Watercolor Dirtbag
Is Phthalo Blue Red Shade actually red-toned, neutral, or still green-toned but simply less so than its cousin Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3)? I’ve heard all opinions, and I suppose it’s a judgment call. (Is the color blue you see the same as the color blue I see?) My opinion is that it is a fairly neutral blue without a clear bias toward purple or green. But it’s just as strong and lively as its Phthalo kin.
A single pigment, transparent red-brown. (I am constantly misidentifying this as ‘Quinacridone Burnt Sienna’, so I’m lucky there is no color by that name.) Other brands may call this Brown Madder.
Note that as of 2023, this color is discontinued and being replaced in most lines (e.g. Winsor & Newton has replaced their PR206 Brown Madder with PR179).
Cerulean, meaning “sky”, is a light sky blue, traditionally made from the PB35 or PB36 pigments, which are both cobalt oxides. It’s an opaque, granulating, light-valued, green-toned blue.
Warning: Be careful to look at pigment numbers. Some brands, like Mission Gold, call their PB15 Phthalo Blue “Cerulean.” Don’t make the mistake I did when I first started painting, and get “Cerulean Hue” (from Da Vinci, Cotman, etc.), made from Phthalo Blue + white. PB15 is not the same color, and will not have the same granulation/magic/mixing properties.
Shadow Violet is a granulating purple-gray that’s made from a mix of three pigments: PB29 (Ultramarine), PG18 (Viridian), and PO73 (Pyrrol Orange). As such, close inspection of the seemingly unassuming shade reveals flecks of violet blue and blue-green as well as and underlying orange cast that make it more interesting than your typical gray, and mimics the overall effect of a real-life shadow with light and dark spots, color variety, and texture. John Muir Laws praises its beautiful granulation and suggests using it as a convenience gray for shadows in nature paintings.
The classic brown! This is an earthy, granulating brown that looks to me like clay-rich soil.
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.
Often called Vermilion (although it is not the traditional/historical Vermilion pigment), PR188 is a smooth, transparent, brilliant red-orange shade. Pigment Stats for PR188 Pigment Description: Naphthol Red Lightfastness: Very Good in most ranges, however Bruce MacEvoy and Kim Crick (my usual go-tos on lightfastness) have some reservations (see What Others Say below). Toxicity: Nontoxic. Cost: … Read more
Quinacridone Purple is a straightforward purple that is neither blue-toned nor magenta-toned.
Genuine Manganese Blue (PB33) is a toxic pigment that has mostly been removed from major lines. The only major brand that still sells PB33 is Da Vinci; this is a mixture which also contains PB15 (Phthalo Blue). Other large-company versions (e.g. Daniel Smith, Holbein, Winsor & Newton) offer hues made from PB15 only.
Genuing PB33 is/was a non-staining, liftable, and highly granulating light blue that creates striking separation effects in mixes (especially visible in the mix with red above). Because Phthalo Blue does not typically have those properties, Manganese Blue Hues are treated in a way to create them as closely as possible. Some only aim to match the hue, while others also attempt granulation.
