The little painting
below was done entirely with just three pigments: permanent blue,
Winsor yellow and alizarin crimson (all by Winsor & Newton).
All three of
these pigments are "cool" leaning–that is, the
red has a bluish cast rather than a yellowish cast; the yellow, although
a clean clear hue, still leans slightly toward green rather than orange;
the blue is a violet blue rather than a greenish blue.
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UPDATE:
Since I initially did this tip, we've learned a lot about the lightfastness
(or not!) of various tube watercolors. See www.handprint.com
for LOTS of information about the pigments used in watercolor paints.
Traditional
Alizarin Crimson is not lightfast. Today, I would (and you should
too) find an Alizarin Crimson substitute that is permanent. Look for
a color that contains Pigment Red 122 (PR122) or a combination of
PR N/A+PR206, or even PV15 or PV19. Some possible choices are:
Winsor & Newton permanent alizarin crimson #466,
Rembrandt permanent madder lake #336 or
Schmincke madder red dark #354 or
Daniel Smith Quinacridone Red.
Also,
permanent blue is no longer made by Winsor & Newton. Use Graumbacher
Finest ultramarine blue (permanent blue) #219 instead, or Daniel Smith
ultramarine or french ultramarine blue. Finally, you could substitute
Daniel Smith Hansa Yellow Light, or Winsor & Newton transparent
yellow #653 or Winsor lemon #772 for the Winsor yellow or permanent
yellow lemon.
The three pigments are also very intense–that is, highly
saturated so that it takes very little actual pigment to affect another
color when mixed together. They are also all staining pigments,
which means they cannot be re-wetted and easily lifted off the paper
once they are dry. Because of this, you have to plan ahead for the
pure white areas and remember to paint around them or protect them
with liquid masking fluid as you work. Finally, in terms of pigment
characteristics, this palette of colors as a whole is semi-transparent,
with alizarin crimson being the most transparent, and the permanent
yellow lemon being the least transparent.When you look at the color
wheel I painted using these three pigments, you can see that mixtures
of the yellow and blue result in fairly clear greens, but that they
are somewhat opaque (because of the yellow). Likewise the mixtures
of alizarin and yellow give clean oranges, that become more slightly
more opaque as they move toward the yellow. The mixtures of the alizarin
and the permanent blue result in clear, transparent violets. When
it comes to neutrals, this palette is capable of mixing a wide range
of them, from saturated darks (using all three pigments), to warm
or cool grays (using different proportions of the three hues in a
less saturated mix). Give this set of colors a workout with your own
ideas for paintings. I think you'll discover that it can handle a
wide range of subjects very well!
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