Burnt Sienna is one of the most classic earth tones, an earth orange that ranges from an orangey brown through to a peachy gold. It is often used to mix up a range of browns and to neutralize blues, which are its opposite.
Burnt Sienna is just one of many earth tones that are traditionally made with PBr7 (Pigment Brown #7); others include Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, and Burnt Umber. So basically all of them. PBr7 colors vary quite a bit in granulation depending on who you get them from. Holbein’s earth tones, like this one, tend to be quite creamy and smooth without granulation.
Experiment Results
Da Vinci – Burnt Sienna (PBr7)
Hue: An earthy orangeish / reddish / brownish color. Very similar to DS Transparent Red Oxide (PR101) shown below the swatch; perhaps slightly more red-leaning.
Transparency: Semi-transparent; appears more opaque when wet.
Granulation: Granulating. (Though less so than TRO.)
Drying shift: Minimal! Looks very similar wet and dry. In comparison, TRO looked higher chroma (more distinctly bright orange) when wet, but dried to a similar hue.
Brush Feel: I painted the gradient above from wet, and quite liked the strength. When I let the paint dry, though, I felt it became a bit too weak and also tended toward tackiness when rewetting, which I don’t like.
Batch differences: In a previous test of this pigment in November 2022, I found it more brownish and low strength, but the January 2025 test (above) from a different batch shows a redder hue.
Comparison to Other Brands
Many brands have a PBr7 Burnt Sienna. (Note that Winsor & Newton’s Burnt Sienna and Da Vinci’s Burnt Sienna Deep are PR101 and more akin to Transparent Red Oxide (PR101).)
Holbein – Burnt Sienna (PBr7)
Hue: A more orange-leaning Burnt Sienna. Tends toward olive green rather than gray with Phthalo Blue Green Shade.
Transparency: Very transparent, more so than other versions I have tried.
Granulation: Nongranulating, like most Holbein colors.
Tinting strength: Moderate
Lightfastness: One thing worth mentioning about Holbein’s Burnt Sienna in particular that it’s one of the few colors I’ve done my own personal lightfastness test on. I didn’t find it especially lightfast! After six months in a sunny window, the masstone stayed pretty similar, but the dilute end faded to white and the overall color became much less orange and more pinkish.
PBr7 is typically known to be lightfast, and indeed other people have lightfast tested this brand and found it lightfast! I got a bad batch, maybe?
Color Mixes
Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (PBr7)
Warm, granulating, orangey-browns. Moderate tinting strength. Don’t get very dark.
Quin Magenta (PR202)
You can get quite deep crimson reds with this mix, though you do have to put in some elbow grease to work up a strong masstone with the Burnt Sienna.
Ultramarine Blue (PB29)
A classic combination, Ultramarine + Burnt Sienna are the ingredients of Jane Blundell’s “Jane’s Grey.” As nice as the gray is, I’d prefer to have both components than to premix a gray, since they also mix wonderful browns and slate blues depending on the exact ratio.
Indanthrone Blue (PB60)
Similar to Ultramarine, this makes browns, grays, and muted blues. These seem overall cooler and less violety than the Ultramarine ones.
Phthalo Green Yellow Shade (PG36)
In theory this is a way of making green-browns, but they don’t look nice.
What Others Say
This is one of the most versatile and useful paints, an excellent mixing complement for blues from ultramarine blue to cerulean blue, and a great partner with blue green and green pigments for mixing natural, dull yellow greens.
Bruce MacEvoy, handprint.com: earth pigments (2010)
Burnt Sienna is an ancient colour, made by roasting Raw Sienna, so both colours are made with the pigment PBr 7. It is the most useful earth colour in the palette, as it combines with its opposite, Ultramarine, to form a range of blues, greys and browns (see below). It will create a range of mossy greens if mixed with a Sap Green (which can be made from Phthalo Green and Quinacridone Gold) and wonderful flesh tones when diluted with water, with or without the addition of other colours.
Mixed with a yellow it creates a yellow ochre and raw sienna hue, mixed with a blue it creates a myriad of greys, browns and deep blues and mixed with a red a wonderful range of neutralised red hues. Mixed with a green it can create a range of more mossy greens and very interesting neutrals with a purple – it’s a magic colour!
Jane Blundell, Earth Colours
This is a lovely, transparent warm brown. Almost an orange, it is a very good choice for mixing with Cobalt Blue to create a gray.
David Webb, Painting in Watercolor: The Indispensable Guide (2016), p. 35
My Review of Burnt Sienna
Of all the earth tones, I find that earth orange is most versatile. Higher-chroma than the browner Burnt Umber, and warmer than the green-undertoned Raw Umber, its mixes are so flexible, especially with blues, with which earth orange mixes a range of slates, grays, and browns. I have found it so easy to mix naturalistic grays and browns from earth orange and blue that I find I do not need dedicated grays and browns on my palette.
Burnt Sienna is the classic earth orange for a reason. It is just an all-arounder!
- Usually gently granulating, just enough to be pretty, but not wild and out of control
- Moderate strength, neither weak nor overpowering
- Low drying shift, so what you see (wet) is what you get (dry)
- Tends toward a soft, pleasant hue on its own, and comes to life as a super-versatile mixer. Is there any mix that’s not nice?
- Inexpensive
- Widely available from almost every brand
That said, not every Burnt Sienna is created equal. Like many earth colors (especially those made with the endlessly chameleonic PBr7), Burnt Siennas vary a lot from brand to brand. Some are granulating, some not so much; some weaker and some stronger; some more transparent and some more opaque; some hues may appear more orange, more red, or more brown. Some brands, like WN, even make their paint named Burnt Sienna from another pigment (PR101). You may have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the one you personally like the best.
My favorite version: Da Vinci. I wasn’t super in love with it when I initially tested it from a dot card in 2022, but when I bought a tube on a whim in 2025, I found the warm hue extremely beautiful.
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Da Vinci – Burnt Sienna, 8ml tube: Da Vinci Paints
Da Vinci – Burnt Sienna, 15ml tube: Da Vinci Paints | Blick | Utrecht