6 Colors Are All You Need to Paint with Watercolor!

WATERCOLOR GUIDE

6 COLORS ARE ALL YOU NEED TO PAINT WITH WATERCOLOR!

Don’t waste money on paint that you don’t need. Learn the six colors that you need to paint with watercolor and how to mix them.

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

Written by Krista Hasson 6 Must Have Colors

The first 6 colors below are a split primary palette. It consists of 6 colors, a cool and warm version of the three primary colors (red, blue and yellow). Sometimes I use a very limited palette of only 3 but In order to mix a wide range of colors having these six are a must (If you notice I actually list 7 ). Although it is not necessary I threw in an earth color (Burnt Sienna) because I love it . Winsor Newton is the only Burnt Sienna I use because of its red orange tone.

COLOR BIAS MANUFACTURER PIGMENT #

Hansa Yellow cool M. Graham PY3

Indian Yellow* warm M. Graham PY110

Quinacridone Rose cool Winsor & Newton PV19

Winsor Red** warm Winsor & Newton PR254

Phthalocyanine Blue Cool M. Graham PB15:3

Ultramarine Blue warm Winsor & Newton or M. Graham PB29

Burnt Sienna (optional) warm Winsor & Newton PR101

* M. Graham’s Indian Yellow is made with only one pigment (PY110) most other brands are made with 2 pigments and are not the same color. ** Winsor Red is the equivalent to DaVinci Red and Pyrrol red in M. Graham. I prefer the Winsor Newton because it is the most transparent out of the ones I have tried.

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

In the last column I have included the pigment numbers for the colors. Different manufacturers can have the same name but use different pigments or have the same pigment but call the color something else. This can make things confusing and can result in buying pigments that you already have in a different brand. M Graham’s Indian yellow is a good example.

Check your colors; you might already have some of the pigments listed above. The pigment number is listed on the side of the tube.

If you are new to watercolor there are a couple of beginner sets I want to mention that are quite affordable for starting out.

1. QOR Introductory 6 color set 2. Daniel Smith Essential 6 color set

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

MIXING COLOR

Primary colors: Are Red, Yellow & Blue. These colors cannot be produced by mixing other colors.

Secondary colors: Are Orange, Violet & Green. These colors are created by mixing two primary colors.

The color wheel can be divided into two sections:

Warm (yellows, oranges and reds) and cool (Violets, blues and greens)

Compliments are colors opposite each other on the color wheel (reds and greens, blues and oranges and yellows and violets) mixing these together will make darks and neutrals.

The compliment color will also dull down the vibrancy. This is because you end up with all of the primaries in your mixture. Color Theory is a huge study on its own.

Even though you think of a color as cool or warm, they can also have a warm or cool underlying color bias. So even though we think of Ultramarine blue as cool (because it is blue) it has an underlying red (warm) bias. So comparing blues to blues Ultramarine would be on the warmer side than our Phthalocyanine Blue which has an underlying bias

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

of green (cool). But if you compared both of these blues to a red they would both seem cool.

So you can see the potential for mixing color to become very confusing, sometimes when we think a color should be a nice green and it comes out a dull green. This is why it is important to get to know your paint colors. When mixing colors the best way to become confident is to make color charts.

This not only helps you see the range of colors that can be made from your paints it also gives you a reference chart to look back at when trying to mix certain colors. If you do this in time mixing your colors will become second nature.

CREATING VIBRANT SECONDARY COLORS

With a split primary palette you there is an easy way to remember how to mix bright secondary colors (orange, purple and green) in the color chart above you will notice that the mixing pairs are beside each other. These produce the most clean and vibrant secondary colors because the resulting mixture is missing one of the primaries.

For example:

Cool Yellow (Hansa Yellow with green bias) Mixes with Cool Blue (Phthalocyanine Blue with green bias) to produce a vibrant Green. So if you notice there is no red in any of the colors.

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

GREENS

Ultramarine Hansa Blue Yellow

Phthalo Hansa Blue Yellow

Ultramarine Indian Blue Yellow

Phthalo Indian Blue Yellow

Notice our mixing pair from the color chart the Phthalocyanine Blue and Hansa Yellow is the most vibrant.

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

ORANGES

Winsor Hansa Red Yellow

Quin Hansa Magenta Yellow

Winsor Indian Red Yellow

Quin Indian Magenta Yellow

Notice our mixing pair from the color chart the Winsor Red and Indian Yellow is the most vibrant.

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

VIOLETS

Ultramarine Winsor Blue Red

Phthalo Winsor Blue Red

Ultramarine Quin Blue Magenta

Phthalo Quin

Blue Magenta

Notice our mixing pair from the color chart the Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridone Magenta is the most vibrant. It might look close to the Phthalocyanine Blue but in real life it is more noticeable.

CREATING DARK COLORS WITHOUT BLACK

I am sure you noticed right away that there was no black in my color palette. I have never used black; I have always created my blacks and darks by mixing them. Below are a few of my favorite combinations.

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

BURNT SIENNA

This is my most used combination for blacks and as you can see you can get nice cool or warm colors.

When you make your color charts add a row for your Burnt Sienna and mix it with all of your colors to see what it can do.

Mixing all three of your primaries will also give you black as you can see on the next chart.

THE 6 ESSENTIAL WATERCOLORS AND HOW TO MIX THEM

MIXING ALL 3 PRIMARIES

This is just a small sample of the colors you can get by mixing different amounts of all three primaries.

I have a challenge for you!

Make those color charts and share them in my free Facebook community I would love to see them or you can join and ask questions, share your work and meet some other wonderful people who paint with watercolor. I hope to see you on the inside.

If you have any questions you can also reach me at [email protected]

Don’t forget to have FUN!

Krista