not as bright as a cool blue would produce. It works as a single blue in a limited palette as it can be cooled with a touch of a cool yellow or phthalo green to create a cool blue.

In watercolour it will generally granulate which can be disconcerting to the beginner. The least granulating version I tested was Schmincke Ultramarine Finest. Here are my test samples, painted first as a graduated wash to see how the colour behaves in water and then as a 'juicy' wash.

French Ultramarine W&N, Ultramarine Da Vinci, Ultramarine M.Graham, Ultramarine Blue Deep Old Holland, Ultramarine Finest Schmincke, Ultramarine Daniel Smith, Permanent Blue Daler Rowney, French Ultramarine Daniel Smith.

Update 2015 - since writing this post I have updated my website with hundreds of watercolour swatches but I'll also include them here. My colour reproduction is not even close to perfect and these samples have been scanned at different times and with different scanners, but you can see that there is some range of hue within the PB29 pigment. Some brands have a 'light' and 'deep', some a Red Shade and a Green Shade, some a regular and a French version. The subtle differences in hue will have an effect in the sorts of greys and greens the colour mixes. In some brands there may be enough difference to want both versions but I have used D.S. Ultramarine rather than D.S. French Ultramarine and don't see any point in having both in this brand.

PB29 is such a reliable pigment that you really can't go wrong with it whatever brand you use. For me, working with watercolour that I squeeze out of a tube into a palette and allow to dry, the best options are Da Vinci and Daniel Smith as they both dry solid but rewet readily, they also mix the exact shade of grey I love with Burnt Sienna. I also have the Schmincke version in case I want a less granulating colour for sky effects.







Ultramarine mixes with a cool red to produce purples. Try it with Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridone Violet or Quinacridone Magenta for the most gorgeous bright purples.

Quinacridone Rose mixed with Ultramarine Blue and other bright purple mixes.

Ultramarine mixed with Quinacridone Violet and other purples.

 With a warm red it produces reduced or dull purples and even Indigo, brick red and Indian red hues.

Cadmium Red mixed with Ultramarine Blue and other neutralised purple mixes.

Mixed with a warm yellow it produces a range of useful olive or neutralised greens.

Ultramarine with warm yellows - Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Deep Gold and Cadmium Yellow Deep

Mixed with an orange or burnt orange or neutralised orange such as Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine creates a huge range of browns and greys. I love this combination!

Burnt Sienna mixed with Ultramarine Blue as well as Phthalo Blue and Cerulean

Ultramarine mixed with Quinacridone Sienna, Quinacridone Deep Gold, Quinacridone Gold and Burnt Umber.

It is also great mixed with Umbers and earth pigments.

Ultramarine mixed with Burnt Umber, Raw Umber and Indian Red

...So a really fabulous blue in your palette.

Coming up - mid yellows.

For more colour charts with Ultramarine and many other colours, see my website here.

Watercolour Comparisons 1 - Ultramarine Blue here
Watercolour Comparisons 2 - mid yellows here
Watercolour Comparisons 3 - Primary Red here
Watercolour Comparisons 4 - Burnt Sienna here
Watercolour Comparisons 5 - Greens (Single Pigment, convenience mixes and special effect) here
Watercolour Comparisons 6 - Reds (Cool, mid and warm) here
Watercolour Comparisons 7 - Yellows (cool mid and warm) here
Watercolour Comparisons 8 - Blues here