Hello,

I started to «play» with R&F Pigment Sticks not long ago. They are much like oil paint which, indeed, I use along with them as accents.

I have a hard choice to make between Indigo and Prussian Blue primarily to darken my Cobalt Blue and use to make shadows.

Would you please tell me which one would be more appropriate given that I cannot afford buying both? Below is the link to the color chart:

[URL]http://www.rfpaints.com/ourcolors[/URL]

Looking forward to hear from you!

These sticks can’t be mixed easily like oils can, so I agree with Karen when she says you should go for Prussian Blue.

However, if you use these colors just as accents, and you want to use an indigo shade more extensively phthalo blue (either PB 15:3 or PB 15:1) with a little bit Ultramarine Blue (PB 29) and Ivory/Bone Black (PBk 9) or Bone Black (PBk 7). Single pigment indigo (either natural or synthetic) is notably fugitive, so that’s a nice tradeoff.

Just for comparison, here’s Winsor & Newton’s Indigo hue (PB 15 + PB 29 + PBk 7):

And here is Shmicke’s synthetic Indigo (PB 66):

Considering that synthetic Indigo is only slightly more chromatic and redder and that natural indigo is bluer anyway, I would consider the hue completely worth it.

I have a hard choice to make between Indigo and Prussian Blue primarily to darken my Cobalt Blue and use to make shadows

To answer your question more directly: I think either could…depending on the shadow color you want, but I would imagine the Indigo (hue) would be able to do this more easily and directly.

[B]Patrick [/B]You nailed it! The easiest way to get what I need is to go with Indigo which will become my 2nd black.

That’s how I would use it – as a blue-black. Would be a great blue to use with your earth colors. But…Prussian Blue (the real thing PB27) is a beautiful, deep & ‘rich’ color…quite different from Indigo. I hope you can try it out some time too.

edit: for the purpose of darkening blues, Indanthrone/Anthraquinone Blue PB60 might be the best of all. It’s like a ‘red shade’ Prussian Blue. But I don’t see it in the R&F chart.