TOP TEN TUESDAY -- My Ten Favorite Watercolor Pigments

My Ten Favorite Transparent Watercolor Pigments

1 -- Quinacridone Gold -- I love this color!  Beautifully transparent and brilliant -- glazes nicely.  You've gotta have this color if you paint sunflowers!

2 -- Quinacridone Burnt Orange --  This has replaced Burnt Sienna on my palette.  A "magic" color -- mixes fine with all colors and glazes very well.

3 -- Quinacridone Magenta --  Another "magic" color!  Mixes well with other colors.  I use it for mixing darks and for doing value paintings.  It can easily be pushed to blue violet with French Ultramarine.

4 -- Quinacridone Coral --  I'm very fond of all the quinacridone colors!  I use this one a lot in my portraits -- it's great for skin colors.

5 -- Cobalt Blue --  A good, all-purpose transparent blue -- except for darks.  But, it is great as a glaze, and used as a cool for skin color, and for a green when mixed with aureolin yellow.

6 -- Phthalo Blue -- A beautiful staining and transparent color.  Makes wonderful darks and pretty greens, but easy to over-do -- it can overwhelm a mixture.

7 -- Aureolin Yellow -- Transparent cool yellow (sounds like an oxymoron) -- makes nice variety of greens when mixed with different blues.  

8 -- Quinacridone Rose -- Necessary for portraits, as well as flowers -- also glazes beautifully.

9 -- French Ultramarine Blue --  A good, warm blue.  Mixes nicely with magenta and/or rose for violets, but can also be mixed with aureolin and/or quin gold for greens.

10 -- (Tie) Raw Sienna -- Good for glazing, to set back something in space or to cut the intensity of a color.  Cadmium Red  -- Great for a pop of color, or when painting poppies or cherries!  Not good for mixing, with anything except other cadmium colors.

I have other paints on my palette, which I use, of course -- but these are my favorites!