Watercolour is such a technical medium. You'd think paints are just different colours. Nope! Pigments are made of various minerals and organic compounds which influences their opacity, drying time, half-life, and toxicity.

This will be a thread where I nerd out while I paint.

This is the first time I'm using artist quality pigments, which are wayyy more vibrant than the student ones!

To get to know my tools & practice deliberately, we'll cycle through the paints, starting from blue family.

I'll update in the mornings when the lighting's better!

Btw I'm trying painting as a wind down exercise before bed to replace my terrible habit of scrolling on the phone. Why fight a habit when you can replace it with an equally addictive one amirite??

So far it's working. Too sleepy to scroll.

Indigo!

Natural indigo is known to fade (think of denims). Now, indigo dye is often made with indanthrene (PB60). As an organic dye, it's semi-opaque and staining.

I love it for layering. It doesn't 'lift' like other blues.

Painted indigo waves last night w/ 3 layers of wash.

Sorry for my distracting washi tape. I'm fitting three sketches/pigments onto one page so I can better compare them side by side and to save paper.

I'll post a better shot of all 3 when I get through the blue family of pigments!

WIP last night applying 3rd layer.

My Indigo's pigment indx is PV3, PBK7. So it's not pure, but a mixture of blue & lamp black. The latter is carbon-based, gives it that velvety finish.

By colour theory, adding black desaturates hue, as you can see when I'm mixing indigo w/ ultramarine, the paint looks dirty.

Ultramarine

Comes from lapis stones and used in many ancient civilizations. When trade connected the Silk Road, it became the most sought after pigment in Europe. More expensive than gold, until the French had enough and offered a prize for whomever invents a synthetic copy.