Kolbie Blume (@thiswritingdesk) has been an important and formative watercolor teacher to me, and some of my first “eureka!” watercolor lessons were from their 10-Day #PaintingtheWilderness Challenge on Youtube. I don’t know what’s on Kolbie’s palette these days (I suspect it changes regularly), so today, I will be looking at the colors that are suggested in the introduction to Kolbie’s two books:Wilderness Watercolor Landscapes and Stunning Watercolor Seascapes.
The exercise of exploring color alternatives is actually incredibly relevant and necessary in this case, since it’s what I’ve been doing continuously as I attempt to actually paint these tutorials with my particular set of paints. I often don’t have the exact color that Kolbie uses, but I can get similar results (or results I like better!) by substituting paints in the same general hue slot.
The Palette
The WWL column represents the colors that Kolbie suggests as an “extended palette” for the purpose of painting the tutorials in Wilderness Watercolor Landscapes. All the tutorials suggest using colors from this list. I made educated guesses where I didn’t know the brand.
The SWS column represents the colors from Stunning Watercolor Seascapes. “Same” means same as WWL.
Click on the color name under “Slot” to see my list of other paints in the same category, which you may want to consider for substitutions. Click on the name of the paint (under the WWL or SWS columns) to see my Color Spotlight post for that paint (if I have one).
| Slot | WWL | SWS |
|---|---|---|
| Lemon Yellow | DS Lemon Yellow (PY175) | WN Lemon Yellow Deep (PY159) |
| Scarlet | DS Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255) | WN Scarlet Lake (PR188) |
| Middle Red | DS Permanent Red (PR170) | |
| Rose/Magenta/Pink | DS Quinacridone Rose (PV19) | |
| Rose/Magenta/Pink (Fluorescent) | WN Opera Rose (PR122, BV10) | same |
| Violet | DS Perylene Violet (PV29) | |
| Dark Blue | DS Indigo (PB60, PBk6) | |
| Gray | WN Payne’s Grey (PB15, PBk6, PV19) | same |
| Cyan | DS Prussian Blue (PB27) | same |
| Turquoise (Light) | WN Cobalt Turquoise Light (PG50) | |
| Turquoise (Dark) | DS Phthalo Turquoise (PB15:3, PG36) | same |
| Green (Cool) | Sennelier Viridian (PG7, PG18) | |
| Green (Warm) | DS Hooker’s Green (PG36, PY3, PY150, PO48) | same |
| Green (Dark) | DS Perylene Green (PBk31) | |
| Earth Yellow | DS Yellow Ochre (PY43) | same |
| Brown | DS Burnt Umber (PBr7) | same |
| Black | DS Lamp Black (PBk6) | |
| White | Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleedproof White | same |
The main color I’m surprised not to find on either list is an orange or earth orange, like Burnt Sienna or my beloved Transparent Red Oxide (PR101). I like to use oranges a lot in earth mixes or to mute blues. I think Kolbie tends to opt for using more muted blues to begin with (e.g. Prussian Blue, Payne’s Gray, Indigo), and also uses Burnt Umber for browns where I will tend to mix brown with Earth Orange and blue.
Bonus: More Colors
Since doing more of Kolbie’s tutorials, I’ve noted some other colors they use which it’s been useful to note alternatives for.
| Slot | Kolbie Uses |
|---|---|
| Orange-Yellow | DS New Gamboge (PY110, PY97) |
| Magenta (Dark) | DS Quinacridone Magenta (PR202) |
| Crimson | DS Carmine (PR176) |
| Cyan (Light) | M. Graham Cerulean Blue (PB36) |
| Green (Muted) | DS Sap Green (PG7/PY150/PO48) |
| Earth Yellow (Orangey) | WN Gold Ochre (PY43) |
| Earth Orange | DS Burnt Sienna (PBr7) |
| Brown (Dark) | SH Sepia (PBr7, PBk9, PB15:1) |
| Gray (Granulating) | DS Moonglow (PR177/PB29/PG18) |
| Black (Granulating) | DS Lunar Black (PBk11) |