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Essential colours for Watercolourists

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Melanie Cambridge

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Having created Melanie Cambridge Artist Oils last year, I have been asked by the manufacturer of these paints to put together a new range of artist watercolours they are planning to launch later this year. Being the artist on this team (albeit my background is in oils rather than watercolours) it set me to thinking, what colours really are essential for Watercolour Artists? How many colours should there be in a new range? Do they all need to be single pigments or not? With all these questions running through my head, I have started to put together my initial list, however, I would appreciate any thoughts other artists may have as to which colours are essential and which are nice to have.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Reminds me that I need to get my hands on your cobalt blue in oil - I'm down to the last squeeze..... In watercolour, my palette is far more limited than in any other medium. But entering gleefully into the spirit of the thing - I should say the essential colours are raw and burnt sienna; yellow ochre; cobalt and/or ultramarine; pthalo blue; viridian; cadmium or lemon yellow. Nice to have would include Payne's grey; neutral tint; sepia; permanent rose/quinacridone violet; cadmium or pyrrole red (the red used in Winsor red); burnt umber. And two of the nicest possible extras are Indian and Venetian red. I don't buy colours I can mix, and you can't really mix any of those. I would have added Alizarin Crimson, but especially in watercolour I don't think it's lightfast enough - you could do with a deep crimson, though, if one can be had. Doubtless others will disagree by round about 100%, but that's my stab at it. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net

John Kay

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For watercolours, please include the following single pigments PY175 for Lemon Yellow, PR21 for a yellowish red, PR255 for a scarlet lake sort of colour, PO13 for a nice orange and PY74 for a Hansa type of yellow. You must include the cadmiums and certaily the quinacridones. Non fading is a must for watercolour, gum arabic does not offer as much protection as you must know. Thank you John

Kay Devlin

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Essential colours for me would be: ultramarine blue, lemon yellow, burnt sienna, raw umber, yellow ochre and probably winsor red - these go into pretty much every painting I do. Other colours I use more occasionally would be permanent rose , cadmium red and pthalo green. I also like using lamp black but I could be in the minority here.I like a fairly limited palette, with single pigment paints as I find them easier to mix. I'd agree with what others have said above that lightfastness is really important. Kay.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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I like Lamp Black - much more than Ivory Black, which I have problems with in all media (different problems in each, which at least makes it interesting I suppose). Rowland Hilder used Lamp Black, so you're in good company.
michael

Michael Edwards

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Here are mine: Raw sienna, burnt sienna burnt umber, light red, ult blue, ult violet, cobalt blue, paynes gray, lemon yellow, olive green and for the odd highlights Cad yellow and cad red.

Derek Snowdon

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Another thing David, if you can get to one of Melanie's classes or workshops, she is damn good.

John Kay

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so that there is as little granulation as possible
Hi Melanie, I hope you don't think that granulation is a bad thing, personally I treasure the granulation from watercolour. It is a feature which identifies the medium and a very useful way of adding texture to large areas. I wouldn't like using an ultramarine, a cobalt blue, burnt sienna or burnt umber that didn't do that. John
michael

Michael Edwards

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Can I support John's comments. One of the reasons why I treasure the earth colours is the granulation effects they can give - although I never use watercolour granulation fluid I hope to find time to give it a try although I do use it in conjunction with acrylic ink.

Melanie Cambridge

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thanks for all your thoughts on granulation. I spoke with the colour chemist yesterday and he too agrees that granulation in earth colours is desirable and is on the case. Melanie

Melanie Cambridge

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I never use Paynes Grey or Sepia either although some artists like both colours. Personally I use Ultramarine Blue and Venetian Red for most of my grey shades, changing to Cobalt or Sevres Blues for different types of greys/neutrals. Thanks for your thoughts. Melanie

Alan Owen

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I admit I like to use black ink ..acrylic ink is very useful ,I love pen and ink washes ,,, and an acrylic ink used with pen crossing to darken the darkest shades of a bright summer day, I could not live with out black in my palette , I never paint large tree trunks the same colour ,some are a tone of green different .or even a raw sienna tone,..especially in a forest scene ,,,(I often forget that one ) ,maybe not .so silver birch... the artists favourite
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