Find your creative inspiration with the widest range of watercolors in the world across three lines: Extra Fine, PrimaTek and Luminescent.
Formulated to meet and exceed the highest industry standards, every batch is thoroughly analyzed for its performance qualities – lightfastness, color value, tinting strength, clarity, vibrancy, undertone, particle size, density and viscosity.
Paint everything you can imagine with vibrant and consistent colors that can be easily mixed for even more variations.
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.
This cool turquoise blue is ideal for creating form or indicating space. It is a medium-staining, transparent pigment with wonderful granulating properties. A good substitute for Cerulean Blue, Manganese Blue Hue offers an additional advantage: it mixes well with non-staining, semi-opaques to create a mottled texture in underlying colors. Note: true Manganese Blue, discontinued from product lines due to environmental concerns and toxic by-product, has been replaced in the DANIEL SMITH line with a formulation which closely resembles it. The result is a safe, high quality lightfast pigment with the color we adore – Manganese Blue Hue.
An extraordinarily beautiful color for painting turquoise blue skies, a must-have for sunny Mediterranean skies and tropical seas! Mixing with this pigment helps make bright shadows – also use it to render the desired patina on a copper pot. As an inorganic pigment, it is considered non-staining (or low-tinting) and ideal for glazing methods. Cobalt Teal Blue’s ability to create soft edges, to lift and to mix readily make it a valuable contribution to watercolor palettes.
This DANIEL SMITH exclusive is a favorite of artists. It moves from a deep dark turquoise to a thin film of robin’s egg blue in a single wash, making a remarkable transition from ground level to sky areas of garden florals. Use this pigment alongside purples, or to paint a lake in summer.
Transparent Ultramarine Turquoise is the granular, low-staining cousin of Phthalo Turquoise. Use it when less stain and more granulation is desired, and consider it for an interesting, non-traditional glaze.
A predictable non-staining teal blue with muscle and the presence to stand alone, but when used in a glaze or wash it blends with incredible ease. Because of its slight granulation you can achieve multi-layers and tone on tone effects to delight and surprise with each addition or stroke.
DANIEL SMITH has acquired a unique supply of the precious mineral Amazonite from Brazil. It’s a strong pure color that is completely transparent, non-staining and lifts easily for maximum versatility. Gorgeous by itself, Amazonite Genuine is an especially beautiful mixer with reds making gorgeous violets! Natural Amazonite Genuine provides all the magic of the hills and forests of Brazil. This lovely teal shade of feldspar microcline, a precious mineral, was named for the Amazon River and was used in ancient times as war paint by fierce female warriors. In addition, legends state that when you wear a piece of Amazonite you will harmonize your soul and be attuned to the spiritual dimension. Small carvings of Amazonite were tucked into a baby’s bunting to sooth and pacify. A shared piece of this lovely teal mineral was believed to enhance and further unite the union of soul mates.
The fabric of the night sky glides off the brush in this heavenly shade. Granulating lunar black floats above a phthalo undertone, perfect for capturing a moonlit sky. Inky as midnight, or diffused as the moon on water, semi-transparent Lunar Blue lifts beautifully, leaving behind a mere shadow of itself. This moody watercolor is sure to delight.
Seldom used at full tube strength, this transparent, non-staining pigment is an excellent glazing pigment and a portrait painter’s essential. It’s a cool blue-green useful in mixing without staining other pigment particles and for soft edges in florals. It is the secret hidden ingredient in Moonglow. Viridian can quickly modify reds, and in combination with the Quinacridones, its versatility has multiplied.
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.
The craggy peaks of the Cascade Mountains that divide lush, western Washington from the dry, high plains of the east, inspired this unique green. From damp evergreen forests, and alpine meadows to the drier, sunnier open forests, our Cascade Green showcases a million shades of green found in those environments becoming a versatile addition to our artist-preferred greens. As you brush it on, subtle variation from dark to light adds the illusion of depth. Straight from the tube, this rich, mid-range green is cool, dark and mossy. In washes, it has a stunning clarity. In any application, it has excellent lightfastness.
This exceptionally beautiful PrimaTek color is made from the more strongly colored of the two minerals known as jade – the other is Nephrite. Used for eons in China and Central America, this gemstone now becomes a spectacular artist’s color. From deep, dark-green mass tone to the palest wash, it creates all the exquisite shades we think of when we think of jade.
Phthalo Green Yellow Shade is a bottle green. In concentrated to diluted states, it is transparent and super-staining. Organic and absolutely lightfast, most artists find this color indispensable. The slightly bluish Phthalo Green BS can be readily modified with yellows and reds. Phthalo Green YS is a warmer basic green. Each creates luminous, effective darks or clean glazes.
Low to medium-staining, Hooker’s Green is a warm, natural green. Useful in formulating greens of all sorts, this Irish shamrock green combined with French Ultramarine can resemble frothy waves or, in a more concentrated mixture, range from reflected forest light to deep, dusty evergreen blues.
DANIEL SMITH’s Sap Green is wonderful – the hue we love with the permanency we need. This non-fugitive formulation creates deep forest shadow-green mixed with French Ultramarine and mossy golden-greens and green-browns when mixed with Burnt Sienna or Quinacridone Sienna or Burnt Orange. Sap Green mixes well with most pigments and leaves a stained residue when lifted. In the French Ultramarine or Quinacridone mixtures mentioned above, squeegee or knife areas to reveal the Sap Green stain and to create blades of spring-shiny grasses within deeper or mossy passages.
We bring you an unusually beautiful Serpentine pigment from the land down under. This Australian green-color serpentine is of a variety called Stichtite. A soft stone used cross-culturally for carving amulets used to ward off harm, our newest PrimaTek has no comparison in any known paint palette. This surprising, semi-transparent paint is a good green that develops granulation with specks of burnt scarlet – a great addition to your landscape and floral palette.
PrimaTek Green Apatite Genuine Watercolor lets you create a beautiful range of greens – fresh yellow-green to deep olive – with a single tube. This sedimentary color is a dark, almost brown, olive green in mass tone. In washes, the brown settles out of a vivid natural green, creating memorable texture and contrast.
Deserves a place on every palette. A gorgeous forest green that is almost black in mass tone, it has great transparency, makes smooth, clean washes and lifts surprisingly well for a staining color. Made with a blend of three pigments, it joins our DANIEL SMITH family of impressively strong dark greens such as Jadeite Genuine and Perylene Green. Mix it with Pyrrol Orange to make a stellar redwood brown and Rhodonite Genuine for an interesting neutral blend.
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.
An artist’s favorite, this exciting medium to high staining green blends French Ultramarine with Quinacridone Gold. The inorganic, sedimentary French Ultramarine settles and granulates while the organic, transparent Quinacridone Gold floats into a golden halo. Concentrated, this will remind you of warm sea kelp. Apply with Moonglow, Ultramarines and Quinacridone mixtures to color-coordinate and lend atmosphere to various passages. Undersea Green is beautiful touched damp or drybrushed with Interference Gold. Use Undersea green into autumn leaf paintings.
Green Gold’s bright yellow undertones shine in thin applications allowing for golden highlights with just a hint of green. Use in concentrated applications for wonderfully rich and transparent olive-green tones.
Amazingly compatible with earth pigments and Quinacridones alike, this is a warm mossy green. It is richer and warmer than the original brighter Green Gold, and has an inviting glow. Explore fruits and vegetables, leaves and landscapes, substituting Rich Green Gold for other greens in familiar mixtures. Low-staining and lightfast, Rich Green Gold lifts with ease from either a concentrated or dilute wash and from either damp or dry work. Try it as a glaze for a real treat.
Nickel Azo Yellow in mass tone resembles Yellow Ochre, and when thinned in washes, becomes a brilliant, glowing yellow. This transparent yellow is perfect for Autumn leaves from the duller, ochre older leaves to the brilliant yellow of sunlit leaves against the deep blue Autumnal sky!
Extremely lightfast and non-staining, French Ochre is a delightfully warm color that embodies the feeling of autumn. Paint fields of wheat or add a soft glow to your evening sky. Mix French Ochre with Red Scarlet to achieve a melon hue. This is a superb watercolor when your painting requires subtle highlights.
Yellow Ochre works especially well with other transparent pigments. Try mixing transparent, medium-tinting Yellow Ochre with equally transparent, medium-tinting Viridian. Somewhat neutral, Yellow Ochre reacts beautifully with Cerulean Blue when spattered into the damp paint. While traditionally Yellow Ochres tend to be opaque or whitened in other brands, DANIEL SMITH Yellow Ochre is transparent, a property beloved by watercolorists!
Used since prehistoric times, an extremely permanent inorganic earth pigment of low intensity but medium-high tinting strength. Balance the transparent intensity of Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Orange and Burnt Scarlet with the earthiness of Raw Sienna. Try a moist Raw Sienna wash touched or spattered with Lunar Earth or Lunar Black creates unique texture effects.
Bring a natural glow to your palette with this stunning sienna earth tone. Subtle granulation and a delicate transparency make this watercolor especially useful for portraits and landscapes. This low staining pigment is very workable and has excellent lightfastness.
Found in iron deposits nearly worldwide, Goethite (Brown Ochre) is named after Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the German philosopher, poet and mineralogist. Our unusually pure pigment is mined in Russia, south of Moscow. Rich and warm, DANIEL SMITH Goethite is a dark tea color in masstone and washes out to a rich, warm tan. In washes, it displays intriguing granulation, with pools of light and dark in every brushstroke. Like all colors derived from the earth, it is lightfast and permanent – a lasting connection to the planet and the creative forces of nature.
Quinacridone Deep Gold is more orange than Quinacridone Gold, and more yellow than Quinacridone Burnt Orange. It’s an incredibly ruddy golden-orange, a vibrant and exciting alternative to Burnt Sienna. Quinacridones are the brightest, boldest colors modern technology can offer. Carefully selected pigments, ground to optimize their specific qualities, are blended with the finest imported Gum Arabic, put in tubes and labeled by hand. Transparency and intensity are the hallmarks of our renowned DANIEL SMITH Quinacridone colors.
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.