Ultramarine (PB29)
The original ultramarine pigment was made from the blue mineral lazurite, found in lapis lazuli, a semi-precious rock that has been mined in the mountains of northern Afghanistan for more than 6,000 years. The…
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Can You Trust the Name?
French Ultramarine is always French Ultramarine, isn’t it? And what about Aureolin, Viridian, and Cobalt Blue? Surely these classic colors are always what the label claims they are. Unfortunately, the name on the tube…
Paint Green Trees
Painting green trees in watercolor can be surprisingly challenging. It is not only difficult to create convincing greens, but also to capture the volume and form of the tree canopy. In this article I…
Take Care of Your Watercolor Tubes
In my opinion, watercolor tubes are far superior to pans. That’s why I’m always pleased when a new student arrives at one of my workshops using tube colors. Sometimes, however, that pleasure quickly turns…
White Watercolor Paint
Modern watercolor artists primarily rely on the white of the paper, making white watercolor paint largely unnecessary. Artists of earlier generations thought much the same, although white paint was used more frequently a century…
Dioxazine violet (PV23)
This text is a rework from a previous post August 2020. Carbazole Dioxazine Violet PV23 (often referred to simply as Dioxazine Violet or Carbazole Violet) is a pigment with many different names. It’s easy…
Celebrate Your Mistakes
Many years ago, I watched a television program featuring an English watercolor artist. I believe it was Alwyn Crawshaw demonstrating how to paint in watercolor. Yes, programs like that were actually shown on television…
Burnt Sienna
The text has been revised from an earlier version. Sienna is in its original form a yellow-brown earth color. If you heat up the natural sienna pigment, it becomes redder and In its original…
Paint what you see
“Paint what you see, not what you know” is a fundamental principle in representational art. That does not mean it is the only way to approach painting. Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked:…
About Lightfastness
Lightfastness, when referring to colors, means a particular color’s ability to resist change when exposed to light. All colors are affected to some degree by sunlight. Some change dramatically with exposure, while others can…
