New Daniel Smith Watercolours

New Daniel Smith colours. Photo from Daniel Smith (http://www.danielsmith.com/content--id-871)

It takes a little while for new colours to arrive in Australia but here they are - the new Daniel Smith colours released in 2017.

Daniel Smith Aussie Red Gold, Rose Madder Permanent (note this also has PR202), Quinacridone Lilac and Wisteria.

I've photographed my painted swatches but getting accurate colour reproduction is not easy. The Aussie Red Gold is more orange than it looks here - rather like a PY110 yellow - you can see it better in the photograph above. It's a lovely 3-pigment mixed orange-yellow that really glows. It uses the same pigments as the Art Spectrum Australian Red Gold. It creates extraordinary greens when mixed with blues - I've shown some mixes in little videos on Instagram (Janeblundellart)

The Rose Madder Permanent, Quinacridone Lilac and Wisteria are more accurate in this photo. Genuine Rose Madder NR9 is a lovely gentle granulating rose colour, but it fades. The DS hue mimics the soft value range of the original colour, using a mix of three pigments - PR209, PV19 and PR202 (I've labelled it incorrectly on my swatch).

Quinacridone Lilac PR122 is known as Quinacridone Magenta in many brands, Purple Magenta in Schmincke, as is a very welcome DS colour by all those who like to work with a CYM palette is PR122 is a fabulous primary red. It painted out beautifully. While I prefer to use Quinacridone Rose for the job of mixing gorgeous purples, I am really glad to see this pigment in the DS range.

Wisteria is made with PR122 and white.

Daniel Smith Lavender, Raw Sienna Light, Burnt Sienna LIght and Payne's Blue Grey.

Lavender is a popular mix available from other ranges. Some use cobalt, DS uses ultramarine, along with a violet pigment and white.

Raw Sienna Light is a single pigment PY42 yellow earth. It looks a little warmer in the flesh than this painted sample. (See photo above again)

Burnt Sienna Light is a mix of PR101 and PO48 - transparent red oxide and quinacridone burnt orange. It was released as part of the Alvaro set in 5ml tubes but is now available in the larger 15ml tubes.  It looks a little more earthy in real life than this photo.

Payne's Blue Grey is fairly accurate in hue. It uses the same mix of pigments as DS Indigo - Indanthrone Blue and black. Many Payne's greys are made with Phthalo blue and a black pigment.

New colours are always fun to explore. Happy painting :-)

New Schmincke Watercolours 2017

The first professional watercolour set I bought over three decades ago was Schmincke. The pigments that were included in that set of 24 pans have been changed over the years, with 110 colours available in their most recent range up until this year. They are a very accessible brand as they come in 5ml and 15ml tubes as well as half and full pans. They also come in sets but tend to have some rather odd choices in them.

This year Schmincke have released 35 new colours as part of their 125 year anniversary revamp, changing some formulations, renaming old colours and expanding their range to 140 colours.

I haven't used them much myself in recent years as unfortunately two of the key colours I use - burnt sienna and ultramarine - have not been to my liking. The burnt sienna is PR101 with black pigment added and the ultramarine finest doesn't granulate much at all. So I am delighted with their decision to introduce a French Ultramarine  - a granulating version, and a new burnt sienna made without black. It uses PR101 rather than my preferred PBr7, but it's a step in the right direction. To be fair - I think it's terrific that there was a less granulating 'ultramarine finest' available for those who don't like granulation, I'm just pleased there is now a choice. There is another new colour called Maroon Brown that is labelled as NBr (whatever that is!) but that looks to me like a natural burnt sienna PBr7. It's gorgeous :-)


They have also released some dot cards, a Daniel Smith innovation that makes testing out colours so much better for those of us trying to choose them. Jackson's Art UK website has a great post about the colours here. To see the new colours in detail, there is a PDF here.

I get sent dot cards periodically of paints that people have that are missing from my website so was sent a few of the new colours before they were released in Australia. (Thanks Corinna and Ricarda :-) Then I was able to check out the rest of the colours at my favourite local art store Art Scene, and received the full range dot cards from Schmincke Germany, so here is the full range of new paints painted out and photographed without adjustment.

New Schmincke colours 2017 - Rutile Yellow, Quinacridone Gold Hue, Turner's Yellow, Yellow Orange and Geranium Red.

• Rutile yellow is interesting - it's a completely different version of the usual PY53. Rather like some versions of Naples yellow. I can see it being useful to many.
• The Quinacridone Gold Hue is close to the genuine colour. This is a good pair of pigments to make the hue.
• Turner's Yellow ia also very opaque, like a yellow with white added. Interesting :-) It is richer than it looks on my screen. Another very interesting addition.
• Yellow Orange is more orange than it looks on my screen. It reads as a yellow orange rather than a warm yellow. Very beautiful.
• Geranium red is the colour of geraniums - a bright red.

New Schmincke colours 2017 - Vermilion Light, Quinacridone Red Light, Perylene Dark Red, Ruby Red Deep and Transparent Red Deep.

•  Vermilion Light is a coral colour.
• Quinacridone Red Light is a slightly more pink coral colour rather like many of the quinacridone coral/reds made with PR209.
• Perylene Dark Red is rich crimson.
• Ruby Red Deep is a deeper stronger crimson - a great colour (like the Pyrrol Crimson DS made from the same pigment.)
• Transparent Red Deep is more of a deep fire engine red.

New Schmincke colours 2017 - Saturn Red, Bordeaux, Quinacridone Magenta, Potter's Pink and Perylene Violet.

• Saturn Red is brighter and more vibrant than this looks on my screen - a lovely mid orange, close to Transparent orange but without the slightly yellow undertone.
• Bordeaux is very like Ruby Red Deep
• Quinacridone Magenta is the same pigment as DS Quinacridone Magenta - slightly violet magenta. 
• Potter's Pink is deeper than most versions. (I like this - saves me having to make any more Jane's Earth Rose!)
• Perylene Violet looks correct on my screen.

New Schmincke colours 2017 - Quinacridone Purple, Cobalt Violet (no pigment number given as it is an apatite pigment), Phthalo Sapphire Blue, Cobalt Azure and French Ultramarine.

• Quinacridone Purple is the same pigment as the DS colour.
• Cobalt Violet Hue is granulating but no pigment number is given.
• Phthalo Sapphire Blue is a warmer phthalo blue. It looks accurate on my screen.
• Cobalt Azure is cerulean PB35 pigment. Nice and granulating and non-staining.
• French Ultramarine is rich and strong - very nice.

New Schmincke colours 2017 - Viridian, Transparent Green Gold (Should read PY154 + PBr7) , Spinel Brown, Maroon Brown (which I think is made with PBr7) and Transparent Sienna.

• Viridian is never an easy pigment to paint with. This is not the strongest version of PG18 I have tried. It looks too blue on my screen.
• Transparent Green Gold is a slightly dull olive green. I originally thought this was an unusual version of PY154, but I was missing the PBr7 that is also in the mix. It would have been better if they had used PY129 as then it would have been a single pigment green gold.
• Spinel Brown made from PY119, which is also used in Manganese Brown by W&N. Lovely granulation :-)
• Maroon Brown is labelled NBr (whatever that means) but it looks to me very like the Schmincke Burnt Sienna PBr 7 pigment so perhaps it is a natural burnt sienna? I love it. Jackson's website labels it PBr7. I'd call it Burnt Sienna Natural :-)
• Transparent Sienna is a very earthy version of this PR101 pigment - not too bright. It actually looks like a burnt sienna rather than a Quinacridone burnt orange.

Transparent Ochre, Mars Brown, Green Umber, Transparent Umber and Mahogany Brown.

•  Transparent Ochre is a staining ochre - it looks more yellow on my screen.
• Mars Brown is like a burnt umber.
• Green Umber is raw umber in many other brands. I really like to have a cool dark brown in my palette so this is a useful colour, but I would like to see it much richer and more heavily pigmented.
• Transparent Umber is another Burnt Umber option.
• Mahogany Brown is made with PBr33 - as was the now discontinued Walnut Brown. But this is a lovely warm colour with interesting granulation and might wash out nicely for skin tones.

New Schmincke colours 2017 - Perylene Green, Graphite Grey, Hematite Black, Mars Black and Brilliant Opera Rose.

• Perylene Green is such a useful colour. Mix with yellows for fabulous mid greens.
• Graphite Grey is nice and granulating.
• Hematitie Black is made from a green pigment.
• Mars Black granulates nicely though not as much as DS Lunar Black
• Brilliant Opera Rose is certainly bright - until it fades.

The new colours are largely single pigment colours, and it's nice to see some lovely granulating colours among them. It's now possible to put together a lovely sketching set of single pigment colours :-)


Art Spectrum watercolours here
Blockx full range of Watercolours here
Daniel Smith new colours 2017 here
Daniel Smith full range here
Da Vinci range here
Dr PH Hydrus Watercolours here
Lukas watercolours here
M.Graham watercolours here
MaimeriBlu full range here
Mission Blue full range here
Old Holland full range here
Rembrandt Watercolours here
Schmincke new colours 2017 here
Schmincke full range here
Sennelier watercolours here
St Petersburg Watercolours here
Wallace Seymour Artists Watercolours here
White Nights watercolours here
Winsor & Newton Full range here

Still to come - Daler Rowney and Holbein - nearly there!

Handmade watercolours using Schmincke pigments

I recently wrote about some of Sharlie's hand made watercolours, which were a joy to try. She gathers pigments from all over the world and is making quite a range of colours so I haven't tried, or shown, them all.

I was told about, and then received samples of, Matteo Grilli's selection of 10 colours. Made in Australia! He is using Schmincke pigments and binder, and explains the process beautifully here

Matteo Grilli's 10 watercolours, as they arrived in the post.

Matteo Grilli's Indian Yellow, Raw Sienna and
 Ultramarine Blue Light

The colours are lovely to paint with, rewetting with ease, and very strong and richly pigmented. I painted out some swatches as I usually do. 

The first, Indian Yellow PY153, is a pigment that is not easy to find any more. It's a beautifully warm yellow that has been discontinued in most ranges so lovely to see it here. PY65 (Hansa Yellow Deep in DS; Arylide Yellow Deep in DV, Chromium Yellow Hue Deep (213 in Schmincke) is almost identical in hue, but just behaves a little differently.

Raw Sienna PBr7 is a lovely yellow earth option. It varies considerably betweens brands - in DS and DS it is more on the orange side. In Schmincke I am guessing this is perhaps used in their Raw Umber (667). They have just released a Transparent Ochre using PY42 (657) which is far more yellow.

The Ultramarine Blue Light is lovely. Painted out with ease and has some granulation. Schmincke now have two ultramarines using PB29 - the familiar Schmincke Ultramarine Finest (494) and the new French Ultramarine (493).

Here is the Ultramarine again next to the Burnt Sienna. I love this combination and the Burnt Sienna is a beautiful colour! It is made with PBr7 and has a fabulous granulation with some flecks of other colours in it. It is similar in hue as the Daniel Smith burnt sienna but more varied. It reminds me of the old Art Spectrum Burnt Sienna Natural that I used to love, but which was replaced with a hue :-(

Matteo Grilli's Ultramarine Blue Light, Burnt Sienna,
Raw Umber Greenish and amazingly deep Burnt Umber

Schmincke have just released a colour called 'Maroon Brown', listed as NBr (Natural Brown - though no number) which looks incredibly similar to Matteo's Burnt Sienna to me. They have also released a 'Transparent Sienna' PR101 which is like the W&N burnt sienna. And they have their original Burnt Sienna made with PR101 and PBk7 that I have never been interested in since I don't choose to use colours with black pigments in them. (The exceptions being perylene green PBk31, which I love, and DS Lunar Black PBk11 which I also enjoy for special effects :-)

The Raw Umber Greenish is a deep cool umber - similar to the DS or DV Raw Umber so a very useful colour. Schmincke has also released this pigment in a colour called Green Umber (665) but it isn't as strong as Matteo's version.

Burnt Umber is very rich and dark - this is the colour I think of as Sepia that would normally be made with a brown and a black pigment. Lovely :-) I think I'll have to buy some of this one...I haven't come across such a lovely deep Burnt Umber before...

Matteo Grilli's Carmine, Terra Pozzuoli,
Prussian Blue and Madder Red Deep

Carmine is PV19, and Schmincke has two colours using this pigment - the more pink Ruby Red (351) and the more crimson Permanent Carmine (353). This is fabulous 'primary' red as it mixes so cleanly to make oranges and purples as well as bright reds. This is really pigment loaded and luscious.

Terra Pozzuoli is an opaque Indian red colour - really rich and lovely. It washes out to gorgeous flesh tones. I am fascinated by the many versions of PR101 that exist. It is one of the multi-personality pigments I will write about soon. Have a look at them all in my website here. I still have a number to add as well!

Schmincke used to have a Pozzuoli Earth colour that was more orange, but that seems to have been removed in the overhaul of their pigments this year. A similar colour to the Terra Pozzuoli in the new Schmincke range is Indian Red (645) made with PR101 and PR206. Earth reds are terrific for earth triads - I love exploring them.

Prussian Blue PB27 is a rich, deep cool blue. I tend to mix this hue if I need it but Matteo paints gorgeous wildlife paintings using this as his cool blue. (491 in Schmincke)

Madder Red Deep is a very earthy red colour made with the very lightfast PR179 - also known as Perylene Maroon (366) and available from many manufacturers.



It is very special to paint with handmade colours. I bought 5 of Matteo's - a lovely palette of Indian Red, Carmine, Ultramarine Light, Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna as they play so nicely together. I have added Cerulean Chromium (DS) and of course Jane's Grey to my limited palette of 7. But I just may need to add the Burnt and Raw Umbers and Terra Pozzuoli too... Of course I explored the mix of Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna - lovely greys :-)

I'll be loading up the full range of Schmincke new colours soon, though you can see many of them on Instagram - just follow janeblundellart.

Handmade watercolours

I painted out a lovely triad with DS yellow ochre, DS cerulean chromium and Sharlie's Pinkcolor deep - a gorgeous colour somewhere between Potter's Pink and Indian red - either of which could equally be used in an earthy primary wheel like this. I posted it on Instagram (Janeblundellart) but I wanted to give a little more information here.

I was sent some samples of some hand-made watercolours to try out. Sharlie also loves granulation and has been making a small quantity of each colour to test. As I have tested so many pigments over the years, there were not many that were completely 'new' or original for me, but her Lapis Lazuli is more beautiful than the commercial ones I have tried and I really like the Pinkcolour deep  - much more interesting then the usual very soft watercolour known as Potter's Pink. I guess I just prefer stronger colours - you can always dilute them. I also really liked the Moroccan earth colours and the lovely rich Maya Blue.

Here are the colours I tested out.

Making my own watercolours, like making my own sketchbooks, is something I have chosen not to do. I want to spend time sketching in the books or painting with the watercolours! However I really admire those who go through the effort of making their own. Sharlie's rewet and painted out very nicely, unlike some others I have tested.

She has an Etsy shop called biscuitswatercolor, where she sells half pans of handmade watercolour. I don't have an Etsy account so can't post a link. I believe she has a number of other colours besides these :-)

2018
Here are some more lovely handmade watercolours. It's the first time I've seen PB71 and such a gorgeous strong Potters Pink. The Graphite sparkles!

Handmade watercolours by Sharlie. Pigments shown if known. 

Handmade watercolours by Sharlie. Pigments shown if known. I love the Potter's Pink and Red Ochre.

Handmade watercolours by Sharlie. Pigments shown if known. This is the highest chroma yellow ochre I have tried. I assume it is PY43 but don't know for sure.

Handmade watercolours by Sharlie. Pigments shown if known. The PV15 is a gorgeous blue-purple. Lovely to see PB71 - rather like a Cerulean but not the same.

Top 60 watercolour blogs

I'm rather delighted to have been included in this list - you may enjoy many of the other blogs mentioned in the list here.

There will be others you know of that are not in the list - feel free to add them in the comments, perhaps saying what you like about them - so others can find them too.

Quick demonstrations

I've been doing a lot of sorting lately, since moving into a smaller house. It's a good chance to assess what is useful and what is not and reduce the clutter. I thought, however, that some of the things that I don't need to keep may still be useful, so I took a few photographs before recycling these pages. 

When I am running workshops and doing demonstrations I do a number of pages of quick studies and sketches and though they are not carefully finished, they still show what I was explaining. I've selected sections of a few pages to share here.

Anyone familiar with my work will know about Jane's Grey. Here's a quick demo of the mix. I don't suggest for a moment that you don't also explore the gorgeous range of hues you can create mixing ultramarine and burnt sienna on the palette or on the paper, but as a pre-mix it's incredibly useful.

Jane's Grey mix.

Jane's Black mix.

Jane's Black is another favourite mix. Whereas Jane's Grey is a deep slightly blue-grey that is granulating and liftable, Jane's Black is non-granulating, staining and a neutral black - neither looking red nor green. It washes out to a neutral grey. It's very useful for passages of very dark hue - whales or penguins for example. 

My students are currently using it to create a tonal underpainting that will be glazed later with washes of colour.

Here is a demonstration about the various strengths I aim for in watercolour. Starting with a very thick (like cream) mix of watercolour - as shown on the bottom - I add a 'brushful' of water to create gradually lighter tones.

Determining tones in watercolour

The 'cream' mixture will move slowly on the palette, just as pouring cream would. The 'milk' mixture moves a little more freely, but is not as liquid as the 'coffee' mixture. Think of black coffee here - liquid but not at all thick. Then 'tea' is more diluted, just as black tea is usually transparent. The weak tea is exactly that - rather like coloured water.

As we are talking about watercolour, we must always add water - the paint straight from the tube needs to be diluted before use, otherwise it will do what is called 'bronzing' and dry with an ugly sheen.

This quick demonstration shows in a very immediate way what sorts of colour mixes can be obtained when working with a well-chosen warm and cool red, yellow and blue. Here I've used hansa yellow medium (which is strictly speaking a mid yellow, but works much the same as a lemon yellow) along with quinacridone gold (a warm but neutralised yellow); quinacridone rose and pyrrol scarlet as the cool and warm reds respectively and ultramarine and phthalo blue GS as the warm and cool blues. 

Mixing a warm and cool red, yellow and blue.

It's apparent that the greens vary greatly, more than the oranges, and that you can't make a purple with a cool blue and a warm red. 

I have many pages of this sort of sketch explanation. Do you want to see more? And if so, about any particular aspect of watercolour?

The Portable Painter palette - up close and personal

I received a couple of Portable Painter palettes - an Indiegogo kickstarter project - and have set one up to play with it. It's an improvement on the W&N Cotman palette that many buy (and replace the paint with artist quality) as it has a larger brush space and more mixing areas. It also has the two water containers that act as a container or box when transporting, or as a stand so it can sit on your leg or another surface when sketching. It comes with 12 half pans - custom pans, though the universal ones will fit very tightly - but I set it up here with the paint directly in the wells. Only do that if you know you won't want to change the colours around!

The Portable Painter palette.

Here are the colours painted out, though in a different order from what you see above. This is one of my suggested urban sketching sets of 12. It contains a warm and a cool yellow, red and blue along with some very useful earth colours and a useful green. It also works very well for beginners in watercolour as there are no powerful and staining phthalo colours. More about this colour set here

A suggested urban sketching palette, set up with Daniel Smith watercolours. 

Here is one set up using the half pans that came with the palette. This time I have used my most used colours for urban sketching, rather than a more traditional recommended palette as shown above. It is set up as I usually do moving from lightest to darkest, through the rainbow going from left to right. There is only one bright red - quinacridone rose - as I don't use a lot of red when sketching buildings and can mix the other red hues I want with this very useful cool red. I have also included Indian red as it is so useful for brickwork. I love the earth colours and it makes a beautiful triad with cerulean chromium and goethite (with a touch of quinacridone gold for a little extra glow).

The Portable Painter palette set up with Daniel Smith watercolours

And here are the colours painted out. I really struggle to get down to just 12 colours. My Ultimate Mixing Set has 15. I normally work with 20 or 24. But this would work for me for urban sketching. I chose perylene green for this set rather than phthalo green as I don't have the crimson I'd normally have to mix this lovely shadow green. Perylene green also mixes great greens with the yellows in this palette, and of course there are many greens that can be mixed the the blues and yellows.

My 12-colour urban sketching palette - buff titanium, hansa yellow medium, quinacridone gold, quinacridone rose,
ultramarine, ceruelan chromium, perylene green, goethite, burnt sienna, indian red, raw umber, Jane's grey.
All Daniel Smith.

This set includes the earth triad mentioned above, a very useful almost primary triad of hansa yellow medium, quinacridone rose and ultramarine, and a cool triad of hansa yellow medium, cerulean and quinacridone rose. Goethite, burnt sienna and ultramarine also work beautifully for limited colour studies.

2107 update. The metal clip that holds the water containers together as a 'box' for this palette needed a place to stay while this palette is set up, and a branded elastic band has now been supplied. The plastic pans have also been stuck in as they tended to come out and rattle around. I've actually taken mine out and filled the palette directly with the colours above. You can see the clip held in place by the elastic on the right. This clip slides over the ridges to connect the set together.

You can get this palette from Jacksons in the UK - they ship world wide. Here is an affiliate link.

If you want to add up to six more colours, there is an expansion kit available, allowing 3, larger or up to 6 smaller pans of colour to be added into the brush space. You can see it clearly here.

There is also a Micro Palette, originally designed to hold up to 6 half pans, but with expansion kits allowing up to 16 colours. I've shown it on my website in the Palettes section but you can also see it in detail here. 

Happy sketching :-)