Granulation - what and why?

Goethite, DS. PY43

Of the many characteristics the watercolour artist can explore, by far the most unique and special, is granulation. It's one of the reasons I use Daniel Smith watercolours - they are the masters of granulation.

Granulation is the effect you get when the pigment particles clump together rather than settling evenly on the painted surface. As a very general rule, the finer the particles, the less they granulate. So phthalos and quinacridones, being very fine and even sized man-made particles, appear very smooth in a wash. 

Many of the natural earth pigments, ultramarines, cadmiums and of course the Daniel Smith Primateks have larger, more irregular particle sizes and granulate beautifully.

Sydney sandstone sketch.  Watercolour.

You can increase the effect further 

by using rougher paper and more water.

As I am a realist, I really like to capture the texture as well as the colour of my subject, and granulating pigments helps to create texture in the otherwise 2D watercolour medium.

Buff Titanium, DS

PW6:1

Two of my palette staples are DS Buff Titanium (shown left) and Goethite (shown above). The buff titanium is a granulating ecru colour, prefect for marble, snow gums, and for making pastel hues with other colours. Mixed with Goethite it creates a wonderful beach colour. You can see a lot more about mixing this wonderful colour here and it is mentioned in many of my blog posts here.

Transparent Red Oxide,

DS. PR101 

Together this pair is also fabulous for the fantastic range of colours in Sydney sandstone or the lovely honeycomb colour of Bath.

Adding DS transparent red oxide and/or burnt sienna and allowing the pigments to move on the paper allows the pigments to create extraordinary effects. You can see the granulation of the pigments in the bottom part of the sandstone rock sketch above and the cliff sketch below.

Cliff sketch, Blue Mountains. Pen and ink and watercolour.

Governor Macquarie Rose. Watercolour.

This study of a Governor Macquarie Rose was painted in very soft washes of Piemontite and Quinacridone Rose, with just Piemontite used in the background. The colour changes when used in very weak washes or in mass-tone.

Piemontite, DS

Green Apatite Genuine, DS

Green Apatite genuine is another fabulous granulating Primatek watercolour. It can create interest in passage of foliage as it also moves from brighter greens in soft dilutions to rich deep olive greens in masstone.

The Gasworks, Seattle. Pen and ink with watercolour.

Here I have used a combination of transparent red oxide and piemontite to paint the rusty texture of the Gas Works in Seattle - I love this place and look forward to returning when I go back to Seattle in October. You can also see the texture of Green Apatite genuine in the foreground foliage.

(For more on my upcoming US trip see here)

I love painting rusty things. And dead things, and decay...they could seem a little morbid but I seem them as extraordinarily beautiful :-)

'Past their Prime'. Watercolour and Ink, 2017

The background in this pen and ink study of the dried Strelitzia was painted in a mixture of Goethite, Buff Titanium and Raw Umber. I love the way it produces a texture not obtainable any other way.

Perhaps the most spectacularly granulating pigment is PBk11 seen here in Lunar Black. I generally mix my own black hues, but I love exploring this one for amazing abstract or imaginary landscape studies as you can see in my gallery here.

   

 I have also shown a swatch of an experimental Daniel Smith colour - the rare and expensive YInMn blue pigment. In any other medium I have seen it, it is a lovely colour but otherwise not anything so very special, but seen here as a watercolour it is really something.

I love exploring all the characteristics of watercolour, whether for sketches on location, urban sketching, botanicals, studio paintings or just to play. But my favourite by far is granulation. 

Mixing with Burnt Sienna options

Burnt Sienna mixed with most of my Ultimate Mixing Palette colours.

I have created a post about mixing with Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna PBr7, as part of a series on mixing my Ultimate Mixing Palette colours, which can be found here.

Burnt Sienna is one of my favourite basic palette colours. Here I'll show some of the other mixing options I explored.

The first shows Burnt Sienna mixed with a basic pair of yellows, reds and blues. Here I was still experimenting with a custom mixed magenta but I switched to Quinacridone Rose as a more useful basic cool red.

Burnt Sienna mixed with possible palette options, Moleskine watercolour sketchbook A5

I like Burnt Umber but it isn't as useful as a mixing colour as Burnt Sienna. I include it in my palette as a convenient warm brown even though it is easily mixed as you can see above - just a little Ultramarine mixed with Burnt Sienna creates a burnt umber hue. Here it is mixed with other possible palette colours.

Burnt Umber mixed with different palette colour options. Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, A5.

Here is the gorgeous Transparent Red Oxide mixed with other possible palette colours. It is slightly more orange than Burnt Sienna and can be wildly granulating, which I really love, but Burnt Sienna is a more useful basic palette colour as granulation is not always required. Another interesting Burnt Sienna option is the W&N PR101 Burnt Sienna, which is very much a burnt orange colour, but without the granulation you can see here.

Transparent Red Oxide mixed with possible 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.