Hiroshige's Zozoji Pagoda Akabane, Japan

Above the winding river, a brilliant red Pagoda stands tall. This is a replica of a portion of Hiroshige's #53 design in his 100 views of Edo. I was testing out some ideas on how they created the various effects such as the dark band at the top of the sky, the green/orange mixes of the copper work, the charcoal reflections on the roof, and the brilliant red walls of the pagoda. Before doing this test I ran another set of tests to see what would work best. The dark band in the sky was Prussian blue with quinacridone red and a touch of bloodstone genuine. The copper work on top of the roof was the red used in a wash, overlayed with the green. The charcoal roof was a blue wash similar to the river, overlayed with bloodstone genuine. The red was a glaze of two reds, but I already forgot which ones! I had so many paints in my collection it was getting hard to manage, so I recently went through and took out any toxic or obsolete pigments which have modern replacements available.

Bruce MacEvoy's website called handprint.com, which contains an encyclopedia of pigment, paper and everything else related to painting was really helpful, in fact I could spend weeks reading that site to digest all the information. There were some great insights to the science of pigments and how they interact with paper. For now then, I will limit myself to the following colours which I have already, the code is the universal industry name of the pigment where P=pigment, then the colour like Y=yellow, and the number is the exact pigment.

Here is my new palette, it is actually very similar to what I had when I started in 1989*

Winsor lemon; yellow (PY175)
Burnt Sienna; brown (PR101)

French Vermilion Hue; red (PR242)
Quinacridone Scarlet; red (PR209)
French Ultramarine; blue (PB29)
Phthalo blue, yellow shade(PB15)
Winsor Green (PG7)
Genuine Bloodstone; dark grey (no code)
Lamp Black (PBk6)

I am also still testing Prussian blue (PB27, which has some suspect qualities), and Iridescent Moonstone which is mica and titanium white.

When I get to the art store I will try to buy Winsor Red (PR254) to replace French Vermilion, and Perylene Red Maroon which will replace Alizaran  (which I removed because it fades), and maybe a few others but the main thing is to get a good red. 

*In 1989 I took a watercolour course with Sonya Vernot, and my mom (who paid for the lessons) also bought the recommended paints for me which were Alizarin Crimson, Aureolin yellow, Viridian green, French Ultramarine, and I had Burnt Sienna. Thanks mom!

3 x 10" hot press watercolour, February 2020