Phthalo Turquois (PB16)

May 6, 2025

The color most commonly referred to as Phthalo Turquoise (PB16) is not as widely used as other phthalo blue colors. A handful of major manufacturers offer it, sometimes under imaginative names:

Daniel Smith: Phthalo Blue Turquoise
Schmincke: Helio Turquoise
Holbein: Marine Blue
Winsor & Newton: Phthalo Turquois
Old Holland: Caribbean Blue
Da Vinci: Phthalo Turquoise
MaimeriBlu: Turquoise Green
Lukas: Turquoise

Although the pigment was developed in 1936, it was introduced into watercolor paint much later—most versions have only appeared in recent decades. Daniel Smith was the last of the major brands to release it, with their “Phthalo Blue Turquoise” introduced in 2020.

Phthalo Turquoise is not truly a turquoise color; it’s a blue with a slight turquoise hue. The color is durable, semi-transparent, highly staining, and intense. It may be the darkest and most intense of all the phthalo pigments. Like other phthalo pigments, the turquoise variant loses a lot of value and color purity as it dries—it also becomes slightly less blue and more greenish when dry.

Two other properties of different phthalo paints are that layers of paint with strong color have a certain tendency to acquire a coppery sheen, and that the pigment has a tendency to flocculate when applied liberally, thus creating an uneven, slightly lumpy result. Paint manufacturers attempt to counteract both of these tendencies using various additives. This is one reason why the same pigment from different brands can behave quite differently and have slightly different properties, depending on which and how many additives are included.

Most blue colors can be neutralized with a brown, but Phthalo Turquoise is so cool that the mixtures turn green instead. To achieve a neutral mix, a cooler red should be used—if the red leans slightly brown, that’s even better.

Turns green when mixed with Burnt Sienna from Winsor & Newton.

With Pyrrole Orange (PO71), the mix is greenish.

Perylene Maroon (PR179) works as a complementary color.

A particularly good complementary color is Benzimidazolone Red.

In thin washes, the brilliance of the color stands out. In my opinion, like other phthalo colors, it becomes murkier and less vibrant the less water is used. It performs best in thin layers and glazes.

Phthalo Turquoise is excellent for skies or turquoise seas and works very well as a shadow color in thin glazes. As a standard blue in a painting, however, I still prefer Phthalo Blue Red Shade, which has a purer tone and works better in mixtures.