Watercolor Dirtbag
Hansa Yellow Deep is a deep orange-toned mango yellow, another option for the warm yellow slot in your palette where you might also be considering Isoindolinone Yellow Deep (PY110) or mixes like New Gamboge and Quinacridone Gold.
Pyrrol Crimson is a robust deep crimson red with a slight blue undertone. It’s recommended by Jane Blundell as a part of her Ultimate Mixing Palette, as a lightfast and single-pigment replacement for the fugitive Alizarin Crimson.
Daniel Smith is the only company that offers this pigment, PV32, which they call Bordeaux. It’s a deep, semi-transparent, non-granulating, wine-colored pigment: somewhere between magenta and purple.
This brown jumped off the page to me when I was doing the Schmincke dot cards; it is bright, clear, and vivid while still being undeniably brown.
Pyrrol Red is a straight-ahead, middle red, the platonic ideal of red! The color of fire engines, cardinals, and yew berries, it’s very bright and bold with a slight orange bias. Its closest complement is Phthalo Green Yellow Shade.
Perylene Maroon sits somewhere between crimson and earth red, a deep red with a brownish cast; sort of brick-colored. It’s useful to deepen scarlets and mute greens and blues to make more realistic landscape tones. I became interested in Perylene Maroon after watching Denise from In Liquid Color paint a pigeon using shades of gray from a mix of Perylene Maroon and Cerulean.
Traditionally, Alizarin Crimson is made from pigment PR83, which has fallen out of favor because it is not lightfast. Different companies have different solutions to this, offering colors with names like “Permanent Alizarin Crimson” made from various mixes of red pigments. Some artists also mix their own (a popular recipe is Perylene Maroon + Quin Rose).
I’ll primarily be looking at Da Vinci’s version, Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone, which is made from PV19, the same quinacridone pigment that is used for Quin Rose. I have never tried PR83, so I can’t compare it to the original; I’ll just be exploring it on its own merits as a possible deep red for my palette. Later, in “Comparison to Other Brands,” you can see other Alizarin Crimson alternatives I’ve tried.
I just love this unique color. It’s a warm pinky red, yellow-toned, but not in orangey way. It truly is coral. It reminds of a cherry Italian soda. It’s a great color for flowers, the inside of a strawberry, and coral of course! Experiment Results Gradient: Bold gradient from a deep, juicy orange-red to pale … Read more
The traditional Viridian pigment, PG18, is one of those classic older chemical pigments invented in the 19th century, around the same time as the cadmiums and chromiums. The name is based on the Latin name veridis, meaning green. This is a granulating cool (blue-toned) green shade. It tends to be low-tinting strength and very liftable.
