I’ve always found Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7) to be the most useful mixer for bold, bright, new, spring shoots. Compared to blues, even the very bright and greenish Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3), Phthalo Green consistently makes cleaner, brighter greens. In my post Mixing Watercolor Greens for the Foliage of the Northeast, Season by Season, I recommended PG7 and Lemon Yellow (PY175 or PY3) for the best spring green mixes. After doing a tutorial with Paul George, I began mixing up spring greens with another color: Cobalt Turquoise (PG50). So how do these colors really compare?
Mixing Dark Reds
Dark red is a hue I often have trouble mixing. Adjacent colors, like brownish brick red or deep violet, are easier, but I struggle with that juicy, velvety, true dark red – think wine, roses, and black cherries. Or for a less poetic-sounding option, skunk cabbage!
Do you need tape for watercolor painting?
In his video Why I Stopped Taping My Watercolor Paper, Matthew White demonstrates a way of working without tape: you wet the back of the paper and let the surface tension hold the paper to the board while you work. This also has the advantage of giving you longer wet-in-wet working time. Although I’m happy … Read more
What’s in my palette? (February 2024)
Although I shared my palette as recently as last month (January 2024), I made a bunch of changes during my month’s “puttering time.” I swapped around some A and B team paints based on usage, and also removed some altogether (cleaning the pan and putting the tube in my “maybe giveaway” box). When I last … Read more
Monthly Retrospective: February 2024
I painted less than usual February, due largely to a surgery recovery which sapped my energy for a few weeks. However I bounced back enough to do some paintings that I really enjoy.
Artist Palette Profiles: Zoltan Szabo
Zoltan Szabo (1928-2003) was an evocative landscape watercolorist, prolific workshop instructor, and author of dozens of books. Today, I’ll be looking at his 1998 book Zoltan Szabo’s Color-by-Color Guide to Watercolor.
Mix Your Own Bordeaux Lookalike
When I was recently trying to mix a Perylene Violet hue, Bordeaux (PV32) was one of the colors I used. Then I realized I had it backward: Bordeaux is LF2 and not as lightfast. Anyone trying to replace less-lightfast colors with more-lightfast colors would be trying to go the other way round. So I thought I’d try and make a Bordeaux hue with more lightfast colors.
Artist Palette Profiles: Molly Hashimoto
Molly Hashimoto is the author of Colors of the West: An Artist’s Guide to Nature’s Palette, an art book based on National Parks in the American west, and Birds of the West, which showcases her watercolor and block print bird art. I love her bright, clear, intense colors and joy in nature.
Mix Your Own Perylene Violet Lookalike
Occasionally I come across color mixes that look like “perylene violet” to me. I’m also not the biggest fan of the paint, so I’m motivated to find a way to replace it. Here are some color mixes I’ve tired to emulate a Perylene Violet hue. In the upper left is Daniel Smith’s Perylene Violet. From … Read more
The Sky Palette
Skies are my favorite subject, and recently I’ve been painting a lot of them. It’s the perfect time to create a sky palette!