Alternative Paint Suggestions for Kolbie Blume’s Painting the Wilderness: Light Challenge

My first and favorite watercolor teacher/influencer/youtuber, Kolbie Blume, will be posting a new, free, 5-day challenge on Youtube on September 12. I’ll be participating once again, trying to keep up with each tutorial and post my work the same or next day. It’ll be the first time I’ve done any tutorial since Kolbie’s last challenge, World of Color! Even though I’m trending away from tutorials generally, I’m excited to be working alongside Kolbie’s rich online community for this one. I’ve participated in all of Kolbie’s challenges since I discovered their first Painting the Wilderness 10-Day Challenge in late 2021.

For the World of Color challenge in February, I posted alternative color suggestions for Kolbie’s palette. I stand by those! Per their new official supply list, Kolbie is still using the same colors, so please check that prior post for the general list of alternative suggestions. Below, I’ll post what I’m using this time (some new-to-me colors!), and I’ll reveal how my chosen alternatives went last time!

My Alternatives: Last Time vs This Time

In the table below, I’ll say what I used last time, for World of Color, and briefly how it went; and what I plan to use this time, for Light. I was generally fairly accurate about which colors I’d use, with some exceptions, which I’ll note. I didn’t always follow the tutorials closely enough to really make a one-for-one comparison to Kolbie’s colors make sense, but the contents of my palette were more than adequate to help me paint the scenes.

Slot	Kolbie Uses	I’m Using
Yellow	WN Lemon Yellow Deep (PY159)	Color: Imidazolone Lemon (PY175) or Imidazolone Yellow (PY154). Light: Thinking of experimenting with DS Azo Yellow (PY151) for its transparency.
Earth Yellow	WN Gold Ochre (PY42)	Color: Claimed I would use Raw Sienna (PBr7), but actually used Yellow Ochre (PY42), Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65), or Isoindolinone Yellow Deep (PY110). Light: Thinking of experimenting with Naples Yellow Deep (PBr24) for sunsets and skies!
Gold	DS Quinacridone Gold (PY150, PO48)	Color: Claimed I would use DV Gold Ochre (PY42, PY83), but actually used Quin Gold, Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150), or Rich Green Gold (PY129). Light: Probably mostly Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150) again. I think it’ll be important to stick with a PY150-based color (either NAY or Quin Gold) for painting sunlight, since it’s very transparent and golden-hour-colored, and nothing else quite mixes the same.
Earth Orange	DS Burnt Sienna (PBr7)	Color: DS Transparent Red Oxide (PR101) for mixing brown/gray and DS Quinacridone Burnt Orange (PO48) + DV Indian Red (PR101) for red rocks. Light: Still likely TRO for most cases; I reserve QBO for occasional magic.
Scarlet	WN Scarlet Lake (PR188)	Color: DS Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255) for muting blues or DV Quin Red (PR209) for sunrise/sunset. Light: I will definitely still use PR209 for sunrise/sunset. Possibly DV Permanent Red (PR188) for any other scarlet uses.
Crimson		Color: This is a slot Kolbie didn’t call out, and I previously predicted under the Rose slot that I might use Pyrrol Rubin (PR264). I did use it briefly to mute greens. TBH I don’t think it’s really a rose/magenta alternative, and I like having the slot so I’m adding it to the table here. Light: DV Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone (PV19) or a new super-dark red I’m trying, Naphthamide Maroon (PR171).
Rose/Magenta	MG Quinacridone Rose (PV19)	Color: Quin Magenta (PR122) or Quin Rose (PV19). Light: Likely mostly Quin Magenta.
Fluorescent Rose	WN Opera Rose (PR122, BV10)	Color: Did not use (used Quin Magenta and/or Quin Coral instead.) Light: I still expect I’ll tend to use Opera less than Kolbie, but I have DV Opus available if I really want that fluorescent jolt.
Violet-Blue		Color: Although Kolbie didn’t list a color in this slot, I’m adding it because I used a lot of Ultramarine Blue (PB29) and WN Smalt (PV15) in World of Color. Light: Same
Dark Blue (Violet)	WN Indanthrene Blue (PB60)	Color: DS Indanthrone Blue (PB60) Light: Same
Dark Blue (Cyan)	WN Indigo (PBk6, PB15, PV19)	Color: Holbein Indigo Light: Same
Blue-Gray	WN Payne’s Gray (PBk6, PB15, PV19)	Color: Holbein Payne’s Gray Light: Same
Cyan	WN Phthalo Turquoise (PB16)	Color: Also WN Phthalo Turquoise, for the most part. I once supplemented with Phthalo Green (to make a greener turquoise) and once added Prussian Blue (to make a darker turquoise). Light: Likely stick with PB16.
Granulating/Sky Cyan	MG Cerulean Blue (PB36)	Color: I find it hilarious that I claimed I would use DS Manganese Blue Hue. It was a new color I was experimenting with, but I hated it and immediately chucked it. For sky blues, I tended to use Phthalo Blue Red Shade. Light: Probably stick with PBRS.
Greens	DS Hooker’s Green (PY36, PY3, PY150, PO48)	Color: Self-mix from Phthalo Turquoise + Rich Green Gold. Light: Same, though may not include RGG in my palette. NAY mixes should work as well.
Sap Green	DS Sap Green (PG7, PY150, PO48)	Color: Same as Hooker’s, but I did supplement once with Oxide of Chromium (PG17). Light: Same as Hooker’s.
Dark Green	DS Jadeite Genuine	Color: Claimed I’d self-mix from Indanthrone + Rich Green Gold; actually self-mixed from Indigo + Rich Green Gold and supplemented with Perylene Green (PBk31). Light: Indigo + NAY self-mix.
Dark Green	Sennelier Greenish Umber (PB60, PBk7, PY83)	Same as above.
Black	SH Galaxy Black	Color: Rembrandt Spinel Grey (PBk26) Light: DV Lamp Black (PBk6). Reason for the swap is just that I realized the Spinel Black is too similar to the Payne’s Gray (which I prefer), since they’re both transparent; Lamp Black is opaque so offers more contrast for silhouettes.
Gray	SH Random Gray	Color: IIRC the main use was a grayscale painting for which I used a mix of TRO + Ultramarine Blue. Light: Same, I think TRO + Ultramarine Blue will cover my use case here.
White	Dr Ph Martin’s Bleedproof White	Color: Holbein Titanium White Gouache Light: Same

Conclusion

I can tell you all day which colors could theoretically be used, but I hope this look at what actually happened to my best-laid plans gives you some insight into how color alternatives may actually work. “Be flexible” is the best advice I can give; occasionally, the color I thought I would use turned out not to be quite right in practice, either because I did not anticipate how the teacher would use the color, or because I was trying a new color I didn’t actually like!

In other cases, I ended up preferring my own colors to the teacher’s, particularly when they were tried-and-true colors I understood. Trying to figure out Random Gray would have confused me, but I’m so used to mixing up an Ultramarine + TRO gray that it didn’t faze me. I used Quin Coral in nearly every painting, though it was never called for, and used a ton of Ultramarine Blue and Smalt even though Kolbie didn’t have an equivalent color or slot. A palette you like and know how to use is better than a palette that’s identical to the teacher’s.

There are some cases where I think having something similar to Kolbie’s colors will serve you well, especially with the planned itinerary of painting various times of day and lighting conditions. Notably:

• A color containing PY150 (Nickel Azo Yellow or Quin Gold) will likely be fairly irreplaceable for “golden hour”.
• You’ll need an opaque white, such as the Bleedproof White or a Titanium White gouache, if you want to do star splatter in a night sky.
• A very dark color (black or Payne’s Gray, or both) may be highly convenient for making dark enough sky colors and/or silhouettes.

Generally I think the other colors can be replaced with whatever you have lying around, provided you have or can mix a variety of hues across the color wheel. If you’re just starting out building your palette, check out How to Build a Watercolor Palette from the Ground Up for my general advice.

Enjoy the challenge!