DANIEL SMITH

Beautiful on its own, and especially so when mixed with a transparent pigment, this sky blue inorganic pigment is granular and medium-light in value. Highly permanent and extremely low-staining, Cerulean Blue creates exciting granulation and settling washes. A drop of Cerulean Blue into a damp wash such as Burnt Sienna creates a halo effect around the more dense Cerulean. This is especially effective when Quinacridone Gold or Quinacridone Burnt Orange are used in the moist underpainting. This technique is great for rendering lichen and Spanish Moss. Add Buff Titanium, Undersea Green and touches of Lunar Black – each a DANIEL SMITH exclusive – and the creative fun truly begins! For a misty landscape or that dusky quality on eggplant, grapes and plums, think Cerulean as a mixer.

Kissed with a touch of orange, this is a pure chroma color with high-tinting, organic pigments. Hansa Yellow Deep is considered the ‘perfect yellow’, a fact which offers more control when mixing. Painters can admire the purity of this primary pigment and adjust its temperature while avoiding a gray from a hidden complement. Think of a yellow pepper.

Hansa Yellow Medium is a high-tinting, organic pigment. Considered the ‘perfect yellow’, Hansa Yellow Medium offers more control when mixing. Painters admire the purity of this primary pigment and adjust its temperature while avoiding a gray from a hidden complement. Think of a yellow pepper.

Artists choose Indian Red for architectural renderings, old brick and other subjects where a flat (matte) granular surface is desired. The opacity and density intrinsic to Indian Red make this grayed earth brown a useful asset. One coat of this low-intensity pigment covers even a highly saturated passage. Yellow Ochre, Cerulean Blue and Indian Red form an opaque triad, producing grayed, earthlike mixtures common to landscapes. Handling tip: Hit it once and walk away.

DANIEL SMITH Indigo formula mixes Indanthrone Blue with Lamp Black for an extremely lightfast, intense dark that closely matches true Indigo. Transparent, yet high in tinting strength, this Indigo leaves a gentle faded blue denim stain when blotted from a damp state paint. Blueberries, blackberries and plums are a few subjects to play with using this technique. Use Indigo wherever dusty purples are desired. Indigo evokes a feeling of atmospheric depth used for expressive, moody skies. Try flowing short strokes of Indigo into water, add touches of Sepia and Quinacridone Burnt Orange to create branches and birch trees. Historically Indigo, used since the early Egyptian times, has been a very important blue dye in fabrics as well as art materials, though not lightfast like DANIEL SMITH’s Indigo Watercolor. Natural Indigo is a deep blue colorant named anil. It is obtained from the sprigs of the indigofera plant. In the late 1600’s, the major source of indigo was the French West Indies, where large crops of indigofera was grown and harvested just before the plant bloomed. Once picked, the plant was processed in vats where it was water filtered, then dried into cakes for export.

Jane’s Grey is a unique color in the market. Most grays, whether Payne’s Gray, Neutral Tint or others, are made with a black pigment, and often phthalo blue is included. Artist Jane Blundell wanted a gray without the often-dulling effect of a black pigment, and without the staining effects of phthalo blue. She wanted a gray that was liftable and granulating to create the lovely look of stormy skies and softened shadows. It will also work as a neutral tint, darkening colors without changing them. Using a gray that is made with palette colors maintains color harmony in an artwork. Many artists mix ultramarine blue and burnt sienna as they work, but no one was making this gorgeous mix as a convenience color, so she did to make it easy to create rich darks with ease.

DANIEL SMITH Lavender is a beautiful periwinkle blue, and quite different from other blues. This semi-transparent lavender blue has beautiful granulation, and lifts easily. In addition to being an excellent floral color, Lavender suggests certain shades of faded denim.

Imagine a transparent black with an expansive value range and pigment particles that react like magnetic shavings attracting and repelling each other. Unique pigment properties make Lunar Black a radically reticulating color. When dry, a Lunar Black wash resembles a marbled moonscape. This mottled stony texture can be successfully glazed. You can even gently paint into a wet-to-damp Lunar Black, dropping into the watery pigment, virtually any combination of favorites. Lunar Black is a wonderful mixer adding exciting black granulation to the mix! Lunar Black is an inorganic neutral black watercolor pigment and a DANIEL SMITH exclusive. Think Black Magic-and re-think black.

Bring a natural glow to your palette with this stunning sienna earth tone. Subtle granulation and delicate transparency make this watercolor especially useful for portraits and landscapes. This low staining pigment is very workable and has excellent lightfastness.

Water frees this amazing three-pigment blend to perform miracles. Watch and wait as Anthraquinoid Red floats, Ultramarine Blue settles and Viridian grays the resulting violet color. Selectively blot and lift a surface wash to expose delicate blue-greens. A description of the fascinating light and dark washes can never match a personal experience! Use Moonglow in shadows and as a silhouette pigment and enjoy its reaction to salt application in background washes. Its neutral tinting property makes it effective with almost all the DANIEL SMITH watercolors. Try introducing the Luminescent Interference pigments to areas of wet, damp or dry Moonglow. Look to Undersea Green as a companion pigment. And try a Moonglow sky and long shadows on sunset snow scenes.

DANIEL SMITH Payne’s Blue Gray is similar to the bluer Indigo, and like the original Payne’s Gray, it is semi-transparent rather than transparent. Inky blue and non-granulating Payne’s Blue Gray is perfect for painting dark, stormy skies, nightscapes, and for quickly darkening most other colors.

Permanent Alizarin Crimson blends pigments to produce an exceptionally lightfast red with true Alizarin Crimson character and versatility. Like classic Alizarin, it is vibrant, medium staining and very transparent, with the undeniable advantage of permanence. Try a rich and bold application or a blush of crimson color in a light wash, we know you’ll love this beautiful shade.

If you want to add atmospheric or emotional punch to your work, then squeeze some transparent Perylene Green onto your palette. It exhibits an almost black mass tone that spreads to a beautiful blue/green wash without producing mud – a color perfect for delineating shadows or creating moody landscapes, ominous horizons and stormy seas. A medium-staining pigment with intensity and softness, Perylene Green is highly soluble and easy to use. It glazes under or over other colors ~a very cool color~ allowed one of our more demanding artist/testers.

For cool, clean staining shadows and reflected light on windows, super staining, super transparent Phthalo Blue is a popular pure chroma organic pigment. Mix with Hansa Yellow for luminous greens.

Phthalo Green Blue Shade is a black-green. Concentrated to diluted states, it is a transparent and super staining green. Organic and absolutely lightfast, most artists find this color indispensable. The slightly bluish shade can be readily modified with yellows and reds. Creates luminous, effective darks or clean glazes.

DANIEL SMITH Quinacridone Burnt Orange is a brilliant, smoldering orange/sienna color. Add to French Ultramarine and create dramatic sky washes with a gray-blue mix that renders a full value scale. Use Quinacridone Burnt Orange to modify Sap Green in landscapes to achieve rich, mossy greens that coordinate land with sky. Highly durable and extremely transparent, all the Quinacridone colors excel in vivid clarity and intensity.

Everyone’s favorite, Quinacridone Gold replaces Raw Sienna and adds versatility with its glazing and mixing capabilities. It is an excellent low-staining golden yellow pigment that can enhance any mixture. Highly durable and extremely transparent, all the DANIEL SMITH Quinacridone colors excel in vivid clarity and intensity.

Quinacridone Rose, with its red-violet color, lends itself to fabulous purples. Try with Indigo for deep dusty purples, or Indanthrone Blue for rich, clear purples. Quinacridone Rose can be mixed with Quinacridone Sienna or Burnt Orange in dilute wash states to create fleshtones or convincing sunsets. Highly durable and extremely transparent, all the DANIEL SMITH Quinacridone colors excel in vivid clarity and intensity.