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Color Spotlight: Cerulean Blue Genuine (PB36)

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Da Vinci - Cerulean Blue Genuine
Da Vinci – Cerulean Blue Genuine

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.

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What’s the difference between Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) and Phthalo Blue (Red Shade)?

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Getting from PBGS to PBRS

Phthalocyanine blue (PB15) is an incredibly intense, staining, transparent, non-granulating, lightfast pigment that comes in two versions:

(I’ll call them GS and RS in this post.)

What’s the difference, and which should you choose?

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Color Spotlight: Cobalt Turquoise (PG50, PB28, or PB36)

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Schmincke Horadam Cobalt Turquoise: Gradient, opacity and glazing tests, color mixes

Cobalt Turquoise is a super bright, true turquoise usually made from the pigment PG50 (same as Cobalt Green), though sometimes from PB28 (same as Cobalt Blue) or PB36 (same as Cerulean Blue). In any formulation, it is derived from the heavy metal cobalt.

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Color Spotlight: Prussian Blue (PB27)

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Daniel Smith Prussian Blue: gradient, opacity and glazing tests, color mixes, cloud lifting test

Prussian Blue (PB 27) is a cool (green-toned) blue with a classy subtlety. On a scale of Moody Emo Teen (Indanthrone Blue) to Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Phthalo Blue Green Shade), I would put Prussian Blue somewhere in the middle.

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Color Spotlight: Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3)

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Daniel Smith – Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)

Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) uses PB15:3, a green-toned variant of phthalocyanine blue PB15. (There is also a more middle blue variant, Phthalo Blue (Red Shade), which uses pigment PB15:1 or PB15:6. See my post, What’s the difference between Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) and Phthalo Blue (Red Shade)?)

Every major manufacturer offers some variant of this pigment, and mostly they share some characteristics, like being bright, bold, and highly staining. Daniel Smith’s version is even more bold than usual/than the rest of its line, so expect LOTS of color from this paint! It’s super-vibrant and actually kind of hard to mix because it has a tendency to overwhelm whatever mix it’s in.

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