Paint

What’s the best blue watercolor for the dusk sky?

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When I experimented to find my favorite blue for the sky, I focused mainly on the light blue midday sky, with a quick nod to deep dark night skies. These days, I find myself often drawn to the in-between gradient shades of dusk skies: inky night blue at the top, grading to pale muted cyan … Read more

The Summer Palette, Mark II

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Here’s my end-of-summer reveal: I’ve been working on a new Summer Palette this whole time!

I took my time to build this palette (which is why this post is appearing at the end of summer instead of the beginning). I went through several iterations, taking out different sets of colors to see how they performed in the real world when I tried to paint my surroundings.

This is the first time I’ve come around to make a second version of seasonal palette. The first seasonal palette I designed, last fall, was the Autumn Palette, but I added the Summer Palette quickly after. Let’s see how my new one compares!

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Artist Palette Profiles: JMW Turner

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So far, I have mostly profiled contemporary artists in the Artist Profile series, except for my first entry of Monet; but I’m on an art history kick after reading Watercolor: A History by Marie Salé. One of my favorite painters profiled in that book is the English painter JMW Turner (1775-1851), who is perhaps better known for oils but whose watercolors are fresh and lively.

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What’s the difference between Lavender and Smalt?

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In this post, I’ll be comparing Winsor & Newton’s Smalt (Dumont’s Blue), which is made from Ultramarine Violet pigment (PV15), with Daniel Smith’s Lavender – a mix of white, Ultramarine Blue, and Ultramarine Violet.

Note that the color WN calls “Smalt” is not traditional Smalt pigment, which is made from finely ground glass containing cobalt. Instead, it’s a version of Ultramarine Violet that leans heavily toward blue, somewhere between a typical Ultramarine Violet and Ultramarine Blue hue.

Because of that, I found it to be a good hue match to Lavender, which is made from a mix of Ultramarine Violet and Ultramarine Blue. The main difference is that Lavender also contains white, so it’s opaque and can have a pastel (“chalky”) appearance. Smalt has no white, so it can get darker, and is more transparent.

Both colors are granulating blue-purples with similar use cases: the violet tones in sky mixes, clouds, hazy distant mountains. I don’t think I need both, so which should I choose?

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What’s the difference between Titanium White and Zinc White?

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White is a really important color in gouache, and I defaulted to Titanium White until I started reading some interesting opinions online about Zinc White. It seems that Titanium White is more opaque and better for highlights and stars and things, but Zinc White is supposed to be a better mixing colors – to make nicer pastels.

So I got myself a tube of Zinc White gouache and tested out pastels made from Titanium vs Zinc with all my gouache colors.

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My Favorite Watercolor Paints by Brand

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It’s all very well for me to do Color Spotlights identifying my favorite version of each color, but it can be hard to collate and use information when you’re standing in the watercolor aisle at the art store. Every shop seems to carry different brands. I’ll find myself with a rare chance to stock up on, say, Holbein open stock on sale, unable to remember which colors I actually preferred from Holbein. So I’ve made a list of my favorites by brand; and I thought I’d share it with you! Revised October 27, 2024.

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Neon Palette III

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Here’s one more run at improving the Neon Palette. This is fairy similar to my previous, Drawn to High Places-inspired Mark II, but this time I’ve divided the palette into two categories: The Colors Top Row – flat matte brights: Bottom Row – glowing transparent glazes: The Future of the Neon Palette…? Okay. Here’s where … Read more