Hiroshige's Kasumigaseki 100 famous Views of Edo

By copying the Japanese prints I am starting to figure out how the prints were created. According to the literature, the sky and water colour was Prussian blue which became available in the mid 19th century Japan from European exporters. To recreate the effect I bought Prussian blue watercolour (Holbein) and used it for the first time here. It is definitely the right colour, in natural lighting it is exactly as the original prints. The yellow they used was probably turmeric (the spice!) diluted to varying extent, and the red may have been lead red, vermilion, or a red oxide of some type. I used Cadmium yellow medium hue (Daniel Smith; contains no actual cadmium), and Quinacridone red orange (Sennelier). With these three colours I could also produce the greens and all of the warm greys and browns found in a early version of the seen in the link.

There were two things way off... one was the bokashi technique at the top of the sky, that is where they create gentle color gradations, the other thing was the underlayers on the ground. The sky probably needed black mixed in with the Prussian blue, and the ground needed less coverage with the yellow. I'm not planning to try this one again, but I would like to keep copying these prints until I solve all of their ancient secrets!

5 x 7" cold press watercolour, February 2020