February Palette

 

The winter conditions call for less yellow and more blue/grey/brown colours as compared to spring and summer. I made some adjustments and included a few new colours. Another problem was certain paint brands freeze more than others making them difficult to use in the winter outdoors, while other paints that were gooey and messy in the summer perform perfectly. Here is the run down: 

1. Lemon yellow (PY175 Daniel Smith) a benzimida pigment, leans to cool yellow. 

2. Yellow (PY154 Holbein), a benzimida pigment, quintessential yellow. 

3. Yellow-orange (PY110 Daniel Smith), an isoindolone pigment, similar to a school bus colour. 

4. Yellow ochre (PY43 DaVinci), earth yellow, works better than raw sienna when freezing. 

5. Raw umber (PBr7 M Graham), dark earth brown, works better than the DaVinci version when freezing. 

6. Burnt umber (PBr7 M Graham), dark earth brown-red, new colour for me, works well when freezing

7. Burnt Sienna/Iron oxide red (PBr7, PR101 various brands), earth orange-red, I mixed in a bunch from different tubes here. 

8. Orange (PO36 DaVinci), a benzimida pigment, quintessential orange, it gets messy though

8b Bright Orange (PO73 Winsor Newton), a pyrrole pigment, new colour for me, bright 'construction pylon colour

9. Red (PR254 Holbein), a pyrrole pigment,  quintessential ferrari red!

10. Dark red (PR175 Daniel Smith) a benzimida pigment, similar to the old Alizarin crimson but superior lightfast

11. Rose Red (PV19 M. Graham), a quinacridone pigment, between red and magenta

12. Purple-red (PV55 Schmincke) a quinacridone pigment, closer to magenta

13. Dark green (PBk31 Daniel Smith), a perylene pigment, actually a lime green but near black

14. Green (PG36 Schmincke), a phthalo pigment, quintessential green  

15. Green-cyan (PG7 Holbein), a phthalo pigment, leans into cyan

16. Cyan (PB15:3) a phthalo pigment, close to cyan 

16b. Cyan-blue (PB27) prussian (iron) blue, dark 'greenish' blue

17. Cyan-blue (PB15)  a phthalo pigment, near to a  quintessential blue

18. Dark blue (PB60) a indothrene pigment, blue leans violet, very dark. 

19. Black (PBk6), a carbon pigment, near black no hue

20. Black-orange (PBk9), a carbon pigment, leans orange

 

 In summary, this is a versatile palette of extremely lightfast and chemically stable pigments. I have a mix of bright 'synthetics' along with a range of earth colours. I also avoided the moderately toxic pigments such as cadmium, cobalt, nickel, and copper.  I like the new orange (winsor orange red shade from winsor newton) so much I will replace the other one I have been using. The prussian blue is a little wonky so I may just use it in the studio (aka one end of our kitchen table).