Supplies Deep Dive: Watercolor Paint, How Does That Work?

One of the most important supplies for watercolor is paint itself. Oh, okay, you could go back and forth all day with galaxy brain paint hipsters about whether the real most important supply is the paper, the brushes, or the water, mannnnn. But paint is pretty important, anyway.

Properties of Watercolor Paint

Watercolor paint is made from pigment – some natural or lab-made substance with a strong color- suspended in a water-soluble binder, usually gum arabic. Some paint companies will use other binders, including honey. Other types of paint, including oils and acrylics, will often use the same traditional pigments. It’s the binder that gives watercolor its unique properties:

• Water-soluble
• Able to be diluted to make lighter colors
• Dries hard but can be re-wet on a nonporous mixing surface (ceramic, metal, plastic)
• Adheres to paper and becomes permanent once dry on paper

These are properties that all watercolor paints, for the most part, share. There are also properties that can differ from paint to paint, in addition to the actual color. These are:

• Series: How expensive the pigment is, basically. Series 1 is the cheapest and Series 4 is the most expensive. This can affect the pricing of the tube of paint, but it does not mean quality. Series 1 paints are no less vibrant, long-lasting, or anything else – it just has to do with what it’s made of and how rare or expensive the ingredients are.
  
• Transparency: Is the paint totally see-through, totally opaque, or somewhere in between? Most watercolor is at least somewhat translucent, moreso when diluted. There are fully opaque paints that share many properties with watercolor: gouache.
  
• Granulation: Granulating paints have visible flecks of color which lend texture to the final product. Non-granulating paints are smooth, more like ink. Some artists love granulation and some don’t, but many have mix of granulating and non-granulating paints on their palette for different purposes; for example, granulating blues or greens may be used to mix up greens for textured masses of foliage, while non-granulating blue may be used for a clear blue sky. Or maybe you want smooth leaves and a textured sky! It’s up to you.
  
• Staining: Highly staining paints immediately stain the paper with some level of permanent color whereas non-staining paints can be lifted while still wet – mopped up with a paper towel or rag – to reveal plain white paper. Non-staining paints can be useful for applications like a sky where you want to lift out clouds. Both staining and nonstaining paints are permanent once dry. Personally, I don’t see a ton of difference; it is possible to lift staining paints if you’re quick enough. Highly staining paints are usually more intense in terms of color so can dominate mixes with less-staining paints.
  
• Lightfastness: This has to do with the permanence of the paint over time. Is the color prone to break down and fade upon longterm exposure to light (years), or will it look as vivid in a decade as it does now? Professional artists who sell their work need lightfast colors because customers expect to buy a painting that will last for the ages on their wall. If art, for you, is less about the product than the experience, or if the end result of your painting is going to be a photograph on Instagram or a digital scan, then lightfastness is probably pretty irrelevant for you.

Information about these four properties, along with the pigments used to color the paint, is available on the tube or online for you to research before you buy a new paint. Most of the time (except with lightfastness), there’s no “good” or “bad”; transparent and opaque, granulating and non-, high- and low-staining paints all have their uses. You may find over time that you tend to prefer some properties over others, or you may like to see a mix represented in your palette.

All About Pigments

Pigment is what gives watercolor paint its color. Pigments can come from a natural source (e.g. minerals), or they can be created synthetically in a lab. Pigments are similar to dyes; the difference is that dye is water-soluble, whereas pigment is not. In paint, pigment is suspended in a medium (in watercolor, mediums are things like gum arabic and honey, which hold the paint together).

Color Index Codes

Pigments are designated on paint tubes with a Color Index Generic Name (CIGN). For example: PB29, PY150, PR255.

The Color Index was created in 1925 by the Society of Dyers & Colourists and it keeps records of different types of colorants. Here’s how to read a Color Index Generic Name.

First letter. Indicates whether it’s a pigment, dye, or what. Some options:

• P (for pigment) – most watercolor and other commercial paints use pigments, so typically you’ll see codes starting with P.
• B (for dye) – rarely used in watercolor because dyes are not lightfast; usually only used for Opera Pink and similar fluorescent colors
• N (for natural) – natural dyes, sometimes used in paints of historical interest, but also generally not lightfast.

Second letter (or two): Indicates the color. Options:

• R: Red
• O: Orange
• Y: Yellow
• G: Green
• B: Blue
• V: Violet
• Br: Brown
• Bk: Black
• W: White

Last position: A number. I think this is designed to group chemically similar colors together, but I don’t really understand it. I’ve eventually learned the numbers of my favorite pigments by memorization.

Occasionally there is a colon after the number with another number, which designates variants of the same color.

Examples:

• PR254: Pigment Red #254 = Pyrrol Red
• PBk9: Pigment Black #9 = Carbon Black
• PB15:3: Pigment Black #15 variant 3 = Phthalo Blue Green Shade
• BV10: Dye Violet #10 = Rhodamine B dye (used in some Opera colors)

Different manufacturers will name things differently, so using the pigment number is sort of like using the scientific name of a flower instead of the common name: it lets you compare paints made from the same chemicals across different common names/color names.

Caveat: there are different ways of preparing pigments so that two paints made from the same pigment may look quite different. Companies may sell more than one color of paint made with the same pigment. Here are some common offenders:

• PBr7 (Pigment Brown #7, a brown iron oxide) is used to make Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, and sometimes other browns (such as Van Dyke Brown). This brown can come in a wide range of colors from nearly yellow, to more orangey, more greenish, or dark brown. The “burnt” colors are usually darker because it becomes darker-colored when heated.
• PR101 (Pigment Red #101, a red iron oxide) is used to make Transparent Red Oxide – which is actually more of an orangey color similar to Burnt Sienna – as well as Indian Red, an opaque earth red-brown, and various other colors that vary quite a bit in their orangeness/redness, mutedness, and opacity.
• PV19 (Pigment Violet #19, a quinacridone red-violet) comes in two major flavors. The alpha form is used to make warm reddish pinks like Quinacridone Rose, or Da Vinci’s pinky crimson, Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone. The beta form is used to make more true violets like Quinacridone Violet. Often, brands will offer both a PV19 Quin Rose and PV19 Quin Violet, and some, like Da Vinci, will often even more subtly-different PV19 colors.

Find any pigment you want at the Art is Creation Pigment Database or Bruce MacEvoy’s handprint.com. For comparison of different brands’ versions of the colors, Jane Blundell’s website is a great resource.

Pigment FAQ

Are some pigments toxic?

Watercolor paint is a very safe, low-toxicity medium compared to other types of painting. There are no chemical solvents since it’s water-soluble. However, you should avoid eating paint (or allowing your pets or kids to do so). Some pigments are more toxic than others, such as those containing heavy metals like cadmium, cobalt, and manganese. Paints containing these metals will have cautionary labelling.

Toxicity concerns applies mainly to ingestion of large amounts. You are unlikely to suffer any ill effects from merely handling them, unless you have an allergy to a specific ingredient (e.g. people with nickel allergies might get contact dermatitis from nickel azo yellow).

People who make their own watercolor paints are at higher risk than those who simply paint with premade paints. If you’re working with raw pigment powder, it’s a good idea to wear a mask.

For more detail, see my post Are watercolor paints toxic?

What’s a hue?

In common usage, the word “hue” just means “color”, but in paint names it has a very specific meaning. It means the paint uses a synthetic alternative to the traditional natural mineral. If you see a paint called “Cadmium Red Hue,” it means, “This color looks like the Cadmium Red, but it doesn’t use the typical natural mineral pigment for Cadmium Red (i.e. cadmium).” Cadmium Red Hue, in other words, is cadmium-free, but a similar color to traditional Cadmium Red.

Another case study: Typically any paint called “Viridian” uses the pigment PG18, a hydrated chromium oxide which produces a granulating, cool green color. Holbein offers a traditional PG18 Viridan, as well as “Viridian Hue.” The pigment used in Viridian Hue is PG7, which is usually called Phthalo Green (Blue Shade). It’s a similar cool green color, though not granulating.

I was initially taught that a paint with “hue” in the name is a mix of pigments and all other paints are single pigment, and that is just simply not true. “Hue” paints may be single pigment, like Holbein’s Viridian Hue; and any many many paints are not called “hue” but still use multiple pigments.

“Hue” is also sometimes defined as “synthetic,” but a lot of pigments are synthetic and don’t contain the word “hue.” For example, when PG7 is called Phthalo Green, it doesn’t need to be called “Phthalo Green Hue”, even though it is a synthetic. Why? Because PG7 is what Phthalo Green usually is. There’s no traditional, natural mineral pigment associated with the term “Phthalo Green.”

Still confused? Try replacing the word “hue” with “lookalike.” Cadmium Red Hue isn’t Cadmium Red… It’s a Cadmium Red lookalike. It’s Cadmium Red-colored. It’s a Cadmium Red alternative. It’s Cadmium Red… NOT! It’s faux Cadmium Red. I can’t believe it’s not Cadmium Red!

Are single pigment paints better?

Some paints use just one single pigment, and others are mixes of multiple pigments.

Gravitating toward single pigment paints can make your collection more flexible since you won’t be buying the same pigment multiple times in different mixes – you can mix stuff yourself. Some people also think that single-pigment paints mix more nicely, though it’s complicated. See my post: Should I only get single pigment paints?

Paint Formats

Traditionally, watercolor paint comes in one of two forms, pans or tubes.

• Pans: dry paint in a little cake. To use the paint, wet it with a drop of water or a spritz from a mister, wait a minute or two and then it will be liquid enough to load up your brush. Standard pan sizes are full pan (about 3 ml), half pan (about 1.5 ml) and sometimes quarter pan (about 0.75 ml). Confusingly, half pan seems to be the most standard size. You can buy pans individually or in a pre-filled palette tin.
  
• Tubes: wet paint in a sort of toothpaste tube that comes out wet but can also be allowed to dry and then re-wet, so then you’d use them the same as dry pans. Tubes are usually purchased individually, generally in 5ml or 15ml sizes. If you use tubes, you need to provide your own palette to squeeze them into/onto, and you generally need to pick your own colors individually.

There are also some more unusual types of watercolor such as liquid watercolor (similar to ink) and sheets (generally used for special detail work, like photo retouching). I’m less familiar with these.

So which should you get, pans or tubes?

You can mix tube and pan watercolor in the same painting, so you’re not locked in either way. In most brands, there is no difference in formulation – the pan paint is just tube paint that they let dry – so you can make your own pans from tubes and then mix with your other pans.

I jumped right into tubes, being advised that it’s cheaper in the long run. When purchased individually, sample-size 5 ml tubes are generally barely more expensive than 1.5 ml half-pans, and 15 ml tubes are usually only about double the cost of 5 ml tubes.

However, the cost savings presupposes that you know what colors you want. What if you buy a 15 ml tube, paint with it a few times, and decide you don’t like it? It doesn’t matter than the paint was cheaper per ounce if you don’t use all the ounces. If you’re a color hound and dilettante like me, it may be better to start by buying the smallest amount of paint possible in a wider variety of colors. Do always check the prices and do out the math, though, because sometimes brands will do wacky things with the prices; I’ve seen sets that cost more than their components, 5 ml tubes that are cheaper than 1.5 ml half-pans, etc.

Another great invention for folks in our situation is dot cards – literally cardstock with dots of paint on it – which many brands put out to allow artists to sample different colors. The dots may only be enough to do a few swatches or a small painting, but often that’s all I need to get a sense for whether I want the color.

Student Grade vs. Artist Grade

Student grade paints are usually cheaper, have less pigment and more binder, and come in larger sets with more colors. When you start out with watercolor, you may decide to:

(A) try out student grade paints just to get your feet wet, because they are cheaper and you don’t even know if you will like this hobby, or

(B) to jump directly to artist grade paints, which are higher quality.

I initially chose option A, and this is a legit way to go, especially if you have budget constraints. But, if I were to do it over, I would go with option B – artist grade right away, but a smaller number of shades. Here’s why:

1. Artist grade paints tend to have a higher pigment load, which means they last longer (you use less at a time) and they’re easier to work with. As a beginner, why not make it as easy as possible on yourself?
   
2. Artist grade paints rewet well, which means you can let them dry on your palette and then reuse them later, and it will be just as good. That’s not a given with student grade paints. I found best results from student grade paints by using them wet, but then I just had to throw out the unused dry paint, which was wasteful.
   
3. The high pigment load and rewettability is also why, in the longer run, using artist grade paints can be just as cheap (or cheaper). That’s especially true if you choose a smaller number of shades.
   
4. Having a smaller number of paints forces you to get to know them really well, and to learn to mix. When I had a ton of student grade paints, I used them like colored pencils: find the shade closest to what I want to paint, and just use it out of the tube. No shade on painting that way which can be fun, but mixing opens up a lot of options.

Brands

Some well-known artist-grade brands are Daniel Smith, M. Graham, Da Vinci, and Qor from USA; Winsor & Newton and Daler Rowney from England; Schmincke from Germany; Sennelier from France; Royal Talens from the Netherlands; Holbein from Japan; Mijello (Mission Gold) from Korea; and Art Spectrum from Australia. Price and availability of each brand will vary worldwide.

Smaller companies often only offer pans. This includes Roman Szmal from Poland, Rosa Gallery from Ukraine, Greenleaf & Blueberry from USA, and many more.

Note that some brands have both a student grade and an artist grade line, so pay attention to the full product name to make sure you’re getting what you expect. For example, Winsor & Newton has the Cotman (student grade) or Professional (artist grade) lines; Daler Rowney has the Aquafine (student grade) or Artist (artist grade) lines; Schmincke has the Akademie (student grade) or Horadam (artist grade) lines; Royal Talens has the Van Gogh (student grade) or Rembrandt (artist grade) lines.

For my impressions of the various brands’ usability for beginners, see What’s the best artist-grade paint brand for beginners?

Colors

Okay, so what colors should you choose to start with? This is a whole other subject, and one I love!! Check out my post How to Build a Watercolor Palette from the Ground Up!