A new artist pal got me onto artistpigments.org, a cool website that allows you to enter your specific paint collection and chart each color on various theoretical color wheels. This is cool! I immediately charted my entire paint collection.
A few observations immediately strike me:
- I think this is reflective of available watercolor pigments in general, but there are not that many different blues compared to other types of colors.
- I have a lot of orange-yellows (mostly these are earth yellows.) I could probably consolidate here.
- I have even more earth oranges/browns, which is interesting because I don’t think of myself as having that many!
- I don’t have many purples, but they theoretically exist.
- I don’t have many yellow-greens (what would be in the upper left quadrant), and they largely don’t exist – at least not in single-pigment form. Even Rich Green Gold (PY129) is just over the line into the upper right quadrant.
It’s important to keep in mind that this chart only places colors on a wheel based on their hue, but hue is not the only or even necessarily the most important paint property you may care about. Granulation, tinting strength, etc. are not covered. There may be good reasons to have multiple paints that are nearly the same hue if they have different properties. Still, I find this charting a useful exercise; it allows me see that some colors are more similar in hue than I had perceived.
I also charted some of my recent seasonal palettes.
Spring Palette
I made the Spring Palette nearly a year ago now – it actually contains some colors I no longer have in my larger collection, due to using them or giving them away.
Some observations:
- Phthalo Green Yellow Shade (PG36) holding the upper left quadrant – not one I have anymore (Blue Shade is just as good IMO), but if you care about putting your colors all over the wheel, it occupies an important slot.
- Similarly Opera Pink is one of the few colors that gets over the line into the bottom right while still being a pink. I’m surprised the alpha isn’t higher since it’s such an intensely bright color, but it is DV Opus, which is the least intense Opera.
- Very little earth color action in this palette. I think if/when I redo it, I’ll add more muted colors because while this is cheerful, it’s difficult to use, especially in the early, muted part of spring.
Summer Palette
Here’s my Summer Palette 2 from this past year.
I’m surprised and pleased by how well-spaced this (mostly) is, a nice collection of various reds, yellows, and blues.
The exception is the two blues at the bottom that are touching: Phthalo Blue Red Shade and Ultramarine Blue. This combo surprises me as I think of Ultramarine as being more similar to Indanthrone, but Indanthrone is much closer to the center/more muted. I also thought PBRS was much greener than Ultramarine, but I guess not!
The two colors are very different in other qualities, notably granulation, but I’m interested to think I might be able to use PBRS hue-wise for UMB.
Autumn Palette
Here’s my The New England Fall Foliage Palette, or, Autumn Palette Mark II.
You can really see the autumnal warmth! Lots of reds and yellows. The reds lean cooler than perhaps is ideal for autumn, but I think this is a known weakness of the palette.
Winter Palette
This is the most recent seasonal palette I’ve made, Winter Palette 2.
This succeeds in having a cool, shivery look! In addition to PBRS and Ultramarine Blue, the same touching pair from summer, this has another pair of super-close colors: Indanthrone Blue + Carbazole Violet. I think of them as being in different categories (blue vs violet) and they do (some) different things, but they aren’t very different in properties (both highly tinting, muted, and smooth), so maybe it is a case where it would better to choose one.
Conclusion
This is kind of fun, nerdy exercise if you like playing with color! And it’s a fun way to look at a palette.