Knowing Watercolor Pigments

These notes rely heavily, but not exclusively, on the “Transparent Watercolor Wheel” by Jim Kosvanec

"Treasured" by Jim Kosvanec

Watercolor Pigment

Key points:

Mud is caused when you mix warms and cools on the palette. The foolproof method to avoid mud is to mix color on the painting instead of the palette and lay a wash of only one color at a time
Colorful transitions

Select the pigment group that most effectively conveys the weight, transparency, or intensity of the subject (transparent – atmosphere, space, light, flesh tones)

Combining transparent, non-staining group of pigments with transparent staining group is often more disturbing than effective because of their great difference in intensity.

If you leave white areas white with cerulean blue shadows it makes clothing look immaculately clean.

Inorganic pigments tend to be opaque, organic tend to be transparent

A paint with more wetting agent will invade a wet wash of a paint with less.

Some heat treated earths are far more transparent than their raw counterpart.

Paint dark over light to obtain dramatic impact.

Colorful transitions – Use Thalo to transition from Burnt Sienna to French Ultramarine (otherwise it makes a black transition). Cadmium yellow to make a light yellow or Raw Sienna to make a dark yellow transition between Thalo and Burnt Sienna (which otherwise is gray-green). Burnt Sienna is a good transition (orange) between Cadmium Red, Alizarin or Rose Madder and Viridian (which otherwise is lavender gray).

Transparent non-staining

Rose madder Genuine, Permanent Rose, Cobalt Blue, Veridian, Hookers Green, Aureolin (cool)

Key points:

Mix well with all other pigments except staining colors (which dye them)
Most useful for transparent watercolorist

Inherently light in value so don’t depend on for above value7 or 8.

May be used in glazes, but be cautious about lifting

Transparent, non-staining Triad – aureolin, rose madder genuine and cobalt blue

Permanent Rose – Staining per Tom Hill

Aureolin – Cool, appears greyed in paint well, but dries without greyness. Unlike opaque yellows, it can be used to warm darker hues without affecting transparency.

Rose Madder genuine – similar but less intense than Alizarin crimson. Does not work in darks or with stains. Use for brighter washes; alizarin crimson is better suited to dark saturated statements.

Veridian – Contains no red, can be used with yellows and reds to make variety of greens.

Hooker’s Green – Holbien’s is warmer and not as dull as other brands. “If you … limit yourself to just one green, choose Holbein’s Hooker’s green” - Jim Kosvanec

Cobalt Blue – nearly true blue.

Semi-transparent non-staining

Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, New Gamboge, Vermillion

Key points:

Use like transparents, but with restraint

Raw Sienna – Doesn’t mix well with most pigments, but “floats” into wet washes well, preferable to Yellow Ochre. Holbien most transparent.

Burnt Sienna – Holbein’s is good.

Quinacridone burnt orange or scarlet – (Daniel Smith) more radiant than burnt sienna. Great potential in flesh tones.

Vermillion – mixes well with nearly any color.

Transparent staining

Thalos, Winsors, Alazarin Crimson, Carmine

Key Points:

Mix nicely with other stains; some mixtures with non-staining pigments are successful, some not; cautiously add stain last
Excellent for any underpainting
Best applied directly, wet-on-dry
Transparent stains can be used to create deep intense darks
Essential to achieve a full range of hue, value and intensity.
Use for vivid rich dark passages that remain luminous.

So supersaturated it serves no purpose to use opaquely

May be used in glazes if used first.

In mixtures, start with the lighter color first, then add the darker color

Clarity and brilliance greatly diminished by dilution for light areas

Triad 1 – (generally transparent) winsor yellow (or new gamboge), alizarin crimson, thalo blue

Triad 2 – (moderately opaque) winsor yellow, winsor red, thalo blue

Most effective with subjects with strong value contrast

Alizarin Crimson – low permanency rating in thin washes, apply only in saturated wash; good alternative is Holbein’s carmine

Winsor Red – cool, saturated and intense, but loses much of its intensity in mixtures and loses about half its strength when it dries. Use as an underglaze for areas intended to be very dark. Adds warmth but is not apparent when overglazed. Too opaque for middle value and darker mixtures

Carmine – Holbein’s (not W&N’s) rated absolutely permanent

Winsor yellow – opaque, cool. Too light and opaque for middle value and darker mixtures, mixes readily with other colors, especially clear and clean when mixed with other transparents.

Winsor violet – excellent brilliance.

Indanthrone blue (Daniel Smith) – mixes, stains and dries like phthalo blue, but isn’t as cool.

Pthalo blue - interesting results when mixed with other primaries or floated in a still moist wash. Mixes well with almost any color.

Pthalo green – almost indispensable

Semi-opaque and Opaque

Intense

Cadmiums, French Ultramarine Blue, Mineral Violet, Cerulean Blue, Manganese Blue, Hansa Yellow, Quinacridone violet

Key Points:

Two semi-opaques/opaques mix nicely, but mixture should be well suspended and undisturbed once applied; three are muddy; mix nicely with transparent non-staining, but very dull with stains
Generally should not be used as glazes.

Use transparently, not opaquely (mixed with enough water to create a thin wash)

Cadmiums

Poor for over painting and mix poorly with other opaques and stains, but well with other cadmiums. Thin with enough water to avoid flat, chalky look.

Cadmium red - easily becomes muddy. Use cadmium red light for flesh tones; despite intensity middle value at full strength.

Cadmium orange – intensity and purity cannot be attained by mixing.

Cadmium yellow - opaque, cannot be used to warm darks without loss of transparency

Other Opaques

Quinacridone violet- extremely permanent

French Ultramarine – nearly opaque, dries lighter than expected often creating opacity or chalkiness. Mixes well with transparent pigments and earth colors, but poorly with most semi-opaques. Overpainting leads to instantaneous mud!

Mineral Violet – similar but mixes more easily with other colors than Fr Ultramarine. Mixed with green gives delicate browns, mixed with yellows and browns lets you create soft shadows.

Cerulean blue – Mix only with transparent colors and avoid restating, chalky and dead in dark mixture, works well wet-n-wet

To use lifting techniques, paint an opaque over a stain

Hansa yellow – Holds its own in mixtures. Tom Hill considers it “very transparent”.

"Bond of Tradition" by Jim Kosvanec

Sedimentary

Earth colors, cadmiums, French ultramarine blue, raw umber, cobalt violet, manganese blue, Antwerp blue

Key Points:

Most effective used wet-into-wet
Match to subjects with substance and mass
The more vertical the more dramatically the pigment will granulate down the page.
Avoid for overpainting

Many are best used in areas of lighter value because they can become muddy

Non-staining, but difficult to lighten

Triad 1: Indian red, yellow ochre and cerulean

Triad 2: slightly more intense (but less perfectly matches in opacity and intensity) cadmium red, cadmium yellow and French ultramarine

Applied in the first 2 or 3 value steps of a painting, they will establish a predominantly opaque surface quality.

Except Fr Ultramarine/Cadmium red combo, to attain darks, must combine with other dark pigments (viridian, alizarin crimson, Thalos)

Two-color mixtures with good granulation: Cerulean blue and vermilion, cadmium red or cobalt violet; cobalt blue and Indian red; cobalt violet and Thalo yellow-green or cadmium yellow light; Quinacridone Rose and ultramarine Blue

Good green-blue separation – Van Dyke Brown and Pthalo blue

Nice purple blue – Anthraquinoid red, ultramarine blue and veridian

Light opaque paint over a transparent background will seem dull and muddy.

If white is used, alternate transparent washes with opaque brushstrokes to increase depth.

Cobalt violet – interesting manner of granulating, tends to disappear in most mixtures, poisonous

Antwerp blue – sensational granular texture, but fades in light, recovers in dark.

Manganese blue – mix with non-staining semi-opaque for interesting textural lacework. Too light for dark mixtures

French ultramarine – Combines well with earth colors for sedimentary, granular washes.

Tertiaries

Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black

Key Points:

Use same guidelines as for semi-opaques and opaques (Two semi-opaques/opaques/tertiaries mix well; three are muddy; mix nicely with transparent non-staining, but very dull with stains)

Yellow ochre and orange are opaque in oil but transparent when sufficiently diluted with water.

Yellow ochre – Excellent in glazes over more staining washes

Burnt Umber – Best in mixtures, but deadens some hues, especially with more than two colors. Suspend well in water, allow to pool then leave to dry undisturbed.

Tertiaries don’t glow at a distance – For more glow, substitute Rose madder genuine and aureolin to approximate Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna.

Pigments to Avoid

Yellow Ochre – Quickly muddies when mixed with anything except transparent colors. Substitute raw sienna

Alizarin Crimson – less than desirable permanency rating. Substitute Holbein’s carmine (transparent, not Winsor and Newton’s carmine, also rated low for permanency)

Indian red – has the quality of house paint, covering in one coat

Opera – lowest permanency rating. Substitute Winsor and Newton’s permanent rose.

Crimson Lake – impermanent.

Prussian blue – fades in light and recovers in darkness. Substitute more transparent Pthalo blue.

Paint Quality

To reconstitute dried paint, grind to fine powder and add few drops each of glycerine, gum Arabic and water; alternatively, cover paint wells with water, let soak overnight, drain off excess water

Painting Techniques

Creating Darks

Black – Thalo blue, Thalo green and Alizarin crimson (remains dark when it dries); Burnt Sienna (or Burnt Umber) and French Ultramarine; French Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Umber; Viridian and Alizarin Crimson (and Thalo)

Velvet Blacks – Winsor green and Alizarin Crimson

Clean, clear browns – develop orange mixture first (aureolin and rose madder, cad red or alizarin), then add transparent green (viridian or Thalo green) Begin with weakest pigment (aureolin), add red, then green

Dark Blues and Purples – Winsor Blue or Ultramarine blue and Alizarin

Crimson Greys which go to black. Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine and Cadmium Red. Cadmium Yellow, Thalo Blue and Alizarin Crimson. Thalo Blue and Burnt Sienna. Thalo Green and Alizarin Crimson.

Deep darks in watercolor work best if built in layers

Ivory black and smoke black are transparent in watercolor

Glazing

Key Points:

15◦ angle
Transparent, non-staining - Very suitable for glazes and overpainting
Opaque sedimentary - Unattractive in glazes, although a single layer may be used.
Stains - Unsuitable for glazes except as an underlying layer where greater intensity is needed
The key to an effective glow is laying color over color without disturbing the paint underneath and using combinations of both warm and cool colors.
Paint lighter hues first to obtain luminosity.
“Always use three primaries and control the results by strengthening one or two colors.” - Jeanne Dobie - Avoid making all three layers equal

Successive washes, one pigment at a time was the traditional English method of achieving luminosity. Example for flesh color: first yellow ochre; when dry, pale scarlet lake; when dry pale cerulean blue (where cool is needed), then alizarin crimson. Repeat ochre, scarlet lake, alizarin.

Brushstrokes can be in any direction around lights, but work quickly, pick up beads at the edges with a damp (squeezed dry) brush

Can have anywhere from 2 to twenty washes (using transparent, non-staining pigments)

When the final wash is completed, add middle values using direct method. For transparent middle values use the primary transparent non-staining pigments plus viridian or burnt sienna. Add small amounts of opaques or staining pigments for darks or weight.

Contrasting middle values and darks or small areas of opacity are needed to accentuate transparency

Can wet entire surface with pure water and apply wash over dry previously glazed area.

Can glaze one color over another without creating mud or waiting for it to dry if we keep the page totally moist, brushing the whole surface with each application of a new color.

Lay cool glazes over warm rather than vice versa

Wet-into-wet

"Crystal Waters" by Jim Kosvanec

Key Points:

Keep paper flat
Most effective with opaque sedimentary pigments

Areas of middle and middle-dark value will support any glazes.

Adding a glaze will not significantly change the value of the wet-into-wet underpainting so be sure to add some areas of middle value before wet into wet dries because without them later darks and transparencies will seem to float. Add dark accents and textural details later when the painting has dried.

When adding opaque pigment wet-into-wet over a series of glazes, be sure they are darker in value.

Painting wet into wet, include all the darks before the paper dries and apply these darks as richly as possible

Wet-into-wet works best with heavyweight paper (300gsm [140lb] or even 600gsm)

To avoid hard edges while adding more color or a deeper value to a section, when the section is dry lay a wash of clear water and while it is still wet drop in the color.

Brushwork

For luminosity, use a wet, not damp brush. Allow surface tension to maintain dome of water/pigment mixture. Keep paper flat and don’t move around. Don’t fuss with once glistening stage has passed.